ORCHESTRA BAOBAB
(Aladdin Theater, 3017 SE Milwaukie) There is a connective tissue that bonds people of African descent across bodies of water, but it’s one fashioned by work and wounds, not genetics. So when Africa is heard in the Americas, as in the resurrected ’70s Senegalese band Orchestra Baobab, it’s because someone carried, preserved, and reworked a tradition in a new space. Baobab’s mostly middle-aged members continue to generate the culturally, harmonically and rhythmically dense hip-rockers that once charmed off-duty Senegalese government officials at Dakar’s Baobab Club and heavily influenced the world music scene since their mid-’80s sabbatical. Although most recognized for their Cuban strains, the manifold cultures of Senegal pulse powerfully in the band’s well-worn repertoire. JALYLAH BURRELL

MP3:
Orchestra Baobab - Ledi Ndieme M’Bodj