WOMAD

Ray Lema

From Congo Dem. Rep.

Is it because he was born in a train in Zaïre (or the Democratic Republic of Congo as it is called today) that Ray Lema has always had such an inclination for travel, for adventure, for the universal ? his had been an edifing path. The child who was later to probe deeply into traditional music of his country and to become musical director of the Zaïre National Ballet (in 1974) was introduced to music by the priests of a little seminary in Kinshasa. His musical infancy was nurced by the music of Bach, Mozart and Beethoven.Then came the time when young Ray took the urban music which provides the «atmosphere» in the nightclubs of Kinshasa, when he ran the gamut from rumbas to Beatles or Jimi Hendrix titles with the same zest. Although he was passionatly interested in the mysteries of sciences, Ray gave up studying chemistry at university and devoted himself to the alchemy of sound.In 1972, now a field musicologist and already in the grip of the perfectionism which would always be part of his character, he was exploiting the musical heritage of 250 different ethnic groups. Seven years later, the Rockfeller Foundation invited him to the USA, where he slaked his insatiable thirst for new experiences with different varieties of Afro-american music. Master of many instruments (keyboards, percussion, guitar, vocals), peerless in the comand of rythm, he also produces and does arrangements for other artists as well as music for movies and theater.Ray Lema has collaborated with artists from many different horizons : among them are Stewart Copeland (drummer of The Police), Jacques Higelin, Charlélie Couture, the jazz pianist Joachim Khün, The Ensemble Pirin from Bulgaria, the Tyour Gnaoua from Morrocco and the Sundsvall Chamber Orchestra from Sweden, for whom he composed «The Dream of the Gazelle