Rock my Hammock

Love Is Real- Instrumental

2ème chanson sur le thème des nomades
Second song about nomadism. Here, tuareg!
Composition: Catherine et Serge .Guitare: Serge 
Merci

Blue Men

Download

(In The Evening) When The Sun Goes Down

En solo, Ablaye Cissoko nous fait un cadeau : le morceau Sira, joué live dans L'Afrique Enchantée!

ABLAYE CISSOKO avec "SIRA", en live dans l'Afrique Enchantée

Fall

Samba Touré - Ago Djamba. 
From the album ALBALA. Glitterbeat Records 2013

Samba Touré - Ago Djamba

This year I was a lot into Malian, Tuareg, Saharan music. I hope you enjoy these selections as much as I have enjoyed them.

Gambian - Sona Jobarteh = Mali Ni Ce

Ablaye Cissoko & Volker Goetze - Sira

As part of the Pan African Space Station program in 2009, Toumani Diabate appears live in concert for his first run of South African performances in Cape Town. The king of the kora offers an incredible solo set in the equally beautiful setting of St. Georges Catherdral. 

Recorded live at St. Georges Cathedral, Cape Town, RSA on the 2nd October 2009. 

Toumani Diabate - kora

www.toumani-diabate.com

Toumani Diabate - St. Georges Cathedral, Cape Town, 2nd October 2009

Toumani Diabate at Mt. Carmel College

Five Great Guitars - African Blues Tour
Live recording 2011

Special guest: Habib Koité
Zoumana Diarra: guitar, kora, balafon, n'goni
Mousse Pathe M'Baye: percussion
Dramane Diarra: percussion

Sound: Neil Denholm

Five Great Guitars - Wassiye

Divo. A small city in the Centre-Western region of the Ivory
Coast, the cradle of the roots of the Djiboi people. This is where
Manou Gallo was born on August 31st, 1972. Raised by her
grand-mother who was looking after her like her own daughter,
Manou was rather autonomous from early on: ‘At this time, I was
leaving like a little savage. I was helping cultivating the fields,
drawing water from the well. I wasn’t going to school, but my
grandmother taught me traditions, respect, and values’.
It is easy to imagine Manou, wearing tiny shorts as they were all
clothes she had, her big smiling eyes, her head full of lice,
climbing mango trees and running freely in the alley-ways of
Divo. While waiting for her friends after school, Manou was
already beating rhythms, banging on her legs, stomping with her
feet, marking the tempo with her voice: Rhythm was her
obsession: “When I was a little girl, I was already going from
backyard to backyard, these places where each family comes
together everyday to cook, sing, in one word to live together. I
was meeting my girlfriends and sooner or later we inevitably
started singing, dancing and beating on iron boxes”. In the Ivory
Coast, playing music is an ongoing tradition taking place at funerals, births, or to welcome
newly born twins as well as for any event of everyday life: In Divo, life follows the traditional
Djiboi rhythms. From a material point of view, life is just basic, but it is full of warmth and
people live there feeling good in their heads.

It is precisely during a funeral for which the appointed drum player never showed that Manou
first impressed an audience: Always dragging a stool behind her, she went towards these
big drums, the talking drums (‘Atombra’ in Dida, the language of the Djiboi people). She
climbed up to the height of the braced skin and started beating on them. Her mastery was
already amazing. In the heart of Bada, the village which represents the most ancient part of
Divo and where traditions have remained most alive, people were just amazed: ‘Everybody
was really astonished, and a bit shocked also since women are not allowed to touch these
drums. In some extent, they were taking me for a witch. My grandmother was supporting
me and on this occasion, she explained to me that this was a gift, transmitted to me trough a
dream her own mother had and who died the day I was born. When at the age of 8, I was
getting seated to play drums during this ceremony, I could feel the power of my ancestors on
my fingertips’.

Years went by and Manou grew up. Still living in Divo, she sold oranges and developed her
ability to master the rhythm on a daily basis: ‘My whole life was already written in Divo: It
seemed that there was no need for me to go off the tracks. However,…’. Each summer in
the Ivory Coast, meetings are organised during which participants from all over the country
get together. The objective is to create a sort of an artistic competition amongst the young:
This event is called Vacances-Culture (Cultural Holidays). In 1984, at the age of 12, Manou
took part in her first show. It was also the first time she left Divo. This theatrical
performance, which is now organised for other children coming from all around, is inspired by
Manou’s story. It describes the life of a little witch who receives the power to play drums.
The play is always a big success.

