🥁🎷🎺🎸🎤🇸🇳🌴 In Montpellier in the mid-80s, the Mbaye brothers scoured the local music scene and put together Kunta Kinté, a group that quickly became a benchmark for world music made in Languedoc. I’ve already had occasion to say how fertile this local soil was. As a student myself, I also played in a local band, with the help of my first Cameroonian bass player, Bénilde Foko. Fortunately, and for the good of humanity, all the tapes of this adventure have been destroyed (not the memories!). But Bénilde was already a true professional, and the bassist for Kunta Kinté, where he shared the rhythm section with another friend of the time, the indisputable Séga Seck. Forty years on, these two are still playing, and it’s always a pleasure to meet up again. The group led by Badara, Amadou and Meissa Mbaye set the stages alight with a blend of afro-pop, mbalax and reggae, in the vein of Touré Kunda or Youssou N’dour, for example. Kunta Kinté recorded a few albums, including Occitan’ Africa, released in 1998, with Cheikh Tidiane Fall, Jean-Philippe Rykiel, Dondieu Divin and, on brass, a certain Franck Nicolas, who had since moved to Montpellier. Nostalgic, but positive!
[Edit] It is with great sadness that we learn today, 28 September 2024, of the death of Amadou Mbaye. He was a great figure in Montpellier’s afro-jazz fusion scene, and these are warm memories of concerts… RIP and condolences to his family and friends.
