Mamadou “Jimi” Mbaye was a Senegalese guitarist best known for his work with Youssou N’dour. Mbaye had developed a unique Senegalese guitar style in which he made his Fender Stratocaster sound like local instruments such as the Kora or Xalam.
Style
Mbaye was different from other guitarists because of his unique style. Youssou Ndour once said of him: “No one, no one, plays guitar like Jimi Mbaye. His playing style is unique”. Mbaye succeeded in transposing the African traditional sounds of Khalam (Ngoni) and Kora onto his electric Fender Stratocaster. Carlos Santana and Mbaye met during a tour in Los Angeles where Carlos acknowledged that: “Jimi is a very special and incredible guitarist”.
Jimi had also proven to be a good singer, very melodic, a true harmonicist.
Albums
[Mbaye had released three solo albums, “Dakar Heart”, “Yaye Digalma” and “Khare Dounya”. The latter was recorded in Jimi’s new studio Studio Dogo, in which he produced other artists.
Early years
At the age of ten years Mbaye built his first guitar out of fishing line and gasoline cans. At twenty he’d scraped up enough money to buy a secondhand Fender Stratocaster. Mbaye was just as determined to get a guitar as he was to make it in the competitive Dakar music scene.
Early on he met Youssou N’Dour and together they became rising stars on Senegal’s club scene, playing Mbalax music. They created the “Super Etoile” band together in 1981 and had been musically inseparable for all these years.
Later works
Mbaye recorded six top-selling major-label albums with N’Dour before taking a leave of absence to record his own solo album, released in 1997, “Dakar Heart”. Recorded at N’Dour’s Studio Xippi, “Dakar Heart” features N’Dour’s band “Super Etoile”. He then got back at N’Dour’s side and was very much an integral part of Youssou’s “Super Etoile” band all these days. In fact, Youssou often travelled abroad with only Mbaye as acoustic guitar accompanist, as he did in June, 1998 for performances in Paris as guests of Brazilian performer Gilberto Gil at the Olympia Theatre.
He worked with Youssou N’Dour since 1979 and was one of Senegal’s most influential guitarists. Often compared to Jimi Hendrix and Robert Johnson, Mbaye had forged a unique blend of traditional Senegalese roots music and American pop and R&B.
Recording a solo album, Dakar Heart, with help from Super Etoile Band musicians in 1997, Mbaye showcased his inventive, Kora-derived guitar playing and singing in Wolof, English, and French. Billboard called him “a prodigious world talent,” while Rhythm referred to him as “one of Senegal’s most exciting musicians.” Music had played an ongoing role in Mbaye’s life. As a youngster, he performed on a self-invented instrument made from discarded garbage cans and nylon fishing line in the streets of Dakar. By the age of 20, he had graduated to a Fender Stratocaster electric guitar. Mbaye continued to be the backbone of N’Dour’s band. In addition to co-writing the 1994 single “Mame Bamba,” he had made valuable contributions to six N’Dour recordings. Mbaye and N’Dour had increasingly performed as a duo. In 1998, they opened the show for Brazilian guitarist Gilberto Gil at the Olympic Theater in Paris.
Collaborations
Hi third album called “Khare Dounya” was released in 2012. “Khare Dounya” means “Fight for Life”. He recorded this album with his band “Group Dogo”. It’s an album where Mbaye showed really his musicality. He started to tour with his band around the country (Senegal) and the West African region.
Since he had his studio Mbaye often collaborated with many artists from Africa and the rest of the world. We remember the album Daxaar with the late jazz drummer Steve Reid recorded in Mbaye’s studio Dogo in Dakar.
He was friendly with many musicians. During gigs he would rehearse with other artists to create new songs they could record later to advance their own careers.
He often produced albums for musicians in Senegal. And sometimes he performed with them.
Jimi died on Tuesday night 11 February 2025 in Dakar .
