Habib Faye

Who is Habib Faye?

Habib Faye is a bassist, keyboardist, composer and grammy-nominated producer from Senegal. He is mostly known as the musical director for Youssou N'dour's Super Étoile de Dakar. He is one of the most talented African bassists of the last quarter century.

He has been playing the bass and producing music for Super Etoile since 1984 or earlier. He is believed to have picked up the bass at age 13, but started his musical exploration at age 9, thanks to his older brother, Vieux Mac Faye, who is an accomplished guitarist himself. His other brothers are musicians as well. Lamine Faye is one of Senegal's most popular and respected guitar players, and for a long time was a member of Super Diamono, before he left to form his own band, Lemzo Diamono, in 1991. Adama Faye, who died in 2005, is regarded as one of the pioneers of keyboard playing in Senegal. He was one of the founding members of Super Diamono and also played keys for Super Etoile back in the 80's. The Faye brothers are, in many ways, very similar to the Wooten brothers, although they never formed a band.

Super Etoile is one of Africa’s best live bands, and they have been traveling all over the world for nearly three decades. In fact, in November 2007, music critic Robert Christgau said on NPR's All Songs Considered that he believed Youssou N'Dour's band is the world's best live band. Habib Faye cites the Amnesty International's "Human Rights Now" world tour in 1988 as maybe his most rewarding time as a musician. He says that it allowed him to grow as a bassist as he got to share the stage with music icons, such as Peter Gabriel, Sting, Tracy Chapman, and Bruce Springsteen. It is also in the middle of that tour that the album The Lion, in which Peter Gabriel participated, was recorded. Gabriel would invite Habib to join him on other records of his own later on.