Muntu

 
 
Muntu Valdo is a renowned Jazz singer, harmonica player and guitarist from Doula, Cameroon, best known for performing live with the likes of Keziah Jones, Alpha Blondy, Lionel & Stephane Belmondo, Eko Roosevelt, Lokua Kanza, Richard Bona, Manu Dibango, Ali Farka Toure and for playing at the international WOMAD art festivals. The artist released his debut album in 2005 titled Devils and Gods – Moiye Na Muititi, following which he took a tour across Asia, Africa and Europe, performing at festivals and well-known concert halls such as London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall, Paris’s New Morning, Tbilisi’s Theatre de la Petite Reine, Newcastle’s The Sage, and Republic of Congo’s Fespam. On the same tour he also appeared at the famous Festival Africolor and Festival Plein Sud held in France, as well as several WOMAD shows held in Singapore, Charlton Park and Carceres.
 
A few years back, the jazz maestro relocated to London where he is now making new music, and in 2010 got to be the support art for South African choral group Ladysmith Black Mambazo on their tour of the UK. The aspect of Muntu’s talent that his following is most attracted to is his ability to pour his heart out into his music. Muntu tickets are a huge treat not only among jazz fans but also those music lovers who crave the kind of artistic honesty this musician brings to his material.
 
Muntu is the eldest among four brothers from the distant Gulf of Guinea coast from its Sawa community of Cameroon. His father is from the a small village known as Dibombari close to Douala, while his mother is form the Malimba Islands. At the mere age of eight, the artist started playing the guitar made out of fishing wire and plasterboard, and by the time he turned fifteen he began writing music. Soon enough he developed the characteristic music style commonly known as Sawa Blues.  At the start of the nineties, he was enrolled in the University of Yaounde where he major in Law. While still studying there, he got a serious injury due to which he was bed-ridden during his student demonstrations that were a part of the political upheaval of Cameroon.
 
Upon leaving the hospital, he came back to live with his parent still in Douala, where he often offered to tutor children. He was forbidden by his parent to return to Yaounde, which is how he continued his university education at Douala in History and Linguistics, taking particular interest in the history of Ancient Egypt and Africa. These studies had a major impact on his decision to take on a musical career, while at the same time musician Eko Roosevelt who had played with him in the university’s orchestra also motivated him to do so. Later on, Muntu joined the latter band on the guitar, which was his first attempt at playing music professionally. After playing with the band for three year, he decided to form his own group naming it the Muntu Band¸ which was later changed to Mulema meaning the heart, and started performing and recording right away. In 2000, a national tour was organized by Corporation Francaise through which he got to perform in ten different Cameroon cities. During the same year, Gilbert Moodio, the sound engineer of Cameroon, played one of his concert recordings to a French producer. When Munto auditioned, he was encouraged to relocate to France.  
 
When in France, Muntu live in Belleville, Paris, a place associated with the rising musicians where he got to play in concerts and jam sessions in local bars of Place Chatelet and rue Oberkampf, performing with his group as well as solo. He also played shows with Richard Bona, Etienne Mbappe, Rido Bayonne, Tony Allen, Cheick Tidianne Seck, Lokua Kanza, Alpha Blondy and Manu Dibango. The jazz artist is soon to begin an exciting series of live shows so make sure you grab some cheap Muntu tickets before they are hogged by other Muntu-fans.