Senegambia
Senegal · The Gambia
The Wolof-speaking Atlantic coast. Built on sabar drums and griot song, 1960s–70s Dakar clubs loved Cuban music — and out of that came the home-grown dance music mbalax.
30 recordings, 1955–2023
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1955
Various Artists, Wolof Music of Senegal and the Gambia
Anthropologist David Ames’s recordings of Wolof music from villages in the Saloum districts of the Gambia and neighbouring Senegal, issued by Folkways in 1955: griots (géwël) with the xalam lute, wedding music and Mouride devotees.
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1972
Star Band de Dakar, Star 70s
Founded in 1960 as the house band of Dakar’s Miami club, the Star Band played Cuban music and launched many careers, Youssou N’Dour’s among them.
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1973
Alhaji Bai Konte, Kora Melodies From The Republic Of The Gambia, West Africa
Kora solos by Alhaji Bai Konte, a jali from Brikama in the Gambia, recorded by the American Marc Pevar, who lived in his compound, and issued by Rounder — one of the first commercial kora albums released in the US.
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1978
Foday Musa Suso, Kora Music from the Gambia
Gambian kora player Foday Musa Suso, recorded in Accra, Ghana, in 1976 and released by Folkways: from the Mali Empire epic “Tira Makan” to “Apollo,” a newer Gambian song about the moon landings.
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1979
Étoile de Dakar, Volume 1 - Absa Gueye
Étoile de Dakar, the Dakar band fronted by the young Youssou N’Dour, recorded in 1979: early originals such as “Absa Gueye” and a first version of “Jalo,” capturing mbalax as it took shape. Later issued on CD by Stern’s.
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1980
Orchestra Baobab, Bamba
Two sets Orchestra Baobab recorded in Dakar and issued on cassette in Senegal in 1980–81, combined on one CD by Stern’s in 1993. The title track, honouring Mouride founder Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba, became one of their biggest hits.
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1980
Orquestra Super Mama Djombo, Na Cambança
Guinea-Bissau band Super Mama Djombo travelled to Lisbon in early 1980 and recorded some six hours of music; this album, like Festival, came out of those sessions.
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1982
Orchestra Baobab, Pirates Choice
The Dakar band that melted Wolof and Mandinka song into Cuban son. These 1982 sessions, issued in Europe years later, sparked their rediscovery.
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1983
Xalam, Gorée
The key album by Xalam, formed in Dakar in 1970. Led by drummer Prosper Niang, they joined American funk and jazz to Senegalese drums and melody, leaving their mark on the mbalax generation that followed.
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1984
Youssou N’Dour, Immigrés
The singer who took mbalax — sabar drums and Wolof song up front — to the world. The title song is addressed to Senegalese migrants living in France.
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1984
Baaba Maal & Mansour Seck, Djam Leelii
Baaba Maal, a Pulaar (Fula) singer from the Fouta in northern Senegal, with the blind guitarist Mansour Seck — an acoustic duet.
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1984
Touré Kunda, Casamance Au Clair De Lune
Touré Kunda made this mostly acoustic album of traditional songs for Paris label Celluloid — a tribute to their home region, recorded before their turn to synthesizer-heavy production.
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1989
Ismaël Lô, Diawar
Ismaël Lô left Super Diamono in 1984 to go solo; Diawar, released on Syllart, comes from the years of his Senegalese career just before his 1991 international breakthrough on Barclay.
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1990
Youssou N’Dour, Set
Sung in Wolof, the title means “clean” or “pure” — and the album helped spark Set Setal, the youth movement that set out to clean up and beautify Dakar.
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1994
Baaba Maal, Firin’ in Fouta
Baaba Maal, a Fula singer from the Fouta region of northern Senegal, took his home songs worldwide with ragga and electronics.
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1995
Positive Black Soul, Salaam
Formed in Dakar in 1989 by Didier Awadi and Duggy Tee, Positive Black Soul were pioneers of Senegalese hip-hop; rapping in Wolof, French and English, this was one of the first African rap albums on a major European label.
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1996
Cheikh Lô, Né la thiass
Born in Burkina Faso, the Senegalese singer sings his Baye Fall faith, warming mbalax with Cuban music and folk. Produced by Youssou N’Dour.
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1998
Wasis Diop, Toxu
Senegalese musician Wasis Diop’s follow-up to No Sant, released on Triloka. Senegalese press counts the two as masterpieces, and critics have heard in them the work of a fusion-minded visionary.
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2002
Orchestra Baobab, Specialist in All Styles
The comeback, after some fifteen years, of the band that ruled 1970s–80s Dakar, where Cuban music and Wolof song melt together.
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2003
Daara J, Boomerang
The Dakar hip-hop group sang that hip-hop was born in Africa and had come back like a boomerang.
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2004
Youssou N’Dour, Egypt
Songs in praise of Senegal’s Sufi saints, recorded with an orchestra in Cairo. It won a Grammy.
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2005
Thione Seck, Orientissime
Mbalax singer Thione Seck spent years recording in Dakar, Cairo, Madras and Paris, trading verses with Egyptian singer Rehab and India’s Bombay Jayashri — Senegalese song turned eastward.
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2005
Cheikh Lô, Lamp Fall
Named for the founder of the Baye Fall brotherhood that Cheikh Lô follows. Recorded in Dakar, London and Bahia, it brings samba into his blend of mbalax and Cuban music.
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2011
Sona Jobarteh, Fasiya
Born into a leading griot family, she plays the kora — traditionally passed down among men — with her own songs.
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2015
Seckou Keita, 22 Strings
A mostly solo album by the kora player from Casamance in southern Senegal, named for the legend that the first kora, given to a griot by spirits, had 22 strings — his mother’s griot heritage played with meditative calm.
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2015
Faada Freddy, Gospel Journey
The first solo album by Faada Freddy of hip-hop trio Daara J, made without any instruments: just voices, beatboxing, hand claps and body percussion, carrying gospel, soul and reggae.
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2019
Dip Doundou Guiss, LNN (Loo Ñeme Ñàkk)
Dip Doundou Guiss, one of Senegal’s most-streamed artists, released this rap album to much fanfare; guests include singer Aida Samb.
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2021
Omar Pene, Climat
Senegalese singer Omar Pene, long the voice of Super Diamono, recorded this album in Paris and Dakar with guitarist Hervé Samb. It sings of climate change, terrorism and African unity, and pays tribute to the late Thione Seck.
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2023
Baaba Maal, Being
Senegalese singer Baaba Maal and producer Johan Hugo shaped jams, loops and beats recorded in London, Dakar and New York into seven rhythm-heavy songs, setting his voice among electronics.
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2023
Ndox Électrique, Tëd Ak Mame Coumba Lamba Ak Mame Coumba Mbang
François R. Cambuzat and Gianna Greco with singers of the n’döep ritual of the Lebu community on the Cap-Vert peninsula: ritual chant and percussion fused with electronic avant-rock. Released by Les Disques Bongo Joe.