ISSA BAGAYOGO
ELECTROBEAT FROM BAMAKO

TOUR 2009

April 2009 (Europe)

June - July - August 2009 (Europe, Canada and USA)

ARTIST HISTORY :

In the mid-1990s, after making several recordings and failing to have a regional hit with any of them, Issa was making his living driving a bus. He moved to Bamako (Mali’s capital city) and meet Yves Wernert, sound engineer and  artistic director of Mali K7, a record company founded by Philippe Berthier, which had an important role in the promotion of modern malian music. Then, Yves Wernert proposes Issa to create a highly personal sound that combined the acoustic traditions of his region with elements of electronic music, rock, and dub. Ten years and four albums later, Issa Bagayogo is a regular star attraction on stages around the continent, playing for huge and wildly enthusiastic audiences. He has become well recognized for his subtly insistent voice and his skillful talent on the kamele n’goni that is popular throughout western Africa. His reception outside of Africa has been warm as well. Reviewing one of his pneumatic live shows, England’s Folk Roots magazine marveled at his energy, saying that he “may radically reshape West Africa’s groove… when Issa plays, only the dead stay still,” while Billboard said it was time to “add this man’s name to the growing list of Mali’s emerging world-music luminaries. The Village Voice concurred, pronouncing Issa’s music as “the finest Afro-European rhythmic structures Mali can provide.”

The critical community and fans worldwide have been waiting for over four years in anticipation of Mali Koura, Issa’s new release, which has proved to be worth the wait. Issa’s sound has matured, tightened and ripened into a fully-realized Afro-European hybrid – no longer does it sound like a fusion of two separate cultures, but rather like the fully-evolved music of a brand new culture.

Line Up :

- Issa Bagayogo : voice, kamele n’goni

- Dj Click : turntables, FX  
- Gael Le Billan : fender rhodes, alto saxophone, melodica
- Jerome Hulin : percussions
- Yves Wernert : sound

PREVIOUS CONCERTS : 

France (Banlieues Bleues, Africolor, Tribu Festival, Nice Jazz festival, Midem, Transbordeur, Cabaret Sauvage, Astrolabe, Rockstore, Espace Julien), Europe (Amsterdam Mundial Festival, Amsterdam Roots Festival, Rotterdam Dunia Festival, Womex, Womad, London Royal Hall Festival, Bristol Colston Hall...), USA & Canada (NYC Central Park Summerstage, Bandshell Miami Beach, Taste of Chicago, Washington Kennedy Center, Montreal Nuit d'Afrique, Toronto Harbor Front…). 

DISCOGRAPHY :

Mali Koura Six Degrees records 2008	Tassoumakan Six Degrees records 2004	Timbuktu Six Degrees records 2002	Sya Six Degrees records 2002