is a traditional African instrument which gave its name to the band from Senegal.
Baye Babou – Abdou Mboup – Coundoul
Creation of the band Xalam.
Xalam started playing dance music, such as Rock, Salsa, Bossa, and Rhythm and Blues. The group performed in Senegal and other countries in Africa. Numerous musicians have played in the group and through their collaboration, have become very popular.
Xalam 1978 Dakar Liberté 6
Xalam toured Africa with Myriam Makeba and Hugh Masekela.
Later, the group decided it was time to find its own musical identity and left the stage for four years to look for inspiration in traditional folk music and mix it with their own modern music.
Xalam made a guest appearance at the Berlin Horizonte Festival. That first trip to Europe was their opportunity to record their first LP: Ade.
Xalam performed at the Dakar Jazz Festival and jammed with Dizzie Gillespie, Stan Getz, Dexter, Sonny Rollins, and others.
Xalam was selected by Walt Disney Productions to write and perform the soundtrack for the Epcot African Pavillion videotape in Florida.
June: The group was revealed to the French public at Paris Africa Fête.
Summer: Concerts in Italy, Belgium, Jazz Festival of the Casino de Paris.
The band recorded the following LP, Gorée, in London. The band was so impressive that the Rolling Stones invited the percussionists to play on their next album Undercover of the Night.
European tour: Xalam opened for Crosby, Stills & Nash in Paris (Hippodrome d’Auteuil) in front of 20,000 people.
Release of the LP Gorée: the album reached the Top 5 (African, Reggae, and Folk albums) published in Le Monde for five months.
Annual Parisian concert at the Casino de Paris.
European, Algerian, Moroccon, and Tunisian Tour.
Xalam wrote the music for the French movie Marche à l’Ombre (over 5,000,000 spectators).
150 concerts starting in Switzerland and ending in Paris; Eldorado in December.
African tour for about 6 months then a return to Europe (England, Netherlands).
Opened for Robert Plant at the Palais des Sports in Paris, France.
Arrival in Guadeloupe for “Festag”
3 concerts at the Cirque d’Hiver, then an international tour of more than a hundred gigs.
Release of the LP Apartheid.
Francofolies of La Rochelle, then to Guadeloupe for the Festag ’86.
In the winter, the band went to Africa for a long tour.
Canadian tour: Montreal, Toronto, Québec, etc.
Xalam performed at the Printemps de Bourges.
Recording of the LP Xarit in Paris.
Thiacko, Coundoul and Rykiel in Tokyo, Japan
Parisian concert at The Wiz.
Xalam performed at the Paris Africa Fête, then in Geneva, Switzerland (in front of 30,000 people), to aid the Helping Hand Cooperation for the N’Dem village in Senegal.
Release of the LP Xarit.
Tour: Austria, Tunisia (Carthage Festival); Japanese tour (Osaka, Sapporo, Tokyo and Ngoya) with resounding success.
Xalam performed at the Anti-Apartheid Night: Hommage à Nelson Mandela in Paris, at the Champ de Mars (in front of 25,000 people).
Concert at Montreux Casino.
Yigo, Coundoul, Taffa Cissé, Baye and Henri in Geneva, Switzerland
The Midem in Cannes: concert at the Hotel Martinez.
2 concerts at the New Morning in Paris; 2 concerts at La Cigale.
Tour of Africa.
2 concerts at the Auditorium des Halles, Paris.
Tour of Switzerland and Germany.
Switzerland for ten gigs.
Recording of the next LP Wam Sabindam.
French tour.
Release of the LP Wam Sabindam in September.
Swiss tour; Arthur’s Club, Emmenthaler Thoune, Le Locle, Chapiteau Sambaille.
Taffa Cissé, Baye and Leyti at the Womad Festival, England
Swiss tour (March): Case à Chocs, Albani, Bus Stop, Mad, Kantonsschule, Mühle Hunziken.
August 1994
U.S. tour: 25th Anniversary Woodstock Festival
(more than 500,000 people)
English tour: Heathrow Festival
Festival in Senegal with RFI (local Radio France).
November: Concerts at the French Cultural Center.
-Break-
Return to the stage in Switzerland: Le Locle Jazz Festival.
The band having dinner in Geneva, Switzerland
Club tour in Paris, France (Baiser Salé, Petit Journal Montparnasse, etc.)
European Tour (Belgium, Switzerland, France).
Festival Tour in France.
European Tour (Spain, France).
Xalam was in Africa and Europe.
