Down at Youssou N’Dour’s Xippi studios the next day, the grounds seem abandoned until you get to the back of the compound and enter a narrow passageway. At the end of it is the studio. Jerry Boys and Nick Gold are trying to get all this music down. Are they wondering if it was a good idea to record new material that everyone had to learn? Is it all coming out in one glorious take, no. Most of the band wander out for prayers. Somehow the devout behaviour seems at odds with this mischievous band of brothers in music, forever jesting and messing about.

I wish I could have hung around longer and maybe I could tell you if the magic that hangs this album together was to be found in Nick and Jerry’s capable hands, whether the band nailed it in time or whether I just picked an off moment to pop my head in. The truth is I don’t know but I do know the result of this ambitious plan is pure gold. Every track sounds like a classic Baobab track and that to be honest is all that anyone should want. Do we want them to push the boundaries, not really. We want fresh tunes with that languid, easy rolling sound they have. And if they throw in a bit of mbalax and its dark frenzy as they do on ‘Sibam’, it only serves to emphasise the trademark sound all the more.

‘Papa Ndiaye’ opens the album with everything you might want to find in a Baobab track, soaring sax courtesy of the ever impish Isso Cissoko, Barthélemy Atisso’s rock solid and funky guitar and the vocals of Rudi Gomis and Ballla Sidibe that move over each other like waves catching each other up as they approach the shore. While ‘Bicowa’ sounds so classic that it is hard to believe they haven’t been playing it since the 70s.

At over seven minutes, the epic ‘Nijaay’ sees the band stretch out in spectacular fashion. There is time for the different parts of the band to show off and come back together, displaying the virtuosity of the band and the benefits of playing regularly again.

A finely judged album of new tunes in welcomely familiar clothes. Like the city from which the album takes its name, the waves lap and the drums beat. There are moments when there are sounds coming from all directions and blissful moments of pure relaxation. Old and new, cosmopolitan and African. Diverse but not for one second out of control.

See photos of Orchestra Baobab at Just4U, Senegal

Catch the band on tour in the UK:
15-Nov: The Anvil, Basingstoke
17-Nov: Warwick Arts Centre, Coventry
18-20 Nov: Jazz Cafe, London