From the outset Africando is the project of musician and star producer Ibrahim Sylla. Salsa has been a hugely popular style in Senegal since the 1940-50s, and his goal has been to cultivate the tradition from the African side of the Atlantic. Ibrahim Sylla himself has a collection of over 6000(!) Cuban disks. Through his interest in Salsa he became acquainted with the Salsa Musique Company in Paris, and became fascinated with disk production. He co-produced Youssou N’Dour’s/Etoiles de Dakar’s album “Absa Gueye” and thereafter pursued his own solo production career. In the course of his production work he came into contact with studio music in the USA and came up with the idea of uniting salsa rhythms from both sides of the Atlantic, mainly based on the African tradition. There has been a steady turnover in the group over the years since Africando was formed in 1990, but central from the start was Boncana Maiga from Mali, still a driving force, who in the 1980s played with the New York-based group Fania All Stars. Another founding artist in Africando’s first year was the late singer, Pape Seck.