Antonio Carella (guitar)
Nathaniel Braddock (guitar)
Peter Murray (bass guitar)
Marques Carroll (trumpet)
Eve Lawler (alto saxophone)
AJ Kluth (tenor saxophone)
George Lawler (drumset)
Greg Lundberg (Percussion)
Influences
Bembeya Jazz National, Balla et ses Balladins, Keletigui et ses Tambourinis, Orchestra Baobab, Le Rail Band, Les Messagers du Mali, Tele-Jazz de Telemele, Le Number One de Dakar
At full speed L’Orchestre Super Vitesse is coming to bring you back to the golden days of West Africa’s great big bands. Playing songs from the famous national, regional, and private orchestras of post-independence Guinea, Mali, and Senegal, L’Orchestre Super Vitesse has arrived to share the wonders and beauty of classical West African music with you!
Post-independence francophone West Africa was a historic setting ripe for musical creation. Government funded orchestras, full of their country’s finest musicians, were given the charge to craft music that would create and consolidate new cultural identities in the nascent nation-sates. The orchestras did so by applying traditional melodies and rhythms of the balafon, cora, and n’goni to electric guitars and basses, while taking cues from Cuban Son, American Jazz, and Ghanian highlife. From this mix came something wholly original, and incredibly beautiful.
L’Orchestre Super Vitesse is here to bring this music back to the public’s ears. From Bembeya Jazz to Balla et ses Balladins we cover a range of ‘Mande Swing’ music, the treasure of Guinea which won its national orchestras recognition in regional tours and Pan-African music festivals alike. The great Mande groups from Mali, such as Les Messagers du Mali and the Super Rail Band are covered as well, along with the two great dueling private orchestras of Senegal’s capital, Orchestra Baobab and The Number One de Dakar.
L’Orchestre Super Vitesse is led by Antonio Carella, former member of Chicago Afrobeat Project and the Occidental Brothers Dance Band International. After studying African guitar in Chicago, Antonio spent a year in Paris studying alongside West African guitar master Abdoulaye Traoré and later a year in Barcelona where he formed a duo with Malian Kamlengoni player Ibrahim Kanté to play traditional and modern Malian music while studying guitar at L’Aula de Musica Moderna I Jazz. Sharing guitar duties with Antonio is Nathaniel Braddock. Besides teaching African guitar styles at Chicago’s Old Town School of Folk Music, Nathaniel is the leader of The Occidental Brothers Dance Band International, voted Chicago’s best World Music Group 2008 by the Chicago Reader. Filling out the rhythm and horn sections are some of Chicago’s greatest: George and Eve Lawler (Lamajamal, Mucca Pazza), AJ Kluth (AJ Kluth Quintet, Grupo Miel y Luis Gabriel), Peter Murray (Capital Rock), Marques Carroll (Marques Carroll Quintet, Tom Matta Big Band), and Greg Lundberg (Kaben Kafo, Maine East Rhythm Project).
