Africa Oyé reveal full line up

The Rasites (UK) / Brinsley Forde (UK/Jamaica) / Yaaba Funk (Ghana/UK) / The Endless Journey (Niger) / Dele Sosimi Afrobeat Orchestra (Nigeria/UK) / Samba Mapangala & Orchestra Virunga (Democratic Republic of Congo) / Jaliba Kuyateh (The Gambia) / Diabel Cissokho (Senegal)

Funded by Arts Council of England
and Liverpool City council

LISTEN TO AFRICA

Sefton Park, Liverpool

Saturday 23^rd and Sunday 24^th June 2012 / 12:30pm - 9:30pm both days

Admission: FREE / http://africaoye.com/

In 2012 Africa Oyé are marking 20 years of bringing the best in African music and culture to the UK.

Starting out as a series of small gigs in Liverpool's city centre in 1992, Africa Oyé has gone from strength-to-strength, and has evolved into the foremost celebration of African and Caribbean music and culture in the UK.

Over the past 20 years Africa Oyé has brought some of the biggest names in music from Africa, the Caribbean and South America to Liverpool, including Tinariwen, Peter Tosh, Femi Kuti, and of course, last year’s headliner, 'Queen of Reggae' Marcia Griffiths.

Full Line Up Now Confirmed For 2012:

The Rasites (UK)

In 2001 the Rasites Band lit up the roots market with their debut album, Urban Regeneration - a record that inspired comparisons with the early greats of the business.  UK reggae hadn't witnessed the emergence of a young band of musicians intent on writing and playing their own material, since Aswad and Steel Pulse first blazed their international roots trail a generation ago.  Since their emergence The Rasites they have recorded hits with Jamaican Superstar Luciano. After playing at 2004 Rbel Salute in Jamaica, they stayed on the island to record tracks with master Saxaphonist/Producer Dean Fraser and Bobby Digital.

Brinsley Forde (UK/Jamaica)

Best known as front man to seminal reggae band Aswad, Forde now takes to the Oye stage to deliver a charismatic set of Roots reggae.  His phenomenal stage presence and crowd pleasing vocal earned Forde a number of live collaborations with Dizzee Rascal, collaborations which blew audiences away on the likes of Jools Holland and at the Electric Proms.

Yaaba Funk (Ghana/UK)

The band was born in Brixton in 2006. The core members of Yaaba Funk met on the south London African scene in the late 1990s when, as well as studying African music, many wild nights were spent jamming together at house parties, drumming, dancing and djing 'til dawn. The name Yaaba Funk comes from an album called Yaba Funk Roots, the only album ever released outside of Africa by Captain Yaba, a musician from northern Ghana and exponent of the 2-string ‘guitar’ called the koliko.

The band has gigged extensively around London and the UK, building up a loyal fan base with their exuberant live shows, and have also performed in Europe and Africa. A floor-filling extravaganza combining the tightest rhythm section this side of Accra, fat analogue bass lines, blazing horns, sparkling African and gritty rock guitars. YF are considered to be one of the best live acts on the circuit.

The Endless Journey (Niger)

Touareg singer, guitarist and songwriter Alhousseini Anivolla and Wodaabe singer Bammo Agonla have toured Europe, Canada, America and Australia with the internationally acclaimed group Etran Finatawa. Mamane Barka is a charismatic musician and ethnomusicologist who is widely known in Niger as a virtuoso ugurumi player. Internationally, he is best known as the last master of the Biram, a sacred instrument of the Boudouma people that he learnt in order to save it from obscurity. Oumarou Adamou, the son of a Hausa Griot, is a famed percussionist and lifelong friend of Barka. Together, their swirling strings, driving rhythms and haunting vocals evoke the vast open spaces of the desert and the very soul of nomadic life.

Dele Sosimi Afrobeat Orchestra (Nigeria/UK)

Dele began his career when he joined Fela Kuti's Egypt 80. He then created the Positive Force band with Femi Kuti, with whom he performed from 1986 to 1994. In both bands he was keyboard player, also musical director taking care of re-orchestrating and arranging music as well as handling the recruiting and training of new musicians. Based on Afrobeat, Dele's music is a blend of complex funk grooves, Nigerian traditional music (including hi-life), African percussion, underpinning the jazz horns and solos from other instruments, as well as rhythmical singing. With a 15 strong line up featuring a brass section and some amazing dancers, this is one live show not to be missed!

Samba Mapangala and Orchestra Virunga (Democratic Republic of Congo)

Samba Mapangala was born in Matadi in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo. He spent the early 70s with various bands in Kinshasa, before moving to Uganda in 1975 where he and some other Congolese musicians formed the Les Kinois band. They moved to Nairobi in 1977. He formed a new band, the Orchestra Virunga, in 1981. The band is named after Virunga volcano located in Congo.

Orchestra Virunga released their first album, It's Disco Time with Samba Mapangala in 1982. In early 90s the group gained some international popularity through album releases like "Virunga Volcano" and "Feet on Fire."

He has continued to record, and is still one of the leading musicians in East Africa. He is now based in the United States.

Jaliba Kuyateh (The Gambia)

Modernising the exquisite Kora music of Gambia into what he calls ‘Kora Pop’, Jaliba Kuyateh - together with his band - unite current and ancient Gambian sounds into an electric and uplifting live show.  Kyuateh began playing the 21-stringed instrument at the age of five and is now among the most dynamic of its players.

Diabel Cissokho (Senegal)

Part of a great line of Cassikho griots, Diabel Cissokho’s virtuosic talent, his resonant voice and rocking kora style, have been welcomed everywhere from WOMAD and Glastonbury to London’s Barbican, where he performed alongside Femi Kuti, Cheikh Lo and Manu Dibango.  Diabel’s success with bluesman Ramon Goose cemented his reputation as a versatile musician, able to effortlessly cross cultures. Their album Mansana Blues was lauded as “a flavoursome mix of slide guitar, mellow kora and undulating Mandinka rhythms” (fRoots) which “delivers moments of steamy pleasure” (Songlines).

Article posted by Musicmafia