WOMAD

Badenya les Frères Coulibaly

From Burkina Faso

Biography supplied by artist management, May 2003:Badenya les Frères CoulibalyFamily of Griots from Burkina Faso(8 artists)"They Inherited the tradition. I support them because they understand that in the present time, both roots and open-mindedness are needed. Extremely powerful, the songs of this griots family testify the roots of West-African musical culture. " Baaba Maal – 2000 « The frighteningly gifted multi-instrumentalist Coulibaly Brothers are the tightest African acoustic group I have ever heard. Turning song into drum into speech they manipulate some of the most complex rhythmic arrangements with a clarity and single-minded directness that is astonishing. This is contemporary music in the highest possible calibre”. Richard Scott – Wire magazine 1993.Born in Nouna, located in the north-west part of Burkina Faso, Badenya les Frères Coulibaly belong to a family of griots and are members of the Bwa ethnic group.Griots implies for them the duty to perpetuate the musical heritage of their clan. The griots today have an ever increasing responsibility which the Coulibalys assume with brilliance: they are not only the guardians of the memory and lessons of the past, but as well the witnesses and the actors of a society undergoing changes. Their role forces them to follow the course, even to anticipate hopes, and to channel the possible outburst of this transformation.Badenya les Frères Coulibaly's music is the music of today, a live music of deep Africa, which draws from the roots the substance of its revival.Originaly composed by the twins Lassina and Ousséni and known as “les Frères Coulibaly”, the group counts now 8 members of the Coulibaly family and are called “Badenya les Frères Coulibaly”.Lassina and Ousséni traveled for the first time to Europe in 1989. Invited by the "Atelier of ethnomusicology" in Geneva to teach African percussion and dance. From there, they traveled to Switzerland, Germany, Netherlands and the UK. The public was instantly conquered by their natural ease, their radiation, which emanated from these young musicians freshly arrived from Burkina Faso. Their togetherness seemed perfect an inalterable, no disagreement seemed possible between them.The high symbolic value allotted by Bwaba to the twins, had a prestige reflects on them from their childhood. After this first tour, they return to Bobo-Dioulasso and the year after, the twins come back with their elder brother, Souleymane, called Solo, who had initiated them to music.Invited at the Montreux Jazz Festival they perform under the artistic direction of Quincy Jones for an evening with Miles Davis. In reaction to this success, Claude Nobs and Quincy Jones invites the trio for 2 additional nights and they got to play with Georges Clinton, Georges Benson, Al Jarreau, Toots Thielmans, the rappers Kool Moe Dee, Mel Mellow and many others.In 1991-1992, the W.H.O. (World Health Organization) asked Lassina & Ousséni, and Solo to compose a song in French, dedicated for the opening ceremony of the "World Day of AIDS".“Les Frères Coulibaly” play for la Fondation Sacem in Paris for the "Night of percussion" with Michel Portal, Daniel Humair, Mino Cinélu et David Friedmann. Their concert was welcomed with warmth and admiration and was a remarkable start onto the Parisian scene.In 1993, Solo, Lassina and Ousséni release their first album "Anka-Dia”. They flew to Tunisia to teach percussion and the next year, flew to Spain, (Barcelona and Madrid) to be part of an African festival with Salif Keita, Cesaria Evora, Khaled and Johnny Clegg. Then “les Frères Coulibaly” were invited by Baaba Maal in Senegal for his tenth anniversary in the music world. There they met Peter Gabriel and shared several exceptional performances with Youssou N'Dour.1997- 1999: On tour and preparing their next album they are invited to perform for a series of concerts “Tribute to Rhythm” with the greatest "tabla" player, Zakir Hussain and the former Japanese Kodo drummer, Leonard Eto.2000-2001: Release of the second album "SENIWE" (solidarity) with the entire family. The promotional tour for the album will brought them to America, Israël, Malaysia, Germany and Austria. The next year they flew everywhere in Europe and in June, Carlos SANTANA invited the band to perform with him at the Letzigrund stadium in Zürich.In November 2002, Ousséni Coulibaly passed away in Geneva, after a long disease. His great loss leaves the band so empty and particularly his twin brother, Lassina. Deeply saddened, they went back to Burkina Faso, bringing with them their deceased brother, to burry him in his home land.In Africa, Badenya resources themselves and gains their strength again. They will need it because the year after will bring them to Sweden, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Singapore, South Africa and Europe. Meanwhile, they are working on their next album, which will be dedicated to their beloved bother, Ousséni.From now on, their music will be a testament that Ousséni’s life had value and meaning. He was too young.Their musical language belongs to the present, they enact a dialogue between their African heritage and the other cultures of the world, a dialogue made possible by their ability to listen to the pulse of life. They carry hope for the future.Biography July 2001 by Nige Tassell:Badenya Les Frères CoulibalyWhen compared with neighbouring Mali, the landlocked West African country of Burkina Faso can't exactly claim a high-profile musical legacy. Quiz even the most knowledgeable African music fan about the country's musical movers and shakers and they're likely to only respond with the name of WOMAD favourites Farafina. The seven-piece percussion and dance ensemble Badenya Les Frères Coulibaly, a family of griots from the north-west of the country, are on a mission to overturn this ignorance, unerringly eager to take the rhythms of their motherland onto the world's stages. Back in 1991, they supported Miles Davis at the Montreux Jazz Festival where their collaboration with Bahia Percussions left festival-goers spellbound - this Brazilian theme was to be continued with a subsequent European tour under the theme of 'Brazil Back To Africa'. The group can claim several high-profile admirers - a suitably impressed Baaba Maal once invited them to play in Senegal where they enthralled Peter Gabriel and performed several times with Youssou N'Dour. They've also since collaborated with that master of the tabla, Zakir Hussain. Despite this outernational inquisitiveness, the group's Sunday performance at Rivermead (which marks their WOMAD debut) will be a collaborator-free zone, allowing the family to present a set of deep rhythms to draw you straight to the heart of Africa. Dynamite stuff.Biography by Nige Tassell, July 2001