Mau Mau (band)
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For other possible meanings, see Mau Mau (disambiguation).
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| Mau Mau | ||
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| Image:Mau Mau.jpg |
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| Background information | ||
| Origin | Italy | |
| Genre(s) | folk / world music | |
| Years active | 1991 - Now | |
| Label(s) | EMI | |
| Website | maumau.it | |
| Members | ||
| Luca Morino Fabio Barovero Bienvenu Tatè Nsongan |
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Mau Mau is an important Italian band in the ambient of the world music that was born in Turin in 1991.
Contents |
[edit] Biography
The band was formed in 1991 on the initiative of Luca Morino, Fabio Barovero and, from Cameroon, Bienvenu Tatè Nsongan. The musical project is a link of the African and South American rhythms. The name is based on the Kenyan movement against British colonial administration. But Mau Mau in the Piedmontese indicates those people who come from far, often with cheap difficulties.
In 1992 they publish their first discographer work in Piedmontese: the EP Soma la macia (We are the scrub). Peter Gabriel notices them and he invites the band to his Real World Studios to prepare the first album: Sauta Rabel (Let's Jump, Let's Make Such a Row). After the album, a tour begin and the band frequents important festivals. The band plays to the "Palestine International Dance & Music Festival" and to the "International Festival of Babylon", in Iraq.
In 1994 Mau Mau return to the Real World Studios to prepare the second album Bàss paradis (Short Paradise) dedicated to all the far people and the tragedy of the colonizations. The album was published in a lot of European country and in Japan, too. It follows a tour with more that 100 performances.
1996 is the year of Viva Mamanera, the principal album of the band registered in Los Angeles, Paris and Turin, with the collaboration of Eric Sarafin. The sound of the band is more electronic as regards the precedents and the opera was a good success in Italy and in France (a little track is registered in the Metro of Paris!).
In the summer of 1996 the band open the show of Paolo Conte to the Nyon's Paleo Festival with over seventy thousand people.
Then Luca, Fabio and Tatè go on a journey in Morocco to study the Arabian culture. During this time they cooperate with a lot of artists of differents background, in a real link beetween West and East Worlds.
The target of this work is Eldorado, the wonderful ethno opera of the band, published in 1998. In this album there is the collaboration of the "Meninos do Pelo" (the street urchins of Salvador de Bahia). To promote the album start a tour with an important performance at the "Feira das Mentiras", the happening of Manu Chao in Santiago de Compostela (Galicia).
At the end of the tour, the band organizes "PiemontAfrique Festival" in Turin to promote the Africans culture.
In 2000, EMI releases Safari Beach the fifth album of the band, with the collaboration of Sargento Garcia. The album has not a good succes, but Mau Mau are ready for the first live album: Marasma General is released in 2001 with the prestigious collboration of Inti Illimani for the song Eldorado.
After this album, the band braks up its work.
Luca Morino writes articles for the newspaper La Stampa and he try a soloist experience with the album Mistic Turistic/Moleskine Ballads.
Fabio Barovero founds the folk band Banda Ionica and he writes soundtracks for movies like Davide Ferrario's Dopo Mezzanotte (After Midnight) and Alessandro d'Alatri's La Febbre.
Mau Mau returned later in 2006 with the album Dea and its Brazilian relish in the Piedmontese tradition. The album has the collaboration of Sud Sound System. The tour in the same year has an important performance in the inauguration day for "Turin Rome - World Book Capital", organizes from Subsonica. In this show the band plays a version of its song Campeador de Vigna that weaves together the thread of the Miguel Cervantes's Don Quixote. Another important event was when the band organizes the inauguration day of "Terra Madre" in Turin.
[edit] Members
- Luca Morino - voice, guitar
- Fabio Barovero - accordion, keyboard
- Bienvenu Tatè Nsongan - percussion, voice
[edit] Other members
- Josh Sanfelici - bass guitar
- Paolo Gep Cucco - Drums
- Amik Guerra - trumpet
[edit] Discography
[edit] Studio albums
[edit] Compilations and lives
[edit] EPs
[edit] Singles
- 1994 "Adorè"
- 1996 "La Ola"
- 1998 "Eldorado"
- 1998 "Per Amor"
- 2000 "Due Cuori"
- 2006 "Dea"
- 2006 "Qualcuno verrà da te"
