Obituary: Charlie Ndiaye (1948-2023)

Charlie Ndiaye was responsible for the swinging, cultured basslines that underpinned all of Orchestra Baobab’s greatest recordings, from their initial success in the 1970s as Senegal’s finest dance band to their joyous 21st-century reformation.

Born in Karabane, an island village in the mouth of the Casamance River in south-west Senegal, Ndiaye joined the line-up in 1974, taking over from Cheikh Sidath Ly who had played bass in the orchestra’s early years as the house band at Dakar’s Baobab Club.

Starting out as a double bass player, he taught himself to play by listening to records, “mainly… Cuban music and soul,” he recalled. After cutting his musical teeth performing in all-night dance halls with an orchestra that would play for up to ten hours at a stretch, on joining Baobab he switched to an electric instrument but continued to play with the technique he had perfected on the double bass. “That’s why my style is different. It’s more rhythmic, more poised and heavier on the bottom strings,” he explained.

He played on around 15 albums recorded by the band between 1975 and their break-up in 1987, including the classic sessions later reissued on World Circuit as Pirate’s Choice. When the label then suggested reforming Baobab to record a new album, which became 2002’s Specialist in All Styles, Ndiaye declared himself to be “overjoyed." He went on to play on the albums Made in Dakar (2007) and Tribute to Ndiouga Dieng (2017) and continued touring with the band until 2022, when ill-health forced his retirement.

“Grand Charlie left us this morning,” said the band's manager, Badou Bèye, following the news of Ndiaye's passing in a Dakar hospital on August 26.