Ray Lema

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Ray Lema at the Cinémathèque française on February 18, 2008

Ray Lema (* the 30th March 1946 in Lufu Toto in the Democratic Republic of Congo ) is a Congolese in France living drummer , percussionist , singer, pianist, guitarist, composer and arranger of African World Music .

Lema was born in the Congo and studied classical piano in a Catholic seminary in the capital Kinshasa (he wanted to be a priest first and played the church organ) before he also took up the guitar, less in the rumba and soukous styles of his homeland, but rather to play rock - he was a fan of Jimi Hendrix , Eric Clapton and the Beatles . He played in clubs in Kinshasa, where he accompanied musicians such as Tabu Ley Rochereau, Abeti and Papa Wemba on the keyboard . In 1974 he toured the country as director of the Zaire National Theater to record and study the music of over 250 indigenous ethnic groups and to seek talent in preparation for the founding of the Zaire National Ballet.

A few years later he founded the fusion group Ya Tupas. Since he was banned from performing in Zaire under the dictator Mobutu Sese Seko , he went to the USA ( Washington, DC ) at the end of the 1970s , where he studied recording technology and mixed with American musical styles (including jazz ), for which he became a Rockefeller in 1979 Scholarship received. He has lived in Europe since the early 1980s, first in Brussels , then in Paris , where there is a lively African scene. He is a multi-instrumentalist and, in addition to the above-mentioned instruments, mainly plays percussion and drums, often in the complex, diverse rhythms of his homeland, which he mixes with European harmonics. Since 1982 he has released several albums, with “Kinshasa-Washington DC-Paris Express” and the two recorded for the Island label “Nangadeef” and “Gaia” getting him more international attention. He also composes for film ("Fatou la Malienne" and "Fatou l´Espoir", 2003 as album) and theater and larger concert projects (such as Black Mic Mac, Tam-Tam Pour L'Éthiope 1984 and a show by Alain Laugenie about Arthur Rimbaud ) and arranges and produces other artists. In 1998 he recorded “The Dream of the Gazelle”, composed for orchestra (a collaboration with and commissioned by the Nordic Chamber Orchestra in Sundsvall ).

He currently plays solo piano or in a trio with Étienne M'Bappé (bass) and Francis Lassus (drums).

In 2003 he received the French Django d´Or .

Discography

  • Koteja (Celluloid, 1982, still recorded in the USA)
  • Kinshasa-Washington DC Paris Express (Celluloid, 1983)
  • The Rhythmatist (1984, with Stewart Copeland of The Police )
  • Medecine (celluloid, 1985)
  • Bwana Zoulou Gang (Mad Minute Music / Mélodie, 1988)
  • Nangadeef (Mango / Iceland, 1989)
  • Gaia (Mango / Iceland, 1990)
  • Euro African Suites (Buda Records, 1992, with Joachim Kühn and Jean-François Jenny-Clark )
  • Ray Lema / Professor Stefanov and the Bulgarian Voices of Ensemble Pirin (Buda Records, 1992, with the Bulgarian Voices)
  • Un Touareg S'est Marié Avec Une Pygmée (Label Bleu, 1993)
  • Tout Partout (Buda Records, 1994)
  • Green Light (Buda Musique, 1996)
  • Stop Time (Buda Musique, 1997)
  • The Dream of the Gazelle (Detour / Erato, 1998)
  • Safi (Buda Musique / USA: Tinder Records, 2000 with Tyour Gnawa)
  • Mizila (One Drop / Noctorne 2004, solo piano)
  • Paradox (Laborie Record / Naive Distribution 2007)
  • Very Special New Production (2013)

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Lema, Ray
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Congolese jazz and rock drummer, pianist and composer
DATE OF BIRTH March 30, 1946
PLACE OF BIRTH Lufu-Toto , Democratic Republic of the Congo