African Salsa

Pape Amadou Fall, author, composer and singer, specialist in Afro-Cuban music, was born on July 3, 1947 in Rufisque, not far from the Senegalese capital Dakar. A singer in the 1970s with the Star Band de Dakar, Ibra Kassé's group that welcomed many up-and-coming Senegalese talents such as Pape Seck, Yakhya Fall, Dexter Johnson, Laba Sosseh, Pape Djiby Ba, Mar Seck, Doudou Sow and Youssou N'Dour, he formed his own group, African Salsa, in 1995. Singing salsa in his native Wolof, he uses traditional instruments such as the sabar and the djembe. Pape Fall and his group went on to make a number of albums, including Ke Jaraxam (1995), Doomou Ndèye (1997), African Salsa (1998), Artisanat (2000) and Que Vive la Paix! (2002). All these albums took him across Africa and around the world, to the Netherlands, England, Germany, Brazil and Havana (Cuba), where he collaborated with Orchestra Aragon. He became a Senegalese salsa icon thanks to hits such as "Aminata " and "Fonkal sa seye", and died on November 2, 2022, at the age of 75.