Ndioba

Ndioba Gueye was born in Senegal, West-Africa. Growing up in Dakar's Sicap Mermoz his musical frame was set at an early age. Ndioba's first instrument was guitar, bought with the money earned from a summer job. After a while he also started to learn bass guitar.

In 1987 Ndioba decided to spend some time in Paris studying music. Due to the fact that half of his family members are French citizens this plan was easily carried out. During the early years of his musical career Ndioba played in various clubs in Paris, making some interesting contacts. One of these was Felix Sabal Lecco, at the time Manu Dibango's and today Peter Gabriel's as well as Paul Simon's drum set player. These important connections still exist today.

After succesful years in Paris Ndioba returned to Senegal to join a band by the name of Tabala, led by Bara Fall. Later during the same year Youssou Ndour contracted Tabala band as a warm up formation for his concerts. At that time Ndioba had to switch from guitar into bass as the original bass player
was no longer able to continue in the group.

In Dakar, 1989, Ndioba started to play with well known groups, such as Daouda Gassama Band, Number One, A Lady Call Dial Mbaye, Niko Barry From Guinee, Soda Mama Fall etc. Ndioba soon earned the nickname ”Ndiobass” becoming one of the most wanted bass players in Senegal and neighbouring countries. Year 1992 brought a significant change, as a well known Finnish guitar player Hasse Walli arrived in town to audition musicians to join his European Tour. The tour started from Pori Jazz, Finland’s most important jazz festival. From there the band continued to Sweden, Norway, Denmark and England."Teranga"- cd was recorded in the wake of the tour, containing a song "Bamba" composed by Ndioba. ”Bamba” became a hit in Africa as the title track ”Teranga” simultaneously hit the European chart reaching 9th position. Ndioba returned to Senegal. The following year he flew back to Finland to re-unite with Hasse Walli and his long time colleague in music, Sakari Kukko. Both Walli and Kukko are known as members of the Finnish "Piirpauke" formation. Together with these musicians Ndioba played rock, soul and blues orientated music. A year later he started collaborating with an American singer Jimmy Lowsson and Greg Overton adapting his musical style towards blues and funk.

In 1995 Ndioba received an offer to play with a famous Indian born singer Tino Singh. With Tino he experienced truly great moments in the Finnish music scene. These included tv-programs, concerts in stadiums, gigs on cruisers and so forth. At the same time Ndioba was also playing drums in Third Nation - band. Third Nation’s musicians had vastly different origins: Charles Salter came from USA, James Black from UK and so forth. During this time Tino introduced him to Maki Kolehmainen. Maki is a well known song writer and producer in Finland. Maki asked Ndioba to join his group called Aika (previously known as Aikakone), and thus Ndioba got the change to show his bass player skills to wider Finnish audiences. In 1998 Ndioba decided it was time to concentrate into his own music. At the moment Ndioba has a group of his own. 

Year of creation:

Music genre: Wold

Main influences: Youssou Ndour

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