[dleufer]

So, after complaining that I haven't seen many videos of Thomas Gueï I decided to actually look for some. And, I found some, wahey!



[video]www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4mc6MIoTVk&fea ... PL&index=3[/video]
With Boka Camara and Harouna Dembele


From his group Giguywassa


Cool djembe kan

I could only find a biography in French so here is my rough as a cat's tongue translation:
He was born into a family of traditional muscians and dancers. At 7 years of age he joined one of the foremost schools of Art in the Ivory Cost, The EDEC. He became the main percussionist for the Compagnie des GUIRIVOIRES of Rose-Marie GUIRAUD and began to tour and teach danse the world over, including Japan and the US. He became drummer (and "marquer" of which one translation is cattle brander) for various groups including those of Georges MOMBOYE, Merlin NYAKAM, Serge DUPONT-TSAKAP. Today, he is the musical director of the group Sounan.
And as far as I know he teaches a weekly class in Paris.

[bubudi]

thanks for the videos and bio, dleufer.

the edec stands for the ecole de danse et d'echange culturel (school of dance and cultural exchange) and is located in abidjan. after receiving his certificate he taught percussion there as well as in international schools in abidjan such as the french school and the american school. he was invited to give courses in percussion and dance in europe, which is when he started touring the world with the guirivoires.

the term drummer-marker refers to a soloist who marks the dance steps. he did so with georges momboye's company and several other groups, before starting his own group, cie setho and sounan.

his early recordings were with legendary trad-pop musician meiway and reggae artist tiken jah fakoly. he then recorded with sounan, before releasing his debut solo album, guelassemou, this month (december 09).

born in 1975 in abobo to a family of musicians and traditional dancers, thomas played his first instrument, gloe, at the age of four years, accompanying his father, who was a traditional dancer. he learned the traditional rhythms of his ethnic group, the guere, and those of other ethnic groups in ivory coast and neighbouring countries. thomas has learned to play an assortment of percussion instruments: gloe, tamani, djembe, the dununba, bala, bolon, attoungblan, etc. his two favorite instruments are the tamani and djembe. in his native region, the djembe is played with 2, 3 or 4 small drums strapped to one djembe.

in 1999, thomas was an actor in the film bronx-barbes, directed by eliane de latour and cowrote the film's soundtrack.

in 2000, thomas was invited by the ecole nationale de musique et de danse, evry (enmd, the national school of music and dance in france) to run two courses and to present two world premieres. while staying in france, he worked with several companies in paris and provence, where there was a rich exchange of cultural styles.

http://www.myspace.com/thomasguei
http://www.myspace.com/sounan
http://www.myspace.com/compagniesetho

[bubudi]

some more videos:







[video]video.google.com.au/videoplay?docid=-5718836460040987611&ei=i501S9KDPZD-qAOj_eXdDg&q=thomas+guei&hl=en[/video]

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2jela_sounan_creation

http://www.strimoo.com/video/17172194/s ... ideos.html

[James]

Met him randomly on Saturday, really nice guy. Saw him perform a duet with a dancer, that was really impressively theatrical, minimalistic and impresive...

I want to see more of Thomas!!