Orchestra Baobab's Pirates Choice and Specialist in All Styles

Specialist in All Styles

Orchestra Baobab

(World Circuit/Nonesuch)

No one asked the Senegalese combo Orchestra Baobab to be ahead of its time. If you asked the recently reformed band, they might tell you that they were, if anything, a little bit behind the times when they recorded their now rereleased 1982 cult classic, Pirates Choice.

Baobab played a Caribbean sound popular in Senegal since World War II, subtly updated with touches of African music and language. By the 1980s, that music was already old school in a country where the aggressive rhythmic politics of Youssou N'Dour were on the horizon. Factor in that Orchestra was Senegal's fatcat band of the era?plying its trade at celebrity weddings and political functions?and you've got a recipe for backlash. The band also owed its very existence to politics. The orchestra's original lineup was handpicked by members of the Senegalese government in 1970 to play at a new Dakar club, the Baobab.

The combo survived a decade of shakeups and the death of a charismatic vocalist to grow increasingly popular. Their sound (as evinced on Pirates Choice) is languid and even moody Latin soul with flashes of fire peeking through in its guitar and saxophone lines. The songs burrow quickly into a groove, though none of the tunes merely settles there. Rather, they intensify and thicken as they spin out over six or eight minutes of jamming.

Flash forward 20 years. What we call "world music" has grown more promiscuous and infected with the downtempo vibes. Suddenly, the four-track simplicity of Pirates Choice sounds warm, organic and downright prescient. Its rumbas are tinged with High Life (as demonstrated by the snaky undulations of "Utrus Horas"), and its loose African folk is tethered to a crooked cha-cha (the wickedly twisted "Ray M'Bele"). Taken together, it's what a remix artist might come up with?minus the fussy degradations of the ruthless cut 'n' paste. In fact, the first disc of the Pirates Choice reissue?with the original vinyl version of the album?is damn near perfect. The tightly wound percussion that kicks off "Ledi Ndieme M'Bodj" morphs into a gentle sway pegged to plaintive call-and-response vocals. "Soldadi," which closes the first disc, is nothing short of sublime?a soulful ballad with a sly guitar solo.

Pirates Choice isn't perfect. That's part of its charm. Bandleader Baro N'Diaye's tenor sax often wanders aimlessly through the tunes, looking for its proper place. (There's a moment in "Ray M'Bele"?just before the first guitar solo?when you can hear him try to horn in on guitarist Barthelemy Attisso.) The second disc from the same session on this rerelease justifies the trimming to one disc, as the clunky and formulaic heartiness of the songs lack the delightful inspiration of the first disc.

Predictably, the reformed Orchestra Baobab's new release, Specialist in All Styles, doesn't have the naive charm of Pirates Choice. It's slicker and more uptempo, and even indulges in a bit of trendy recycling on "Hommage a Tonton Ferrer," which takes "Utrus Horas" and throws in an "all-star" cast of singers that includes Youssou N'Dour and Ibrahim Ferrer. On the other hand, Orchestra Baobab isn't content to turn up with nothing to show for 20 years away. If much of the sultry Caribbean sound of Pirates Choice has fallen away, new songs place the band firmly back in Dakar. Listeners who prefer a more sprightly and less soulful sound will find it on Specialist.