He is a synthesiser player, producer, composer, music
director and actor born Waliou Isheola Jacques Daniel in Paris,
France.His father was a GP
and his mother a paediatrician, and in 1962 his family returned to their
home in Dahomey, now Benin, where he learned the mandolin, the flute and
the Melodica, but he returned in 1971 to France to attend high school in
Paris.Although wanting to
work in avionics when he got older, he learned to play the organ and the
bass guitar and it was during these years that he would also make his first
concert appearances.His
parents bought an upright piano and he would then receive piano lessons and
play the organ in his local chapel, where he would often improvise.While he was at college he was a
member of several bands and then he would become a member of the group
Kumba and after having worked a summer job he bought himself an electric
piano.He went on to attend
the Law University in Paris but at the same time found himself taking a
liking to jazz and he became a part of Voodoo Family who evolved into
Centers.He received his first
synthesiser as payment for paying odd gigs and eventually he gave up law to
concentrate on his music and a recording career, with his first single
being in the duo Wally & Shane.He was
drafted into the army in 1977 and on his return in 1978 he got his
first recording contract with Barclay Records as a session musician
and became highly sought after by artists that have since included
Hugh Masakela, Manu Dibango, Miriam Makeba, Robin
Scott
(M), Joe Cocker, Talking Heads, Melissa
Etheridge, Mick
Jagger
, Marianne Faithfull,
Black Uhuru and Herbie Hancock and this would further lead him to
working with the Gibson
Brothers
on their hit "Cuba" and Level 42, who he would remain associated
with for many years.In 1980
he went to Nassau to work with Chris Blackwell on an album with Grace Jones
and he wound up travelling there for many years and appearing on countless
albums with artists such as Foreigner, Robert Palmer, Power Station and
still maintaining his work in the UK with Level 42.He started to compose for film and
also released the solo albums Echoes and Words of a Mountain.His ties with Paris also continued
and here he produced Fela Ransome Kuti and was the music director and
composer of the Bastille Day Centennial celebrations in 1988.He moved to Normandy, France, where
he still resides and works with many African popular artists, composes film
scores that have included Kiss of the Spider Woman, Countryman, Third
World Cop and Lunatic and has taken up acting.
