Jo Black Sekou

Jo Black Sekou from the Ivory Coast and his first album “I’m So Glad” has a total of eight tracks on it. Jo Black has his own unique style: Bolomba Stylee which means big country style from the roots of Africa. All original music is written by Jo. He sings in French, English, and Manding. He is currently working on his second album with DreamSound. All of his music will be available soon online.

To view and listen to his music on myspace.com, go to: http://www.myspace.com/joblacksekou

Bodoma (Puntagunchey Yankunu)

Bodoma is known as one of the best vocalist and drum players in his native country of Honduras. He now resides in the United States and is promoting his new CD “Garifuna Emu Niumeila.” Bodoma’s musical talent is very broad and his rhythm is full of enchantment, which for him is very important in promoting his music and his culture.

Burkina Electric

Burkina Electric is the first electronica band from Burkina Faso, in the deep interior of West Africa. With its main base in the music scene of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso’s capital, it is at the same time, an international band, with members living in New York, USA and Dusseldorf, Germany, as well as in Ouaga. In Burkina Electric’s music, the traditions and rhythms of Burkina Faso meet and mingle with contemporary electronic dance culture, making it a trailblazer in electronic world music. Before starting Burkina Electric in 2004, band members Mai Lingani, Wende K. Blass, Pyrolator, and Lukas Ligeti had become close friends as members of Beta Foly, a group that emerged from a workshop led by Lukas and Pyrolator in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, which among other experiments, created some of the earliest fusions of techno/trip-hop with African traditional music.

Much electronic dance music, even in Africa, still seems to employ the same rock and funk rhythms that have been used in Western pop for the past 50 years. Burkina Electric challenges this convention and seeks to enrich the fabric of this music by using different rhythms, equally danceable but rarely heard. Many of the songs are built upon ancient rhythms of the Sahel such as the Mossi peoples’ Waraba and Ouennenga, little-known even in Africa outside of Burkina. The dancers, whose choreographies meld elements of the traditional and the modern, invite you to discover that these exotic rhythms groove at least as powerfully as disco, house, or drum and bass!

Award-winning singer Mai Lingani, a star in Burkina Faso because of her unique voice and charismati stage presence, sings in Moré, Dioula, Bissa, and French. Wende K. Blass, one of Burkina’s premier guitarists, contributes soulful guitar melodies. Electronicist/VJ Pyrolator has been one of Germany’s most inventive pop musicians and a top producer ever since the days of the “Neue Deutsche Welle” some 25 years as a founding member of bands D.A.F. and Der Plan, while New York-based drummer/electronicist Lukas Ligeti is one of the most up-and-coming concert music composers internationally and has received commissions from groups such as the Kronos Quartet and the Bang on a Can All Stars.

Burkina Electric was formed for a tour in Austria in 2004. In May 2006, the group performed at the Festival Jazz a Ouaga in Burkina Faso and released its debut album, “Paspanga,” in Burkina Faso. Two video clips, produced for Burkinabe TV, are now receiving heavy play in Furkina Faso and surrounding countries.

With the upcoming international release of “Paspanga” and a tour of the United States scheduled for fall 2007, Burkina Electric is now poised to emerge on the world stage with a storm. Check them out on myspace.com at:http://www.myspace.com/burkinaelectric