Sigi Finkel & African Heart – Two Continents – One Music

The band had its start in April 1997 with a tour throughout Austria and Germany where they performed to sold out houses in front of enthusiastic audiences. Subsequently they were invited to the JazzFest Wien, where they were celebrated as one of the best acts. Radio Austria made a live-recording of the concert. In March 1998 the band presented its first CD “Heart Beat” on a 4 week tour through the German speaking countries which gathered wide media resonance. Following these successes and due to a large and ever-increasing demand, the band performed at the following festivals in 1999: Czechia (Jazz Festivals Hradec Kralove & Ustinad Labem), Germany (Birthday Party Radio MultiKulti/Berlin), Israel (Jerusalem Jazz Festival), Senegal (St. Louis Jazz Festival), Kap Verde (meeting with the group Simentera), Croatia (Krk Jazz Festival), Slovakia (Bratislava Jazz Days), Austria (Wiesen Sunsplash) and Italy. The group was touring Senegal in February 2000 for the 2nd time. In September and October, the band presented their new CD „African Echoes“ on a five-week tour through Germany, Austria, Turkey and Greece, which was very much acknowledged by media and audience again. In April and May 2001 Sigi toured with African Heart in Zimbabwe and South Africa for 3 weeks (amongst many concerts and workshops, participation at the Harare International Festival of the Arts and Chimanimani Arts Festival before thousends of listeners).Summer Festivals in 2001: Jazz across the Border/Berlin, Afrofestival, Osnabrück, Worldmusic Festival Stuttgart and many others.

Through the year 2002, Sigi will be very active with African Heart: besides touring Germany, Switzerland and Austria in March and a cooperation with Ch. Kolonovits (Voestival), the band will be busy with playing at various festivals and open air concerts in June and July throughout Europe. In the fall a new CD will be released (with special guests Joseph Bowie, mastermind of Defunkt & Soriba Kouyaté). Following that the band will go on a five week promotion tour for the CD.

From Africa:

Mamadou Diabate, Madou Kone, Lamzo Ba

(Vocals, Djembe, Sabar, Bassdrum, Talking Drum, Balaphone,…)

The three drummers come from Burkina Faso and Senegal and descend from respected families of musicians.The singers and drummers bear the important ceremonies and celebrations of their people. Each country has its special rhythms and instruments and so this group has got a wide variety of percussions Lunga or Bara besides the common ones like Balaphone and Djembe. Cooperations: Ballet D’Afrique Noir, Sanza, Phoenix Percussion. Later they formed their band Consa and toured through Europe and Africa.