Si Bou Odja

Originally released in 1981, Orchestra Baobab’s second studio album, Si Bou Odja, returns via Syllart Records. Produced at the Golden Baobab in Dakar by the young producer Ibrahima Sylla, it followed the group’s landmark Mouhamadou Bamba, recorded the same year.

Led by dynamic saxophonist Issa Sissokho and ever-present guitarist Barthélémy Attiso, the album helped carry the group into a new musical decade. Young singer Médoune Diallo, later a key figure in Senegalese salsa, delivers a standout with the irresistible Autorail.

A driving celebration of the new railway line linking Dakar to Niamey, Autorail remains a real centrepiece. This reissue was mastered from the album’s original studio master tapes and comes with a reproduced original cover, printed inner sleeve and a glossy finish faithful to the first pressing.