Orchestra Baobab + Baloji

First London show in three years for Senegal's mighty Orchestra Baobab.

One of Africa’s supergroups, Orchestra Baobab came together in 1970, taking their name from the Dakar night-club where they were resident for most of the following decade. Distinguished from the outset by their multi-ethnic membership, drawing in musicians from all over Senegal as well as Togo and Nigeria, their music was broad and multi-lingual, but with a strong Cuban flavour.



‘Able to leap from Afro-Cuban dance tunes to griotsongs and Congolese pop, the band members are a walking compendium of West African music, saxophones and guitars rocking in rhythm over sinuous percussion.’ The Times

‘Orchestra Baobab… are masters of an urban style that pairs rippling, fast-flowing guitar lines with impassioned vocals and sophisticated dance rhythms.’ The Guardian

Support is Baloji with his band Orchestre De Ka Katuba who mix rap with Congolese rhumba, to create a unique contemporary sound.

'Like Somali rapper K'Naan and South Africa's Blk Jks, Baloji represents an exciting young voice from the continent that is redefining what westerners typically associate with being music from Africa. Through his mic skills, visual style and sheer charm, he's able to seem contemporary but vintage at the same time.' The Guardian.

Baloji’s album Kinshasa Succursale comes out on Crammed Discs, that arbiter of hip Afropolitanism, in November.