Orchestra Baobab are currently touring the States with songs from their latest release, Made in Dakar, stopping at the Bonnaroo Festival in Tennessee this past weekend to perform a set that PopMatters calls "the gem of the festival." Tonight they're in Western Massachusetts to play Northampton's Pearl Street Nightclub and head further east at the end of the week for a set at the Somerville Theater, outside Boston, on Saturday. The Boston Globe's Andrew Gilbert says the band is "sounding more soulful than ever" on the new album.
Orchestra Baobab are currently touring the States with songs from their latest release, Made in Dakar, stopping at the Bonnaroo Festival in Tennessee this past weekend to perform a set that PopMatters calls "the gem of the festival."
Tonight they're in Western Massachusetts to play Northampton's Pearl Street Nightclub and head further east at the end of the week for a set at the Somerville Theater, outside Boston, on Saturday. The Boston Globe's Andrew Gilbert says the band is "sounding more soulful than ever" on the new album. He writes:
Rather than updating its insinuating blend of Cuban son, jazz, and Senegalese folk melodies, Baobab has refined its sound, locking into the gentle grooves with precision and infectious delight ... [T]he album makes a strong case that Baobab's resurgence is one of undiminished musical inspiration.
To read the review, visit boston.com.
The Boston Herald gives Made in Dakar an A- with reviewer Nate Dow saying that these "Afro-Cuban sytlists' renaissance is now unmistakable." He points to lead guitarist and songwriter Barthelemy Attisso, finding his playing "at its height as he juices his band's redefined vision, which even includes delicious dashes of calypso and ska." Read the review at bostonherald.com.
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In between the two Massachusetts shows, Boabab will head down to New Haven, Connecticut, for the annual, citywide International Festival of Arts & Ideas tomorrow night at the Yale Law School Courtyard, and the Birchmere outside Washginton, DC, in Alexandria, Virginia on Thursday.
The Washington Post's Mark Jenkins points to a few of the select tracks on Made in Dakar:
Highlights of the new disc include "Ndéleng Ndéleng," built on the mbalax rhythm (the popular dance music of Senegal and Gambia), and "Nijaay," highlighting Barthelemy Attisso's lithe guitar and the gliding vocals of Assane Mboup (joined by his mentor, Senegalese superstar Youssou N'Dour).
Even with those standout performances, he concludes, "if those are among the album's most irresistibly syncopated offerings, any of these songs is capable of filling the closest available floor with dancers."
To read the review, visit washingtonpost.com.
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