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Black Ivory Soul - Angélique Kidjo

Black Ivory Soul

Angélique Kidjo  

Format: 1 CD

Genre: latin, soul, Folk, World, & Country, Funk / Soul, African

Barcode: 0696998579927

 

 
 

Artist

Born: July 14, 1960.

Angélique Kidjo grew up in Ouidah, Benin, a country in West Africa that sits snugly between Togo and Nigeria.

She was born into a musical family, her mother is a choreographer and director of a theater group, her brothers are instrumentalists and at the age of six she was singing and dancing in her mother's company and later joined her brothers' group, the Kidjo Brothers Band, where she sang a variety of Benin-style songs.

Growing up in Benin exposed her to a rich variety of music. She was heavily influenced by the traditional folk styles and love songs of the country - epic songs full of allusions to the history of the villages and the rituals and voodoo ceremonies of the older generation
but, perhaps more importantly, she was listening to the new urban African music percolating up from South Africa and the Western songs ranging from James Brown, Aretha Franklin to Jimi Hendrix that she heard on the radio.

The formidable South African vocalist Miriam Makeba was a great influence on the young Kidjo, so much so that Angelique, who was already making a name for herself, recorded an adaptation of a Makeba song for Benin radio. Her first hits followed and she toured the Ivory Coast.
It wasn't until Kidjo made the trip to Europe that her career came alive. It was Cameroonian producer, Ekambi Brilliant, who suggested that Angelique move to Paris to record and the singer left Benin for Europe.

Paris in the eighties was the breeding ground for the new African music and African artists, freed from the constraints of African tradition yet incorporating their roots with western styles were generating revolutionary sounds.
Delicately plucked guitars were mixing with rock drums and lyrics were tackling more worldly issues. Makossa from Cameroon, soukous from Zaire which is now the DRC and mbalax from Senegal was being injected with a new attitude and was taking over the dancefloors. Kidjo was in her element.

When she first arrived she sang and recorded with a group called Alafia and then joined the jazz tinged band, Pili Pili. She later recorded two jazz albums with Pili Pili and played with them at the Montreux Festival in 1986.
In the same year she joined forces with bass player and composer Jean Hebrail, and together they worked on their own music.
Through regularly working at Le Baiser Salé in Paris, she also met many African and Antillean musicians and was able to form her own group and release her first solo album, Parakou.

Tracks

1  Bahia  03:33

2  Iwoya  03:48

3  Olofoofo  04:14

4  Tumba  03:49

5  Black Ivory Soul  04:36

6  Refavela  04:16

7  Iemanja  04:27

8  Afirika  04:14

9  Okan Bale  03:34

10  Ominira  04:23

11  Mondjuba  03:03

12  Ces Petits Riens  02:14

Releases

Formats

CDr, CD

Labels

Columbia, Sony Records Int'l

Countries

Australia, Brazil, Canada, Japan, South Africa, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, United States of America, Europe

years

2001, 2002

Members

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Parakou - Angélique Kidjo

Outlet

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