Wembi
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Wembi

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Discography

2 CD released ( both available at CDBaby and at wembimusic.com):

- Second Chances (c) Wembi 2008 /ASCAP
- Footprints in the Sand By Wembi (c) Wembi 1998

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Bio

A Diplomat of Muse...Ambassador of Genre

Bringing New Indie World Music to the "New World"

For over four hundred years, the shores of America have been blessed with an influx of talents, ideas, and inventions from immigrants that have arrived on her shores. To this very day, America continues to be a "Melting Pot" of culture and ethnicity. However, America is also a great "Musical Melting Pot." The diversity of American music comes from the blend of styles of many different peoples from many lands. Nowhere else on earth is there such a variety of musical genres with the ability to morph freely and grow into new genres and fresh sounds.

If there is one musical artist, songwriter and producer who personifies this whole process perfectly...it is surely Wembi. Wembi has contributed dramatically to this "Musical Melting Pot." Although he is fluent in over four different languages, he has become most fluent in the Universal Language of music. He has created and developed the genre of New Indie World Music and brought it to the shores of the "New World." Like many immigrants, Wembi is now proud to call himself an American, but his experience in music and cultures from around the world makes him the perfect diplomat of muse and ambassador of genre.

Out of Africa

The musical history and development of Wembi as an artist is integral to understanding how his genre and style evolved to what it has become today. While Wembi was born in Europe, he spent much of his childhood in Africa - where his family origins are. Wembi, (Pronounced Wehm-BEE), is his birth name and he is named after his grandfather. Ironically, the African name Wembi means "The Singer." His grandfather, Shungu Wembi, was a Protestant Bishop and was the first native African to rise and hold position of Bishop in the Methodist Church. It was within this religious setting that Wembi first developed his vocal skills. Throughout most of his early life he participated in church choirs. This gave Wembi a good sense of harmonization and trained his vocal range from an early age.

Early on, however, he was exposed to a multitude of musical styles, and was surrounded by a close-knit family who had a great appreciation for music. Unbeknown to Wembi, this constant exposure to music was "secretly" training his ear, taunting his muses, and preparing him for to become what his birth name foretold - a singer.

Wembi's ear began to absorb artists from Africa such as Franco, Miriam Makeba and TP Ok Jazz, as well as Western European artists like The Beatles. It would be French singer/songwriter Jean-Jacques Goldman that would have a profound effect on Wembi. The works of Goldman refined Wembi's appreciation of melodies, harmony, and balancing lyrics into melody. Furthermore, Wembi's early travels around the world exposed him to the likes of Bob Marley and Kassav as well as Top 40 American Hits.

Footprints in the sand of "The New World"

Wembi would eventually arrive in America, and as we will see, literally leave his footprints in the sand on the shores of his new found home.

The culmination and development of Wembi as a musician would come in the late 1990s with the release of his first album, "Footprints in the Sand". This album showcased Wembi's unique blend of Soft Rock, Jazz, Worldbeat and New Age Music. Footprints in the Sand became popular quickly on sites such as iTunes, GarageBand.com, and Live365. Tracks such as "Open Your Eyes," "I Never Knew What Love Was," and "Then a Light Came Through" left listeners and fans feeling inspired and refreshed. Wembi's goal was to create an album to yield motivation for those to leave their own imprints in the sand of their life -just as Wembi had done in his. Wembi had now arrived as a musical artist and songwriter. With his first release Footprints in the Sand, he had left the first imprints of a new genre in the sand of the shores of a "New World."

Second Chances to Impress

It's within Wembi's latest project that one can experience the true evolution of New Indie World Music. Second Chances, released in early 2008, is an example of Wembi's talents coming to Fruition. Within this work Wembi displays his ability to capture elusive emotions and place them into lyrics and melody. While Second Chances still holds true to the inspirational "Wembi Message" that was within Footprints in the Sand, the new album takes his artistry to an even higher level. You never get a second chance to make a first impression; however, Wembi has no worries, for Second Chances is an impressive work. The album contains thirteen tracks that contain an uplifting and inspiring mood that Wembi fans have anxiously awaited. The album is likely a creative apex for Wembi and his New Indie World Sound. In Tracks such as "To Sassy, Lady Ella, Cab and Bobby McFerrin" Wembi pushes his own creative envelope with a scat Style tribute to Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald, Cab Calloway and Bobby McFerrin. Only Wembi could bring back Sc