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Africando
Africando is a musical project formed in 1992 to unite New York-based salsa musicians with Senegalese vocalists. Musicians from other African countries were later included under the name Africando All Stars. Salsa has been a hugely popular style in Central and West Africa since the 1940s-1950s, and the goal of Africando was to merge salsa rhythms from both sides of the Atlantic, mainly based on the African salsa tradition. Africando was initiated by producer Ibrahim Sylla from Côte d'Ivoire and Malian arranger Boncana Maiga of Fania All Stars. Some of the musicians initially involved were: Ronnie Baro (of Orquesta Broadway), Pape Seck (ex member of Star Band), Nicholas Menheim (associate of Youssou N'Dour), and Medoune Diallo (formerly with Orchestre Baobab). The first two albums were a big success in Africa and in the World Music scene. Singer Pape Seck died in 1995, and was replaced by Gnonnas Pedro from Benin (who died August 2005) and Ronnie Baró of Orquestra Broad ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Amadou Balaké
Amadou Traoré (March 8, 1944 – August 27, 2014), better known as Amadou Balaké, was a popular singer from Burkina Faso. During his career, which lasted over 50 years, Balaké recorded and performed in different parts of West Africa as well as New York and Paris. In the early 21st century, he was a member of Senegalese salsa band Africando. His music combined different traditions from his home country, primarily Dioula ( Mandé) and Mossi, as well as Afro-Cuban music. Life and career Amadou Traoré was born on March 8, 1944, in Ouahigouya, Yatenga, then a French territory. In 1952, his recently widowed mother moved to the capital, Ouagadougou, where he became interested in music. He spent six years working with his brother as a driver apprentice in Mopti, Mali, before returning to Ouagadougou in 1961 to work as a taxi driver. In 1962 he began his professional career, playing in different orchestras in Bamako, Abidjan, Kankan and Conakry throughout the decade. He joined Ouaga ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gnonnas Pedro
Gnonnan Sossou Pierre Kouassivi, known by the stage name Gnonnas Pedro was a singer and musician from Lokossa, Benin. He is perhaps best known as the lead singer of Africando between 1995 and his death in 2004, but had been well known in his home country of Benin and beyond since the 1960s. Pedro led his own bands Pedro y Sus Panchos, later reforming as Gnonnas Pedro and his Dadjes Band, before joining the long-lived Orchestre Poly-rythmo de Cotonou. As a singer, songwriter, instrumentalist, and dancer, Pedro embraced many styles of music including highlife and juju. Pedro is credited with updating the traditional Agbadja style of his home region, creating Modern Agbadja. He sang in many different languages, including Mina, Adja, Yoruba, French, English, and Spanish. Pedro produced the song "Feso Jaiye",Accessible aGolden days highlife #13 13 minutes into MP3, accessed 30 March 2008 which became a hit and was performed by many bands at the 2nd All-Africa Games in 1973. Deat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Star Band
Star Band is a music group from Senegal that was the resident band of Dakar's ''Miami Club''. They, along with the many off-shoots of the band, are responsible for many of the crucial developments in Senegalese popular music. They were formed in 1959 by the owner of the Miami Club, Ibra Kasse. As was typical in Africa at the time, Kasse owned the instruments and was the band leader of the Star Band although he only occasionally played piano. Each one of the band's twelve albums released in Senegal featured a photo of Kasse on the back cover stating that he was the band leader, composer and arranger.Hudson, Mark, essay in liner notes of "Once Upon a Time in Senegal", Etoile de Dakar, Sterns Music 2010, p. 8 Formed to celebrate Senegal's independence in 1960, Kasse recruited members of other band including Guinea-Jazz and Tropical Jazz. The band has hosted many of Senegal's most influential musicians, Youssou N'Dour being the most notable, and gave birth to several splinter groups ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sekouba Bambino
Sekouba "Bambino" is the stage name of Sekouba Diabaté, a singer and musician born in Guinea, West Africa, in 1964.Sekouba Bambino Official Page. Biography Bambino was born and raised in the village of Kintinya, some 25 kilometers from the town of , close to the border with . He was born into a musical family, and is descended from a long line of , known in some |
African Popular Music
African popular music (also styled Afropop, Afro-pop or Afro pop), like African traditional music, is vast and varied. Most contemporary genres of African popular music build on cross-pollination with western popular music. Many genres of popular music like blues, jazz, afrobeats, salsa, zouk, and rumba derive to varying degrees on musical traditions from Africa, taken to the Americas by enslaved Africans. These rhythms and sounds have subsequently been adapted by newer genres like rock, and rhythm and blues. Likewise, African popular music has adopted elements, particularly the musical instruments and recording studio techniques of western music. The term does not refer to a specific style or sound but is used as a general term for African popular music. Influence of Afro-Cuban music Cuban music has been popular in Sub-Saharan Africa since the mid-twentieth century. It was Cuban music, more than any other, that provided the initial template for Afropop. To the Africans ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Koffi Olomide
Antoine Christophe Agbepa Mumba (13 July 1956), known professionally as Koffi Olomidé, is a Congolese Soukus singer, dancer, producer, and composer. He has had several gold records in his career. He is the founder of the Quartier Latin International orchestra with many notable artists, including Fally Ipupa and Ferré Gola. Background Olomide was born on 13 July 1956 in Kisangani, DRC. His mother named him Koffi because he was born on Friday. He grew up in a middle-class family, without any musical background. During his youth, Olomide improvised by singing popular songs with his own lyrics and altered rhythms until a neighbor taught him how to play the guitar. Education Often described by fellow students and his teachers alike as "a very bright student," Olomide earned a scholarship to study in Bordeaux, France where he obtained a bachelor's degree in business economics. He is also reported to hold a master's degree in mathematics from the University of Paris. Musical career U ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Orquestra Broadway
