the musical selection from “World Africa” #171

Friday, The World Africa presents three new musical releases from or inspired by the continent. To start the year, head to Senegal with an orchestra straight out of the 1980s, a French musician who brings Havana and Dakar into dialogue and an artist bathed in Casamance spirituality.

“Galo”, by Dieuf-Dieul de Thiès

Good things come to those who wait for. More than forty years after its birth, the Dieuf-Dieul de Thiès orchestra finally publishes its first album, Friday January 19. This group born in 1979 enjoyed fleeting success in Senegal and the Gambia during its four years of existence, before disbanding without leaving a recorded trace, apart from a cassette released secretly. Reformed in 2017 around one of its founders, Bass Sarr, and with the contribution of young talents, Dieuf-Dieul returned to the stage for a European tour and, in December 2019, set about immortalizing its repertoire at the French Institute of Saint-Louis. It was time !

“Mundo Cae”, by El Gato Negro (feat. Assane Mboup)

It is also in Senegal – and more precisely in Dakar – that the French singer and multi-instrumentalist El Gato Negro (real name Axel Matrod) set down his bags to give birth to his fourth album, crying tiger, which will be released on January 26. The adventurous musician – he has been traveling the world for fifteen years – has surrounded himself with accomplices and compatriots such as Guts, Pat Kalla and David Walters, but also Senegalese and Cuban artists, such as the pianist Cucurucho Valdés or the singer Assane Mboup, former member of Orchestra Baobab whose voice illuminates the sublime Mundo Caé – a nugget that we can’t stop listening to.

“Bumiro”, by Ibaaku (feat. Gianni Denitto)

Let’s move away from the Afro-Latin sounds that flourished on Senegalese soil and focus on the electro-jazz experiments of Ibaaku, including the second album, Joola Jazz, will be released on February 9, eight years later Alien cartoon. Born in Dakar but originally from Casamance (South), the artist – who took his first steps in hip-hop in the early 2000s – explores the rhythms, songs and traditional instruments of this region in the south of the country, strongly imbued with animism. A captivating record, like the song Boumiro, whose title and clip refer to the ritual of shaving hair before leaving for initiation in the sacred wood.