Wally Badarou

_ Born in Paris, France, on March 22nd, 1955 from Daouda and Emily Badarou, both from Benin (former french colony in West Africa initially known as ‘Dahomey’), then both students in medecine._ 1962: Stays in Benin for about ten years, listening to a wide range of sounds and moods through the radio: from ‘ethnic’ music to french singers, from Otis Redding, James Brown, Johnny Pacheco, Jimi Hendrix, Joao Gilberto, Dr Rochereau, to Jimmy Cliff. Acquaintance with classical music via his father’s records of Beethoven, Tchaïkovsky, Haendel et Smetana. No real musical vocation as yet, but rather attracted by aeronautics and technology._ 1971: back to France to continue regular scolarship. Birth of a musical spell via amateur bands. Influences range from afro-beat (Osibisa, Santana) to fusion-jazz (Herbie Hanckok, Weather Report)._ 1972: First acoustic piano, and an ‘imaginary’ teacher in song, arrangement, production and piano skills: Stevie Wonder and his "Talking Book / Innervision" albums._ 1977: One year of national service in the french army._ 1978: Hesitates about resuming his law studies, but makes his mind about a definite musical career. First recording contract at Disques Barclay and the discovering of the recording studio. The forging of a solid reputation as keyboard session player, involved in most popular french singers records as well as local afro & west-indies projects. Release of first song album: “Back to scales tonight” (Barclay). Encounters with Myriam Makeba, Manu Dibango, Daniel Vangarde (Gibson Brothers’ “Cuba” ) and Robin Scott (M’s "Pop Musik")._ 1980: Chris Blackwell (Island Records) gets him to join Barry Reynolds (Marianne Faithfull’s guitar player and co-writer) and Sly Dunbar & Robbie Shakespeare for a Grace Jones album. Two albums recorded in one go: “Warm Leatherette” and “Nightclubbing”. Meets Jean-Paul Goude, G. Jones friend then. _ "Compass Point All Stars" era, (named after Blackwell studios in Nassau, Bahamas), with the same Dunbar, Shakespeare & Reynolds co-teamers for projects with Joe Cocker, Junior Tucker, Jimmy Cliff, Gwen Guthrie, James Brown ... etc. Based in Nassau._ Parallel to this, Phil Gould, "M" drummer, gets him involved in a fusion-jazz project with Mark King, Mike Lindup and Boon Gould: birth of brit fusion-pop band "Level 42"._ 1982: recording contract with Island Records, and scoring "Countryman", a jamaican movie produced by Chris Blackwell._ January 1983, release of his first Island Records album: "Echoes", with hits like ‘Chief Inspector’, ‘Hi-Life’, and ‘Mambo’ which Massive Attack made a remix of (‘Daydreaming’) on their "Blue Lines" album ._ 1983-1987: 4 years of musical crafting and stylistic maturation while carrying on working with international stars: Marianne Faithfull, Talking Heads, Tom-Tom Club, Gregory Isaacs, Black Uhuru, Foreigner, Manu Dibango, Mick Jagger, Power Station, Robert Palmer; additional score for oscar-winning "Kiss of the Spider Woman" (William Hurt, best actor); production (Level 42’s "World Machine" in 1985, “Running in the Family” in 1987 and “Staring at the Sun” in 1988, Fela’s "Teacher don't teach me nonsense" in 1986). Release in 1988 of his second solo effort , classically oriented "Words of a Mountain" (Island). _ 1989: musical direction and composing for the french Bastille Day bicentennial parade on the parisian Champs-Elysées, produced by Jean-Paul Goude on July the 14th. _ 1990: production Level 42’s “Guaranteed” album._ 1991: film score for “The Lunatic”, and works for “New Jack City” upon Quincy Jones recomendation. Moving of his private bahamian studio back to Normandy, France. _ 1993: production of Level 42’s “Forever Now” album. _ 1994: keyboard sessions on PowerStation’s second album._ 1995: production of Salif Keita’s “Folon” album._ 1996: production of Carlinhos Brown’s “Alpha Gama Betizado” album._ 1997: score of Cannes Festival nominated movie “Kini & Adams” of Idrissa Ouedraogo, and writing and production of “WakeUp/So why” for the I.C.R.C., involving african stars such as Youssou N’Dour, Lucky Dube, Papa Wemba, Lourdes van-Dunem, Jabulani and Lagbaja. Music Movie score of “DanceHall Queen” produced by Chris Blackwell. Organizing the jury rules for the yearly Kora All African Music Awards, Sun City, South-Africa._ 1998: production of Wasis Diop “Toxu”, and “Zam-Zam” of Yannick Noah & friends albums._ 1999: movie score of “Third World Cop” produced by Chris Blackwell._ 2000: movie score of John Berry’s “Boesman & Lena” featuring Danny Glover & Angela Basset._ 2001: production & co-writing of Trilok Gurtu’s “The Beat Of Love” album. Production of Corsica’s I Muvrini “Umani” album, and release of "Colors Of Silence", a teaser of the forthcomming solo projects._ Time is now shared between multi-directional musical activities, and an ever-growing interest in film making, in every domain, acting included.