Habib Faye is a bassist, composer, and Grammy-nominated musical director from Senegal. He is mostly known as a member of Youssou N'dour's Super Étoile de Dakar.
He has been playing the bass and producing music for the band 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 also musicians. Lamine Faye is one of Senegal's most popular 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. The late Adama Faye, who died in 2005, is regarded as the pioneer of keyboard playing in Senegal. He was a founding member of Super Diamono and also played the keys in Youssou N'dour's band in the 80's. The Faye family is very similar to the Wooten brothers.
For more than two decades, Habib has been the producer and musical director for The Super Etoile. He has toured extensively with the band, and played alongside world music icons, such as Peter Gabriel, Sting, Tracy Chapman, Bruce Springsteen, etc. He has recorded with Gabriel on various albums and projects.
In 1996, Mickey Hart called on Habib to play bass parts on his Mystery Box album. He has produced scores of albums in Senegal, where he is regarded as a true genius. In fact, Habib has taken the bass where it has never been in Senegal. He has brought bassplayers to the forefront and made the instrument a force to reckon with. Needless to say that he has earned the respect of his peers, not only in this West African country, but from other world renowned bassplayers and musicians, the likes of Darell Jones, Tony Levin, Brandford Marsalis, etc.
Habib's forte is his versatility. He can virtually play any style, from the rootsiest Mbalax (Senegal's predominant musical style) to the grooviest Funk. He has years of gigging under his belt, directing and touring with the Super Étoile, Youssou N'dour's band. He has been involved in many musical projects in Senegal, working with local artists. In the last years, he has been doing experiments with traditional African sounds and Jazz. He first founded a band named Harmattan, which was a headliner at the 1998 edition of [Saint-Louis International Jazz Festival in Saint-Louis, Senegal, one of the most, if not the most, important jazz festival in Africa.
In recent years, Habib has been working with his own band on different jazz projects, , Habib Faye Quartet. Through his band he tries to bring two different worlds together, i.e. the richness of the African sound and the world of jazz. Indeed, he believes in the translatability of the sounds of Africa, especially Mbalax, and attempts to bring that to the fore through experiments geared toward giving percussions more presence in a jazz context. Those experiments culminated into the release of a live album, only available in Senegal, Special tribute to Jaco Pastorius, Live at "Central Park" Dakar .
Habib can also be heard playing percussion-like parts on his bass or keyboard on many Super Étoile tunes. As a matter of fact, he is one the premier bass keyboardists out there. He plays many of his basslines on the keyboard, too, not to mention his work on guitar. All of that is evidenced in Youssou's Live at Union Chapel DVD released in 2002.
In 2006, Habib flew to New York to work with Angelique Kidjo on her latest album, Djin Djin, due out May 1, 2007. Angelique's website credits him a "Senegalese bass giant". Djin Djin[4] features a myriad of music stars, such as Alicia Keys, Peter Gabriel, Carlos Santana, Josh Groban, etc.
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