Born on December 6 in the city of Rotterdam (Netherlands) José Miguel Azancoth's parents both natives of the islands of Cape Verde off the West coast of Africa immigrated to France in the 70's, that is where José will spend most of his teen years. Issue of a very musical family José was fascinated by music at a very young age.
Jose's musical taste has always been very divers, but he has always had a great passion for tropical music. José was especially inspired by a Cape verdean band called "Cabo Verde Show" or a West Idian band named Kassav also Fascinated by a traditional style of music from Cape verde called "funana", José spent most of his time listening to his father's LP's of the legendary group from the islands named Bulimundo .José's early fascination with music led him to pick up a microphone at a very young age and started out singing cover songs from various artists performing in little events in his little town in France, But it wasn't until José moved to the United States in 1988 for his studies that music became a big part of his life. When he arrived in the U.S. José was now one of many "José's" in school, and he soon got the nick name "French José" to set him apart from the others, the name has stuck with him to this day. In the U.S. José started out singing with many different bands that invited him as a featuring artist. In those days José was best known for singing in French, and for singing reggae tunes as he also always been a big roots fan. At the age of 16 he caught the eye of a band called "Arpasound" who went on to invite him to become one of their lead singers. José sang zouk and reggae in what was to be José's first band. Arpasound played in clubs, bars and weddings and after a few years José decided it was time to take a different direction. So in 1991 José formed his own band along with singer composer Philip Monteiro and some other members they named themselves "La Tour". This turned out to be a big turning point in José's musical career as La Tour became one of the most famous Cape Verdean bands to ever come out of the United States.
Yet it wasn't until 1993 that José first stepped into the vocal booth to lay his voice down on a track; till then José had only sung live. This was when Cape Verdean singer and drummer, Grace Evora, invited him to participate in recording his first solo album. The result of this successful collaboration became one of Grace's classics "Perde tempo" as well as their famous duet, "Goza bo vida". In 1994 the band finally decided it was time for them to enter the studio, their first album was released in 1995 under the name "Critica" which quickly climbed the charts with songs like "Fabienne" becoming the band and José's first hit singles. Right than the band took an enormous turn selling out venues for every concerts. After enjoying mighty success, circumstance led La Tour to split up this was in 1997 leaving the fans sad and confused. Jose will than spend the next few years participating in different music projects helping out other bands and producing up and coming artists. After having spent some time behind the scenes José finally accepted an invitation to join one of the biggest Cape Verdean bands of the moment, "Splash", in 2001. The band resides in the Netherlands which meant a big step to take as José already had his life in the United Sates. José decided to grab the opportunity and finally left the United States to become one of Splash's lead singers. Right after the release of the recorded album "Contradicao" Splash began their world tour and José discovered a much bigger scene outside the United States. José has performed worldwide in Angola, Mozambique, Cape verde, Senegal, Portugal, France and the Netherlands just to name a few countries. After 5 years with Splash José decided it was time to take destiny into his own hands and took a chance as a solo artist. With all the experience he has gained over the years the time was right to get into the studio and finally get his first long awaited solo album out on the market. After a long journey his project is finally released on July 2008.
WASS GUD WORLD IM R.D. I JUSS CAME TO BLESSHA PAGE UP AND TELL YA THAT I MADE DA REMIX OF I CAN TRANSFORM YA. TELL ME WHATCHU THNIK ABT IT YH. BLESS UP.
Dino Santos < support artist of Kassav.., the 13th of november at Rockhal/Luxemburg !
BL < support band of Césaria Evora, the 14th of november < same place !! On stage : Grace Evora, Johnny Fonseca, Danilo Tavares, Claude Burg, Lily Spencer, Dino Santos and BL !!
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