ENSEMBLE GALAXY

Mbalax-music from Senegal, Western Africa... in Wolof language... with sabar-drums...

Ensemble “Galaxy”: Cheikh “Pape” Sarr (bass, sabar-drums), Yamar Thiam (talking drum tama), Alassane Diallo, Rane Diallo (voc), Libasse Sall (sabar-drums, guit, voc), Ousseynou Mb’Aye (sabar-drums, voc), Ismaila Sane Badiane (sabar- & djembe-drums, voc), Bintou Sarjo (dance), Ampiaba Jalava, Ndioba Gueye, Aliko Edson Mwakanjuki

Mbalax or mbalakh is the national popular dance music of Senegal and the Gambia. Mbalax is a fusion of popular Western music and dance sabar, the traditional drumming and dance music of Senegal. The genre’s name derived from the heavy use of accompanying rhythms used in sabar called mbalax. Mbalax developed in Senegal in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Influenced by the “back to roots” philosophy of Negritude and the receding influence of colonialism, artists began to mix these sounds with traditional Senegalese music and forge new sounds incorporating their new national identity. Musicians began singing in Wolof (Senegal’s lingua franca) instead of French and English, and incorporated rhythms of the indigenous sabar-drum. Dancers began using moves associated with the sabar, and tipping the singers as if they were traditional griots. However, it’s sabar rhythms and Islamic influenced vocals continue to make mbalax one of the most distinctive forms of dance music in Western Africa and the diaspora.

Download: photo of “Galaxy”, jpg, 300 dpi, 570 KB
Download: “Galaxy” on the street, jpg, 300 dpi, 1164 KB
Download: Cheikh “Pape” Sarr – the band-leader of “Galaxy”, photo by P Vähi, jpg, 300 dpi, 2842 KB

Discography

CD: “Nobeel”
1997 Global Music Centre
GMCD 9705

CD: “L’Insécurité”
2003 Global Music Centre
GMCD 0308
Download: #13, La Famille, fragm, 109 sec, mp3, 1710 KB
Download: #11, Sonno no la, fragm, 142 sec, mp3, 3336 KB

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Contact: Elle Himma (manager): e-mail elle.himma(at)erpmusic.com, phone +372 53 948826
See also other ethno-artists represented by ERP

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