Cheick Tidiane Seck

La star malienne définit la musique tel un arbre: les racines représentent la musique africaine, le tronc c'est le jazz, les branches et les fruits sont le rock, le funk, le reggae et autres musiques. Son compatriote Cheick Tidiane Seck est sans doute la synthèse et l'illustration parfaite de cette métaphore. Multi-instrumentiste, compositeur, arrangeur et directeur musical, Cheick Tidiane Seck est surtout connu pour ses talents de claviériste. Tout au long de sa carrière, il a accompagné des artistes aussi variés que Jimmy Cliff, Fela, Joe Zawinul, Carlos Santana ou Hank Jones. Un grand musicien, dont le savoir-faire s'est exercé dans l'ombre, loin des feux de la rampe world music. Seck est un insoumis; il refuse d'enfermer la musique africaine dans un ghetto, d'en faire une "tiers musique".

Il sort aujourd'hui, à 50 ans, son premier album "MandinGroove" fruit d'un travail de quatre années, enregistré à Paris, New York et Los Angeles. Un opus d'une richesse inouïe, nourri des multiples influences de ses rencontres musicales, "le terrain de toute une vie de musique". Partant des rythmes mandingues traditionnels, Cheick Tidiane Seck ouvre ses mélodies aux sonorités électroniques, flirte avec le rap, le hip hop et les mélopées orientales. Sa voix puissante porte des textes où la conscience de l'autre est sans cesse mise en avant. "MandinGroove" est un album unique, généreux et foisonnant. Mais attention, il ne délivre pas ses charmes à la première écoute. A consommer donc sans modération pour en goûter toute la saveur.

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Cheick-Tidiane Seck, keyboardist, composer, and performer of popular and traditional Malian music, is one of the most prolific, experienced, and perhaps even under-appreciated popular and traditional musicians from the Manding-speaking region of West Africa. He possesses a rich and undeniably interesting history, filled with a diverse range of musical encounters with such artists as Salif Keita, Mory Kante, Fela Kuti, Youssou N'Dour, Hank Jones, Carlos Santana, Joe Zawinul, and a host of others. As keyboardist, composer, bandleader, singer, arranger, modern and traditional musician, Seck presents a telling portrayal of the varied and complex nature of the musician in West Africa, one that often features the mixing of cultures and regions, contemporary and "traditional," and global and local.

Seck's childhood was spent learning the local traditions of his Manding cultural heritage, but like many West African musicians, he looked toward Western popular music for a new, complementary source of inspiration. During the early 1970s, Seck played with the hugely successful Rail Band du Buffet Hotel de la Gare in Bamako, Mali, with Mory Kante and Salif Keita.

During the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s, Seck continued to play with Keita, both in the famed Les Ambassadeurs, but also on various solo projects of Keita's, such as the hugely successful and influential album "Soro. The 1980s and 1990s have witnessed continued success and activity for Seck, both in his extensive worldwide recording and touring, as well as his collaboration with jazz pianist Hank Jones on the respected album "Sarala" in 1995.

From January to March 2000, Seck has been invited by the University of California- Los Angeles to teach “African music meets Jazz”.