Thiaw, David

Websites:  https://www.davidthiaw.com/
Origin: Dakar, Senegal → Calgary, Alberta, 🇨🇦
Biography:

David Thiaw is a Senegal-born vocalist, percussionist, composer, and cultural educator whose music bridges the traditional rhythms of West Africa with the global diaspora he has inhabited since the 1970s. Raised in Dakar, he grew up within the sound world of Wolof and Lebou drumming traditions: sabar, tama, djun djun, and the djembe that would later become his signature instrument. His earliest musical memories—family songs, call-and-response gatherings, and the communal night-drumming of the rainy season—remain the emotional core of his work.

Thiaw left Senegal as a young man and eventually settled in Canada, becoming one of the earliest artists to introduce West African drumming to Canadian audiences. By the mid-1970s he had brought one of the first djembes into the country, leading a long-running community drum circle on Montreal’s Mount Royal and teaching a generation of musicians who would later form part of his ensemble DOMBA. His approach blended respect for traditional forms with a desire to expand the vocabulary of African percussion within contemporary settings.

His album African Skies (1996), recorded in Calgary with a group of Canadian and international collaborators, is the fullest expression of his musical worldview. Interweaving Senegalese, Malinke, Nigerian, and Ghanaian songs with his own compositions, the record moves from ancestral material to personal memorial pieces such as “Titi’s Groove,” written for his late daughter. The album’s liner notes reveal Thiaw as both storyteller and cultural archivist: reflecting on diaspora, childhood memories, African folklore, and the spiritual lives of masks and drums displaced from their homelands.

Thiaw’s work as a performer spans festivals, educational programs, multicultural arts initiatives, and collaborations with dancers and community ensembles. His concerts often function as both performance and pedagogy, introducing audiences to the social histories embedded in each rhythm. Whether leading DOMBA or performing solo, his music emphasizes the power of percussion as a means of communication—echoing his belief that sabar drumming, historically used to accompany speech, helped shape forms of expression that resonate in contemporary popular music.

Now based in Western Canada, Thiaw continues to record, teach, and share the traditions he grew up with in Dakar. His career stands as a long bridge between continents: rooted in West African heritage, shaped by the Canadian communities he has taught and performed within, and driven by a commitment to keeping the stories, spirits, and voices of his ancestors alive through music.
-Robert Williston