Youri Lenquette
News
- Friday, August 22, 2008
Cheikh Lô Tours US with James Brown Tribute
Cheikh Lô is in the States this week, touring the country with Still Black, Still Proud: The African Tribute to James Brown. He joins musical director and band leader Pee Wee Ellis, known as "The Man Who Invented Funk" for his work with Brown; trombonist Fred Wesley Jr., another key player in Brown's band; Vieux Farka Touré; and a host of guest artists for the event. The US tour comes to New York City tonight for a free performance as part of Lincoln Center Out of Doors series.
About Cheikh Lô
Growing up with Senegalese parents in Burkina Faso near the border of Mali during the 1950s, Cheikh Lô played the musical styles of the time, including Cuban and Congolese styles. He gave his first performances as a young man in Bobo Dioulasso, Burkina’s creative capital and hotbed of musical activity, and later moved to Dakar, Senegal. But it wasn’t until he made his way to Paris in 1985 that he began to build the relationships that would make up his unique musical community.
Since his first internationally distributed record, the Youssou N’Dour–produced Ne La Thiass (1996), Cheikh Lô has received increasing praise worldwide. His last album, Bambay Gueej, was especially acclaimed. On National Public Radio’s All Things Considered, African music expert Banning Eyre described the album saying, “there isn’t a weak moment on Bambay Gueej.” He called it “a record that just blares integrity.” With his new release, Lamp Fall, Lô comes full-circle, wedding the sounds of his youth with the international styles he has incorporated since.
Latest Release
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Lamp Fall
April 25, 2006The Senegalese singer / acoustic guitarist / Youssou N’Dour protégé creates a distinctly African yet decidedly worldly sound here. Lô, says The Independent (UK), “strikes out on a path which takes in Cuban and Brazilian sounds to brew up a wonderfully heady mix.”
