Wally Badarou
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Wally Badarou (b. 22 March 1955 in Paris) is a musician from Benin.
A synthesizer specialist, Badarou is best known as the longtime associate of the British band Level 42, known for its blend of funk, pop, soul and rock. He has co-written, performed on and (later) co-produced a number of the band's tracks since its debut album in 1981. Though not an official member of L42, he's long been considered an informal "fifth member" of what has otherwise usually been a quartet led by star bassist Mark King.
A friend of Chris Blackwell (Island Records founder), Badarou also worked on albums by Joe Cocker, Mick Jagger, Grace Jones, Robert Palmer, Marianne Faithfull, Herbie Hancock, Robin Scott "M" (Pop Muzik), Talking Heads, Foreigner, Power Station, Melissa Etheridge, Sly and Robbie, Black Uhuru, Jimmy Cliff, Lizzy Mercier Descloux, Gregory Isaacs, Manu Dibango, Miriam Makeba, produced albums of Fela, Salif Keita, Wasis Diop, Trilok Gurtu, Carlinhos Brown, and wrote movie soundtracks (part of Hector Babenco Kiss of the Spider Woman most notably).
In 1989, he acted as musical director and composer for Jean-Paul Goude memorable show on the French Revolution Bicentennial.
In 1991, Massive Attack Daydreaming (from the "Blue Lines" album) was largely sampled from Mambo ("Echoes" album, 1984).
In 1997, he helped setting up the All African Music Kora Awards, and produced & co-wrote "So Why" for the ICRC, along with Youssou N'Dour and Papa Wemba, a call against ethnic cleansing in Africa.
The current decade is one of getting confronted with the challenge of stage acting. A demanding passion he seems willing to devote his time to, along with an array of other demanding ones, such as aviation, cinema, science-fiction and philosophy.
[edit] Discography
- 1982 Back to scales tonight
- 1984 Echoes
- 1989 Words of a mountain
- 1997 So Why
- 2001 Colors of silence : Musical poetry for yoga
[edit] Links
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