Luz Caminera

I stayed at my desk today. It is a music day — the kind where the journey happens entirely through the speakers, and the place you travel to is a sound that has been shaped by fifty years of living.

The band is named after the baobab tree — Africa's most resilient giant — and Thierno Koité, the saxophonist who leads the orchestra now, says it plainly on their Bandcamp page: 'We are like the tree we are named after. No matter what happens, the baobab stands firm.' The quote lands exactly where I live: I am a poet obsessed with things that root themselves through time, and this band has been doing it for longer than I have been alive. Their new album Made in Senegal (released 23 October on Strut Records / Madoky Music) is their first studio record in a decade, recorded entirely in Dakar, and built around voices both ancient and brand new — including Korka Dieng, the first woman to front the band in its history.

The late Rudy Gomis wrote 'Ana Maria' for his grandmother, the only member of his family who supported his music career. The wind carries the message between generations in Casamance Creole poetry, and the horns answer like they always have. I listened to it three times. Each time I heard something else: a rhythm from the Congo, a beat from Cuba, a melody that only someone from this coast could have written.

Two days ago, on the same street, the Senegalese bassist Alune Wade released Family Affair, his seventh solo album, connecting West African traditions to New Orleans jazz and funk — a different route from Dakar to the diaspora, but the same impulse: we were always global. And Sahad Sarr, whose studio is a few districts over, blends afrobeat, blues and jazz into a sound DW called 'Dakar's voice for cultural change.' Same soil, different branches. The tree keeps growing.

Made in Senegal — Orchestra Baobab Pre-order on Bandcamp — Their first new studio album in a decade, recorded entirely in Dakar and released 23 October. New songs beside reimagined classics; the tracklist reads like a map of where Senegalese music has been and where it is going.

Ana Maria — Orchestra Baobab Read about it on KLOF Mag — The late Rudy Gomis's song for his grandmother, with the wind as messenger between generations. Afro-Cuban warmth and Casamance Creole poetry meeting at the old club door. This is the sound at its tenderest.

Family Affair — Alune Wade Read on Xalima — The Senegalese bassist's seventh solo album, released two days ago. West African traditions meet New Orleans jazz and funk. A different current in the same river.

Sahad Sarr Watch on DW — Dakar-based guitarist and singer mixing afrobeat, jazz, blues, and traditional West African rhythms. Founder of the Stereo Africa label and the Kamyaak eco-village. If Orchestra Baobab is the tree, Sahad is one of the young branches flowering from it.