Guillaume Mpacko

Guillaume was born and raised in Cameroon. His passion for the guitar goes back to his toddler years when he first heard one of uncle playing on a self-made guitar in a small Cameroonian village.He got his first real guitar lessons at age 13 from a gifted classmate in the dorms of “College Libermann” – the prestigious Jesuit secondary school in Douala. He furthered his musical education and guitar mastery with help from his tremendously talented older cousin Eugene Epee. Guillaume would follow him everywhere, learning all the secrets of the trade as fast as he could. By his junior year he was a widely recognized lead guitarist on the high school scene - “Guibary Solo” was the new talk of the town. However Dad did not approve of him neglecting his studies for music and/or soccer, since he was a highly gifted student also, one of those brainy “Libermanniens”.The “Baccalaureat Serie C” was followed by a move to the University in Yaoundé to study Mathematics. He kept a low music performance profile - a pledge he made to Dad - but he was soon called into action when Ashanti Tokoto a Cameroonian pop star of the late 70s and the 80s came to perform on campus. Guillaume’s unique melodic and soloing styles were in demand. The youngest on stage – often teased by Ashanti – he earned the loudest of applauses. The untimely death of his beloved Dad in 1981, just days before his graduation led him to immigrate to Ivory Coast to take a much needed teaching job. He would then only play the guitar to cope with his loss and despair. But the music kept growing in his soul. However Ivory Coast was very good to him in many other ways, allowing him to help provide for his Mom and his 11 younger siblings and also to earn a “Doctorat de 3eme cycle” in Mathematics and be offered a Teaching Assistantship to Rutgers in NJ, USA.At Rutgers he became the summer highlight with his band – 3 years in a row - performing African rooted music for the International Center. He got to play with Sipho Kunene, a celebrated New York based South African drummer – who has been featured several times with Hugh Masekela. In 1995, as a fresh Ph.D he took a 3 year position in the Math Dept at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. He left academia for the software Industry in 1998, finally settling at Microsoft in Redmond, after 5 years and several companies in the California bay area. The Seattle artistic scene has been a real blessing for Guillaume’s music and the idea of recording his first album grew out of a successful summer tour in 2004 - to BC in Canada, through Lake Chelan WA, then Portland OR and back to Seattle - as a guest guitarist with the band Maya Soleil. The defining melody for the tune "Bc Ferry" was actually born on a Ferry ride during the tour. He is now a regular with his own band Sol Afrique of the Sunday African music series at Hidmo Eritrean restaurant in Seattle. His debut album is available here: http://cdbaby.com/cd/gsmpacko