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Concert: Downtown Africa presents an evening of West African Urban Fusion
Awa Sangho/Daniel Moreno and NSEO with Madina Bah
Date: Friday, November 18, 2011 Time: 7:30pm Venue:Drom (85 Avenue A, NY, NY 10009, 212- 777-1157) Ticket: $15 Genre: West African Pops
Awa Sangho was born in 1972 in Bamako, Mali. She spent her childhood in Dire in Mali, raised by her grandmother. She joined her family in Abidjan, the capital of the Ivory Coast, in 1980 and quickly became immersed in its music scene, absorbing the Bete influences. In 1988, she joined L’Ensemble Koteba D’Abidjan, and toured around the world, mastering the band’s theatrical style of chants and dance. Soon after, she formed the renowned female band Les Go De Koteba, where she tapped into her roots of authentic, modern African music. Her extraordinary voice lent itself well to interpreting the moving Sahelien lyrics and polyphonies of the countryside. Sangho continues to flourish and gain musical maturity as she carries on the traditions of L’Ensemble Koteba D’Abidjan.
Daniel Moreno is a prolific musician, producer and composer who started his musical career playing with artists like George Benson, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Joe Cano, Manu, and Willie Kahaialihi in Hawaii. He then moved to Brazil where he recorded the classic album Estamos Juntos with Angolan superstar Waldemar Bastos, featuring legend Chico Buarque. He also worked with Joan Donato, Armando Marcal, Sr. and an endless number of Brazilian notables. He has performed at jazz and sacred music festivals, and in clubs and universities around the world, collaborating with everyone from Pharoah Sanders and Les Paul to Roy Haynes and his musical conduit, Don Cherry. Moreno continues to collaborate with great composers such as Cheick Tidiane Seck, Badal Roy, Marc Cary, Graham Haynes and Antoine Roney, among others.
NSEO is a band founded by Quebec percussionist D Lez Villeneuve and well-known Senegalese guitarist/composer Sory Koite, featuring the young Fulani singer from Senegal, Madina Bah. The goal of NSEO, short for Nord, Sud, Est, Ouest in French, is to create world fusion music experiences.Born from a family of Griots, Sory Koite is the son of the famous Mandingo balafonist Djeli Noumouke. Sory enjoys a great reputation for his musical arrangements and has played with Baba Maal, Angelique Kidjo, Mory Kante, Djeli Moussa Diawara, Kante Manfila and many more.
D Lez Villeneuve has worked with Diblo Dibala, Abdoulaye Alhassane, Waaw Band, Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi, Abdoulaye Diabate, Source and many others. Also featured in NSEO are Cameroonian drummer Jojo Kuo, who has played with Fela Kuti and almost everyone else in the Afro Music world, pianist David Dormeus from Haiti/Montreal, and New York drummer Clete De Beate. Hailed by Down Beat as one of the most, “multi-dimensional keyboard players on the scene today,” whose music reveals those multi-dimensions in sensual living color, Marc Cary’s continual search for his musical identity has brought him to all corners of the earth, quenching his thirst to bring forth indigenous musics in all of their forms
