Mai Lingani

MAIMOUNATA (“Maï”) LINGANI is one of the most popular singers and songwriters of Burkina Faso, West Africa. She currently divides her time between New York City and Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso. Maï was born in Koudougou, Burkina Faso (formerly Upper Volta), grew up in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, and started singing professionally during her late teens. In the mid-1990s, she won several prizes with bands playing styles ranging from reggae to the traditional musics of various Ivoirian ethnicities, and toured nationally. In 1996, she met the musicians Lukas Ligeti (of Austria, now residing in the U.S.) and Kurt Dahlke (of Germany)and participated in the recording of their group Beta Foly’s critically acclaimed CD, her first international release (“Lukas Ligeti & Beta Foly”, Intuition Records, Germany, 1997).

LUCKY DIOP

Ndongo Bahoum Diop was born in Ziguinchor, which is the richest cultural city in Senegal, in July 1964. His nickname is Lucky. He belong to the Diola (jola) tribe, one the rare tribes where everybody is a musician! His father’s position in the justice department gave him the great opportunity to learn about the dynamic music of the Toucouleur and the Wolof tribe at his early age. At the age of 10, Lucky was already performing for his classmates.  In high school, he was among the first students to join the music band which won several competitions nationwide.  During his last two years in high school, he collaborated with Solo Cissokho, a prominent kora player in Senegal. Lucky spiced up his compositions with sabar, bougarabou, seyrouba and djembe rhythms. As Solo’s repertoire became more diverse, they both gained more fans.

KING IBU

Ibu hails from Podor, a small town in Senegal, Afrika. Ibu picked up the guitar at the age of twelve, starting a special relationship with music. Self taught, he studies music like one would study a language. Very early he found himself surrounded by various styles of music from Pulaar rhythms to American Blues and RNB. “I remember listening to James Brown, Otis Redding without knowing what they were saying…there was a time I was nicknamed Wilson W. Pickett,” Ibu says.

KANDA BONGO MAN

Kanda Bongo Man, born in 1955 in Inongo in the Belgian Congo (formerly Zaire) of the Bandundu people, is one of the foremost figures in modern African popular music. He left school at the age of 18 to join a local Kinshasa band, playing the hot rhumba sound of the time. He quickly moved on to play with the Orchestre Bella Mambo (later Bella Bella) in 1976 and toured Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya and Zaire with their newly created Soukous (from the French ‘secouer’, ‘to shake’), a music style that is a cross between Caribbean rumba rhythms and traditional African music.

HABIB FAYE

Bass player, guitar player, keyboardist, composer and Grammy-nominated producer, Habib Faye has been the musical director for the Youssou N’Dour band for the past 25 years or so. He has arranged and produced most of the band’s albums since 1986. A celebrated African bass player, who counts Brandford Marsalis, Joe Zawinul and Darryl Jones among his fans, Faye has gigged, recorded and/or toured with renowned artists such as Mickey Hart, Manu Katché, Joe Zawinul, Paco Sery, Gilberto Gil, Chet Atkins, Mark Knopfler, Brandford Marsalis, Poogie Bell, David Sancious, Lionel Loueke, Tania St. Val, Jacob Desvarieux, David Sanborn, Mokhtar Samba, Carlinhos Brown and Angélique Kidjo

Group Caribe

Grupo Caribe is a swinging Mambo Salsa Dance Band based in New York City! The band performs traditional Salsa dance music with pulsating percussive riffs, steady piano and bass montuno vamps, adorned by a rhythmic and melodic brass section, and full-bodied vocals reminiscent of the 1960’s and 70’s.
Grupo Caribe have been featured performers in NYC’s Lincoln Center’s Mid Summer Night Swing, the Battery Park Concert Series, and three concert performances at the Tempo-Latino Festival n Toulous, France.

Fallou Dieng

Masters of “mbalax” dance rhythms, Fallou Dieng et le DLC are the foremost group to have emerged from Senegal in recent times. Hailed throughout West Africa as “le Roi de l’Ambiance,” Fallou has created some of Dakar’s most thrilling dance music, where cracking sabar drums, driving polyrhythms, funky guitar riffs and staccato horns are the perfect complement to his dynamic and versatile voice.

