TOURE KUNDA

In 1973 Ismaila Toure left his native Casamance (Senegal) to see the world and explore its music, eventually arriving two years later in Paris where he worked in community service and played charity concerts before inviting his younger brother Sixu Tidiane to join him in 1977. That same year they played their first concert at Pantin before going on to a residency at the Theatre Dunois in Paris. On the strength of their live success they released their debut album ISMAILA and SIXU and invited two of their brothers to join them to create TOURE KUNDA. Over the next two years they toured extensively and in 1979 they released their first album on Celluloid which went gold like their four subsequent albums. They were one of the first African groups to do this and, by doing so, opened the way up for others who were to follow in their footsteps, and most importantly introducing European audiences to African music in its original form.

In 1983 during a concert in Paris their older brother Amadou died of a heart attack. A concert was organised in his memory after which the brothers returned to Africa embarking on a major tour of the Ivory Coast, Mali, Gambia and Senegal which bore the fabulous live album PARIS-ZIGUINCHOR which sold more than 200,000 copies. With their younger brother Ousmane replacing Amadou the band went back on the road in France selling out the Espace Balard in front of 20,000 fans and going on to a major tour which attracted over 200,000 spectators. Later in the year they released a new album produced by Bill Laswell entitled NATALlA after which they embarked on a world tour selling out major dates in the U.S.A( NY Carnegie Hall, Palladium- Los Angeles Palace - San Francisco Warfield . . .etc …) and Japan (200,000 fans - first African group to tour Japan).

In 1986 they signed to French independent label TREMA releasing three albums ((Live at the Palais des Congres Sounke" and "Sila Beto" During this period they continued touring playing all the major festivals in Canada and Europe where they broke numerous attendance records and several prestigeous events like the "Summit of African head's of state" and the "humans rights concert for Nelson Mandela" in Paris. In order to capitalize on their extensive overseas the group now back to its original format of Ismaila and Sixu signed their first contract with a major, WEA and in 1997 released MOUSLAI which was recorded in France and England.

1999, They performed with Carlos Santana in Paris and Frejus. Their guest harmonies helped to turn “Africa Bamba” into one of the most exciting songs on Santana's nine Grammy award-winning 1999 album, sold over 16 million copies world-wide.

In February 2000 . . . a live concert at Radio France Inter with Carlos Santana . . .then on
Eurpean Tour. . . “Terra Saabi” will be released . The last one: “Santhiaba” 2008.

Summer 2010, the TOURE KUNDA will celebrate their 30th Anniversary and will tour 30 cities in Canada and the United States, beginning on June 26th during the Montreal Jazz Festival. A new show entitled:

TOURE KUNDA - THE MAGIC SHOW/2010
30th Anniversary, 30 musicians and dancers, 30 shows in Canada and the United States

Toure means "elephant" and Kunda means “Family"