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Orchestra Baobab, ‘Made in Dakar’ (World Circuit/Nonesuch)

Since re-forming for the 2002 comeback Specialist in All Styles, this ’70s/’80s Senegalese band, like elder rockers Mission of Burma and Wire, remain incan-descent and relevant a second time around. Revisiting tunes from nights spent in steamyDakar dance clubs, Baobab’s merry but unhurried music braids high life with Cuban- flecked rumba (“Aline”) and American soul jazz (“Colette”), while updating the griot of “Ndéleng Ndéleng” with barbed guitar. Whether the songs are rendered in Malinke, Wolof, Portuguese, or French, Baobab perpetually play songs of love for their wives (“Nijaay”), their country (“Cabral”), and beyond words, music herself.

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