Alune Wade

Born in Dakar in 1978, Alune Wade was educated very early in music in a family setting marked by the Senegalese Army's Symphony Orchestra, led by his father, before he learned bass, piano and guitar. A bassist, songwriter, singer and producer, Alune Wade develops a language that crosses jazz, West African musics, soul, funk and Afro-Cuban rhythms, with a bass-centered writing but open to singing and to the flow between traditions and contemporary forms. His professional trajectory begins in Senegal with Ismaël Lô, whose band he accompanies for several years, then expands to collaborations with Youssou N’Dour, Cheick Tidiane Seck, Bobby McFerrin, Joe Zawinul, Aziz Sahmaoui, Fatoumata Diawara, Blick Bassy or Naïssam Jalal. As a solo artist, Alune Wade releases Mbolo in 2006 and then Ayo Nene in 2011, before Havana Paris Dakar in 2015 with Cuban pianist Harold López-Nussa, a project that puts African repertoires in dialogue with Caribbean colours. Followed by African Fast Food in 2018 and Sultan in 2022, in a vein where groove, improvisation and Senegalese heritage remain at the heart of Alune Wade’s music.