Each time Manou is on stage, the audience is amazed and admires
her. The Mayor of Divo regularly invites her when he receives
guests: “Play, Manou, play and give the best of yourself!”. And
Manou gives all she has from the bottom of her heart. At the time,
the son of the Mayor was managing a band called ‘Woya’ which was playing music from the
Ivory Coast. The musicians, originally from Abidjan, came to set up in Divo to show that one
can play music and also farm the land: ‘In 1985, I was invited to join ‘Woya’: I was the little
one who was opening the concert with the talking drums. During the rest of the show I would
just beat on a bell. This, however, is when I discovered modern instruments: The drums, the
bass, and the guitar along with the person who became my spiritual father and who played
a major role in my life. This person was Marcelin Yacé, musician and conductor of the band.’

Very soon, Woya became famous in the whole Western African region. From 1985 to 1989,
the band toured intensively in Burkina Faso, Mali, Togo and Bénin and recorded four CD’s.
In the meantime, Manou was acquiring experience. When the band Woya dissolved, Manou
followed Marcelin Yacé in Abidjan. He took her under his wing, and gave her her very first
bass and taught her how to record sounds in his studio for three years: ‘I was only thinking
about music. I only had one objective: To become a full-fledged musician and I was
investing all my energy in this’.
From 1993 to 1996, Marcelin sent her to hone her artistic skills in the pan-African village of
Ki-Yi-Mbock, where she joined a theatre troupe, learned dancing and took part in the
recording of a new CD produced by Ray Lema. In 1992, during the MASA event in Abdijan,
an international market presenting art creations from all over Africa, Manou met Michel De
Bock, tour manager and lighting engineer for Zap Mama. They met again several times in
the Ki-Yi village and got along very well.

Manou and Michel got along so well, that when Michel heard that Marie Daulne, leader of
Zap Mama was looking for a bassist for her band, he immediately thought of the young girl
from Ivory Coast and had her come to Belgium. Manou Gallo landed on January 3rd, 1997,
at 8 am in Zaventem airport with her bass and djembé. Well, she hadn’t yet won the game
since Marie Daulne had just returned from Indonesia and had views on another musician:
‘My arrival in Brussels was a real shock. A temperature shock as it was snowing. I was dead
cold at the rehearsals, sticking to my bass and as close to the heater as I could, but I knew it
was a unique opportunity that wouldn’t happen twice! I already knew the music of the band, I
had to give the best of myself and this is exactly what I did during the trials, which finally
lasted three days.’. Three days during which Manou played bass, drums and djembé. She
sang and danced to warm up and after these three days she won the bet: Marie and the
other members of the band welcomed her in Zap Mama. That year, with her first paycheck,
Manou offered herself a belated New Year’s present: a brand new bass guitar!

Based in Brussels, Manou appreciates the diversity of this mixed city,
but deep inside of her, she keeps a little melody in her head, straight from Divo: ‘When I go
back to my country, I rediscover the colours of the sounds and the rhythms which have
roared in my ears during my childhood’. This has certainly encouraged her to write her own
lyrics, mixing French, English and Dida languages to say things as they come, to rebel or to
keep Marcelin Yace’s beacon alive.
Her lyrics follow the music she grew up with, but she added to it the influences she has
acquired: ‘The music I wanted to create is a mix of all the steps of my life: my story and my
background have inspired me’. To shape her music, Manou goes over one more step in
2001: She starts her own band with musicians who are also friends. This is a bit like when, as a little girl, she was getting all her girlfriends together and
distributing roles during improvised concerts in the backyards of her
childhood city, and today, along with her band ‘The Djiboi’, Manou
intends to spread the music of Divo on radio waves and stages
worldwide.

In late 2002, Manou co-produced “DIDA”, her first CD, with Michel Seba, Bilou Doneux,
Patrick Dorcéan and Poney Gross from Zig Zag World. Recorded at the Dada Studio in
Brussels, with special guests such as Marie Daulne, Sabine Kabongo, Lene Christensen and DJ Grazzhopa,
“DIDA” received unanimous international critical acclaim.

The years 2003 and 2004 saw her projected onto the international scene with Manou Gallo
& Le Djiboi, giving notable showcases in some major music events such as : the WOMEX in
Seville (Spain) in October 2003, the MIDEM in Cannes (France) at the “Voices of the World”
evening, in January 2004, sharing the stage with guests like Mariza, Ilenes Barnes and
Stacey Kent, and the MERCAT DE MUSICA in Vic (Spain) in September 2004.

