‘Fun’ starts here

The music of Orchestra Baobab is famously hard to label.

But you can get some idea of the range of this Senegalese band’s African-Cuban- Portuguese-French-Jamaican-Creole brand of pop-jazz-calypso-reggae-rock by listening to the different ways that rhythm guitarist Latfi Benjeloun describes its influences.

First, he said, “our roots are ethnic” – not just from Senegal, but from the various places that the other members of this 11-piece group have called home, including Togo, Mali and Guinea-Bissau.

But then listen to this:

“I was a huge fan of the Beatles,” said Benjeloun, born and raised in Senegal. “I was a fan of Jimi Hendrix. I was one of the first to play ‘All Along the Watchtower’ in our country.

“We were children of the ‘60s and we were open to European and Occidental music in general. Stax, Motown – we were musicians, you know, so were open to the music of our generation.”

The result, as embodied on the group’s most recent CD, “Made in Dakar,” is a glorious melting pot of sounds, reminiscent of Paul Simon’s “Graceland,” Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Harry Belafonte and the great Senegalese pop singer Youssou N’Dour, who makes an appearance on the CD.

And it doesn’t stop there. The liner notes for “Made in Dakar” mention influences as wide-ranging as country stars Jim Reeves and Don Williams, sax legend King Curtis, Blue Note jazzman Jimmy Smith, guitar god Carlos Santana and, yes, even country-pop crooner Kenny Rogers.

This “melting pot” style accurately reflects the city which spawned the band: Dakar.

The capital of Senegal is a bustling, cosmopolitan port city on the far westernmost edge of Africa. It has been one of the world’s great cultural crossroads for centuries, with influences from the Caribbean, Latin America, the Muslim world and the region’s former colonial powers, including Portugal and France.

“It was the colonial capital of all of West Africa,” said Benjeloun.

Orchestra Baobab goes back a long way – all the way to 1970. It soon became the resident band at the Baobab Club, a popular Dakar nightspot catering to government officials and other influential people (“baobab,” by the way, being an African tree).

The band became an international sensation, touring Africa and Europe, before taking a 16-year break. Then it launched an international comeback in 2001 with a concert in the Barbican in London and a new album.

That resulted in a Grammy nomination and three BBC Radio 3 Awards for World Music. Orchestra Baobab has always been particularly popular in Britain and is now just as popular in the U.S.

“It has always been a dream for musicians to play in the U.S.,” said Benjeloun by phone from a tour stop in San Francisco.

“The audiences are fantastic. We are now really well-known in the U.S. and I love to play for them. The audiences have been really into it.”

Not bad for a band whose songs are mostly sung in the Wolof language – except for a few sung in Malinke, French or Portugese Creole.

Yet that hasn’t hurt their English-speaking following, which includes some big-name fans.

“My friend, Trey Anastasio, gave me a fantastic gift,” said Benjeloun. “A handmade guitar, the guitar I play.”

That’s Trey Anastasio, the former guitarist for Phish.

Tonight’s concert is the kickoff for the “Fun at the Fox” Summer Series, which will continue with “Pure Piaf” (July 17), Boz Scaggs (July 28) and Shelby Lynne (Aug. 12).

What’s next for Orchestra Baobab? They’re heading for Manchester, Tenn., where they will appear in the 2008 Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival this weekend.