Emily

She is the reigning Queen of Haitian Song: a captivating performer, versatile vocalist and one of the premier Haitian songwriters of her generation. She has recorded and appeared on concert stages throughout the Caribbean, Europe, and North & South America for over 20 years. Singing both in French and Haitian Creole, her nine albums, Douvanjou ka leve (May the Sun Rise), Pa gen manti nan sa (There’s No Doubt), Rhum & Flamme (Rum & Flame), Tout Mon Temps (All My Time), The Very Best, Ban’m pase (Let Me Pass), Cordes et Ame (Strings and Soul), Rasin Kreyol (Creole Roots), and Reine de Cour (Queen of Hearts) have catapulted her to international acclaim.

CHARANGA SOLEIL

CHARANGA SOLEIL brings together three of the world’s greatest dance genres: Cuban salsa, Haitian compas, and Congolese rumba-soukous! In addition to the standard charanga instrumentation (flute, violin, piano, bass, conga, vocals and chorus), the group includes the Cuban tres and a full drum set, and sometimes even a 21-string West African kora (among other special guests).

Awilo Longomba

Awilo Longomba was born in Kinshasa (formally, Léopoldville). His father was from the Mongo region of the Ecuador and his mother was also from the Ecuador region of Ngombe and Congo Brazzaville. His father, Vicky Longomba, was the famous lead singer and founder of “Tout puissant OK Jazz” during the golden age of Congolese rumba, had a big influence on our artist.

Alioune Mbaye Nder

Summer 1999: the song “Pansement” by Alioune Mbaye Nder & Le Setsima Group has hit the airwaves, and can be heard non-stop on all FM stations and in discotheques throughout Senegal. “Pansement” (i.e. “bandage”) is the story of a husband who desperately tries to get his angry wife to pardon him and thus end the conjugal “strike” … These are the vignettes of daily life that Nder sings about in the vibrant mbalax style, which over the past five years have won him enormous popularity.

Alioune Guisse

Alioune’s interest in music showed at an early age. Starting in elementary school, he honed his vocal and music composition skills by performing at local schools and community ceremonies and events. In 1992, Alioune won the prestigious “Oscar des Vacances,” awarded annually to the best up-and-coming singer by Senegal’s national television network.

Yawo

A native of Togo, West Africa, Yawo started his musical career at the “Ecole Experimentale de musique” of Lome, where he studied flute, classical guitar, and electric bass. As the leader of the high school band he formed with his brother and sister, Yawo Attivor developed a talent for composing and arranging music that embraces both the traditions of the Ewe tribe and the influences of the western civilization.

Birahim

BIRAHIM represents the new generation of Senegalese artists whose work is influenced by a wider range of musical styles than previous generations. This talented young singer, lyricist and composer moves easily between traditional Mbalax and internationally popular genres such as reggae, r&b and hip-hop. With a smooth and well-cultivated vocal quality, he sings in Wolof, French and English. His captivating manner and infectious spirit only add to his musical appeal.

Bakalama

The folkloric dance and percussion group BAKALAMA was founded in 1972 specifically to celebrate and advance Senegal’s cultural heritage, and has been doing so successfully ever since, with original productions and performances worldwide.

Sheba

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Pape Diouf

Born in 1973 in Dakar, PAPE CHEIKH DIOUF is from a guewel (griot) family originally of the Siné-Saloum Delta region in southwestern Senegal. As a youth, he was sent to his uncle’s house to learn the plumbing trade. But his passion was music, which he pursued in his spare time and ultimately decided was his path to follow. Along with his enormous talent, Pape Diouf is known and admired for representing certain human and social values that are central to Senegalese culture. His themes, expressed in the Wolof language, are about love and life’s lessons, and especially about “Teranga” – mutual respect, acceptance and hospitality as a way of life.

Xalam

New African Production is pleased to announce the rebirth of an African musical legend: Senegalese m’balax pioneers Xalam2 return as Xalam