In these last years, Manou has given over 100 concerts in the greatest European festivals
such as : Dunya Festival in Rotterdam (Holland), the AfroPfingsten Festival in Winterthur
(Switzerland), the Africa Festival in Stockholm (Sweden), the Natt Jazz Festival (Norway),
the International Africa Festival in Wurzburg ( Germany), the Topicana World Festival in
Bregenz (Austria), the Festival Couleur Café in Brussels (Belgium), the Open Air Frauenfeld
(Switzerland), the Francofolies de Spa (Belgium), the Francofolies de Montréal (Canada), the
Nice Jazz Festival in Nice (France), the Sunsplash Festival (Austria), the Nancy Jazz
Pulsation (France), the Mundial Festival in Tilburg (Holland), the Dos Atlanticos Festival
(Portugal), the Kesse Festival in Taragona (Spain), the Dialecta Festival (Belgium)… and in
various clubs such as : the Szene in Vienna (Austria), the AB and the Botanique in Brussels
(Belgium), the Kemia Bar in London (UK), the China Club and La Cigale in Paris (France),
the Sala Toboo in Madrid and the Sala Tarantos in Barcelona (Spain), the Brotfabriek in
Frankfort, the Laboratorium in Stuttgart, the Malzhaus in Plauen, the Tafelhalle in Nürnberg,
the Langendreer in Bochum, the Tollhaus in Karlsruhe and the Welthaus in Bielefeld
(Germany), the Kulturfabriek in Kufstein and the Treibhaus in Ingolstadt (Austria)…

End 2004, Manou prepared a second “live” project which compliments the “Djiboi” project,
called the “MANOU GALLO EXPERIENCE”. It’s an explosive trio where she gives free rein
to her latest inspirations of a modern African woman of the diaspora. Contemporary and
cosmopolitan, her inspiration comes from her travels around the world and her life in Europe
but is still rooted in her origins, the people of “Djiboi” from Ivory Coast. Her unusual research
is inspired by African polyrythmics which she fuses with blues, funk, groove and rock. Manou
sings about Africa, Ivory Coast, its towns, its women, their pains and joys.

In 2008, she creates her new semi-acoustic band : the « women band ». She goes on tour all
around Europe and start to prepare the demos of her new CD « LOWLIN » (meaning travels)
that she records between Abidjan, Bruxelles, Copenhaguen and Budapest during the
summer 2009.
Among the travelers that boarded with them, came Kahdja Nin, Marie Daulne, Laïla
Amezian, Lene Christensen, Manu Hermia, Baï Kamara, Tanga Rema and many others…
« LOWLIN » is a real jewel of sensitivity, feminity and imagination ! A trip into the atypical
musical world of this exceptional musician.

In october 2009 , Manou Gallo was nominated by the MAMA Awards 2009 (MTV Africa) as
the “best performing artist of Ivory Coast 2009”.



Manou Gallo - Nanan

Dorygui-Ba

live recording into desk at the big joint 

Laura mays blue rays live Kissin in the Dark written by memphis minnie ft al price

Kanan Neni - Rokia Traore

I am not a musician but music plays a very important role in my creative life! I am an artist/designer and music is my companion and my muse in the long hours I spend working in my studio! 
I am immensely impressed and grateful for all the talented and inspiring musicians whose work graces this Cloud, and I will always re-post sounds that I love (and will listen to again) - knowing that others will enjoy them!
I feel slightly embarrassed and quite humbled when I receive such graceful messages of thanks from artists whose work I have re-posted - after-all, I am the one who is so inspired by the discovery of your brilliant music!!!
So thank YOU!!!
Jools :)
P.S. If you want to see where the music takes me there is a link to my Portfolio site on Behance below!!! 
NEW!! - Thanks for all the great feed-back on my work! I shall be re-launching with a website (shop & archive) ‘KULT-JE’ in the not too distant future! Meanwhile, examples of past and current work are featured on my Instagram (@joolselphick)
Since my heart op in Jan2021, I have had to deal with taking quite a lot of meds which have interrupted my design work - that and moving to Germany in 2020 - and back in 2021 (due to Covid my business plans stalled!) - SO, slowly getting it together…. hang tight!😊

I have an archive of my work to date on Instagram - @joolselphick

Manou Gallo - Nanan

wirralite

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sandwichtunes

-> Claus Maurice

Julie Elphick

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