Debademba
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Debademba

Paris, Île-de-France, France | INDIE

Paris, Île-de-France, France | INDIE
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Debademba
Abdoulaye Traoré & Mohamed Diaby
1st album release – january 18th 2011

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For many years, DEBADEMBA, has been one of the most well-kept secret of the working-class areas of Paris. By dint of numerous impassioned concerts in the Olympic Café, the Kafé Bleu, and playing on overcrowded squares for the national day of music in the neigbourhood called St. Marthe, this « big family » (‘DEBADEMBA’ in bambara) starts to draw attention. During an interview on the internet, the singer Hindi Zhara praised the songs by the guitar player Abdoulaye Traoré, visionary conductor of DEBADEMBA : « His songs are simply wonderful, and they reflect the universality of the African music ».

Born in Burkina Faso –the land of upright people-, Abdoulaye Traoré starts to travelWest Africa in 1990, where he multiplies experiences and collaborates, among others, with Sieka Barou & Victor Démé, Adama Drame, or Les Go De Koteba. These encounters leads him to Europe, where he works with Fantany Touré, and other artists from Africa and elsewhere. He acquires renown for his powerful and clear playing, his master phrasing, and a sens of improvisation he uses both on stage and in studio, like in his recent collaboration on Hindi Zhara’s album. Thanks to his sensitivity and his musical approach, he is considered as an enlightened composer and arranger ; qualities we witness in this first album, in which he wrote every single song.

In 2009, Traoré meets Mohamed Diaby in Paris. Diaby is the son of Coumba Kouyaté, a famous griot from Ivory Coast. This young singer, revealed in 2007, by the program called « Casa Sanga » (a televisual springboard for new talents sponsorized by Oumou Sangaré) and his hit « Zouloukalanani ». Diaby’s immediately recognizable voice is pure and powerful, and combined with a magical tone. In the album, this spirited singer is perfectly directed by his friend and mentor Abdoulaye, whose arrangements are the perfect jewel case for his golden voice. A dozen of musicians and vocalists, and other prestigious voices have participated on the album, like the singer Awa, as well as the beautiful and glamourous Fatoumata Diawara (World Circuit), whose voices intensifie the superb acoustics of the songs.
Theses encounters and collaborations are the starting point of this first album which exposes the artists’s vision of a universal cultural mix of styles, rooted in the Mandingo culture. Indeed on the album, the Wassoulou rhythms and harmonies, the Fula and the blues meet the Arabo-Andalusian influences (on « Takama »), the Ethiopian sounds (on « Africa Blues »), the afro-funk (on the exposive « Agnankamina »), the African salsa (on « Thomas Sankara ») or the rocky blues (on « Kiéfali », a song that looks like ZZ top hit « La Grange », boosted with bissap juice and millet beer…)

Singled out by David Commeillas from Chapa Blues Record (Victor Démé, Yapa), the group recorded this firt album with Sodi in Studio Zarma (Fela, Femi Kuti, Rachid Taha, etc.). The group DEBADEMBA has started a tour all around France, and the duo Abdoulaye Traouré - Mohamed Diaby is also playing on a regular basis with « Les mercenaires de l’ambiance » (‘the mercenaries of the good mood’, in French), the orchestra of the program « L’Afrique Enchantée » (Enchanted Africa) on France Inter Radio.