Orquesta Broadway was an American mid-1960s/late 1980s New York-based salsa band. They issued almost 20 albums between 1964 and 1987. Orquesta Broadway and Típica 73 were two popular New York salsa bands that played in the ''charanga'' format.Cesar Miguel Rondón, ''The Book of Salsa: A Chronicle of Urban Music from the Caribbean'', 2008, p. 186 : "The actual protagonist of this new spin-off was none other than the Orquesta Broadway, rightfully considered the dean of the ... Orquesta Broadway was formed by the three Zervigón brothers and was the only charanga ensemble able to ..." Some of the famous musicians initially involved were Monguito "El Único", a Cuban nasal-voiced singer (he patterned his vocal style on the Cuban sonero Miguelito Cuní), joined in 1962, when he moved to New York from Mexico, Ronnie Baro, 1992, co-founder of Africando and Roger Dawson, conga drummer (bongos are not typically used in charanga bands). Their song "El Barrio del Pilar" is considered a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Orquesta Broadway
Orquesta Broadway was an American mid-1960s/late 1980s New York-based salsa band. They issued almost 20 albums between 1964 and 1987. Orquesta Broadway and Típica 73 were two popular New York salsa bands that played in the ''charanga'' format.Cesar Miguel Rondón, ''The Book of Salsa: A Chronicle of Urban Music from the Caribbean'', 2008, p. 186 : "The actual protagonist of this new spin-off was none other than the Orquesta Broadway, rightfully considered the dean of the ... Orquesta Broadway was formed by the three Zervigón brothers and was the only charanga ensemble able to ..." Some of the famous musicians initially involved were Monguito "El Único", a Cuban nasal-voiced singer (he patterned his vocal style on the Cuban sonero Miguelito Cuní), joined in 1962, when he moved to New York from Mexico, Ronnie Baro, 1992, co-founder of Africando and Roger Dawson, conga drummer (bongos are not typically used in charanga bands). Their song "El Barrio del Pilar" is considered a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tabu Ley Rochereau
Pascal-Emmanuel Sinamoyi Tabu (13 November 1940 – 30 November 2013), better known as Tabu Ley Rochereau, was a leading African rumba singer-songwriter from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He was the leader of ''Orchestre Afrisa International'', as well as one of Africa's most influential vocalists and prolific songwriters. Along with guitarist Dr Nico Kasanda, Tabu Ley pioneered soukous (African rumba) and internationalised his music by fusing elements of Congolese folk music with Cuban, Caribbean and Latin American rumba. He has been described as "the Congolese personality who, along with Mobutu, marked Africa's 20th century history." He was dubbed "the African Elvis" by the ''Los Angeles Times''. After the fall of the Mobutu regime, Tabu Ley also pursued a political career. His musical career ran parallel to the other great Congolese rhumba bandleader and rival Franco Luambo Makiadi who ran the band TPOK Jazz throughout the 1960s, 1970s and '80s. During his career, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Salif Keita
Salif Keïta () (born 25 August 1949) is a Malian singer-songwriter, referred to as the "Golden Voice of Africa". He is a member of the Keita royal family of Mali. Biography Early life Salif Keita was born a traditional prince in the village of Djoliba. He was born to the Keita royal family, who trace their lineage to Sundiata Keita, founder of the Mali Empire. He was cast out by his family and ostracized by the community because of his albinism, a sign of bad luck in Mandinka culture. He decided to pursue music in his teenage years, further distancing him from his family as that was against occupational prohibitions of his noble status. In 1967, he left Djoliba for Bamako, where he joined the government-sponsored Super Rail Band de Bamako. In 1973, Keita joined the group ''Les Ambassadeurs (du Motel de Bamako)''. Keita and Les Ambassadeurs fled political unrest in Mali during the mid-1970s and subsequently changed the group's name to ''Les Ambassadeurs Internationaux''. T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Orchestre Baobab
Orchestra Baobab is a Senegalese band established in 1970 as the house band of the Baobab Club in Dakar. Many of the band's original members had previously played with Star Band de Dakar in the 1960s. Directed by '' timbalero'' and vocalist Balla Sidibé, the group featured saxophonists Issa Cissoko and Thierno Koité, two singers, two guitarists and a rhythm section with drums, congas and bass guitar. Since their formation, the band has predominantly played a mix of son cubano, Wolof music, and to a lesser extent Mande musical traditions. Following the deaths of Cissoko in 2019 and Sidibé in 2020, Thierno Koité has become the leader of the band. Orchestra Baobab became one of the dominant African bands of the 1970s, recording 20 albums before their breakup in 1987, which occurred as a result of the increase in popularity of mbalax, a more contemporary genre of Senegalese music. In the years following their disbandment, World Circuit released several of their albums on CD, m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ibrahim Sylla
Ibrahima Sylla (2 April 1956 – 30 December 2013) was a Senegalese record producer born in Ivory Coast and founder of the African music label Syllart Records. He was an internationally acclaimed musician whose production and music direction defined popular African music. From West African dance, to Congolese Soukous (sung in Lingala), to melodic griot-led songs, Sylla's signature as a music producer is unmistakable. He has demonstrated his familiarity with many contemporary African musical genres, and he has worked with most of Africa's musical greats. Biography Sylla was born in the Ivory Coast, into a prominent family; his father was Guinean (French Guinea) and was an influential public figure who was well known in West Africa, and whose work took the family to Dakar in Senegal. Sylla developed his love for music whilst studying at a university in Paris, France. He released compilation albums of his favorite Salsa music, and from 1980 he embarked on record production work. He f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
