Baba CHIHABI

Un Article de la BBC Sur Baba CHIHABI
Abou Chihabi performs at The Cathedral	Indian Ocean folk via Paris By Karen Pirie Abou Chihabi combines music from his ancestral home in the Indian Ocean with reggae. Irreverant and upbeat, see Abou and his band live this Saturday at The Looking Glass in Braunstone Gate.

In Leicester via Paris and the Indian Ocean, Abou Chihabi fronts a band including members from take in influences from Mauritius, Ireland, Greece and Leicester! Abou, who also calls himself Baba after his grandfather, is in Leicester promoting his debut album. Islands on Fire was recorded with his musician father in Leicester and Parish. Abou put his band together while working at De Montfort University for a year as a French language assistant in 2003. Although he now lives back in Paris, Abou is keen to maintain his Leicester connections. He says: "Paris is too big. Leicester is a city but at the same time it's like a village. It's easier to get together." Abou's first musical influences were from his father's Comorian folk compositions. Abou lived in the Comoros Islands himself for three years during which time he learned the areas traditional rhythms. He said: "On this album you will find songs that sound like reggae but are mixed with Indian Ocean folk." More about Abou Abou's band includes Ameer the percussionist Mauritius, bassist Darren from Ireland, Dimitrius the drummer from Greece and Roby the saxophonist an Englishman from Leicester. Abou's father wrote the national anthem for the Comoros Islands in the 1970s. The islands are on the West Coast of Africa in the Indian Ocean near Mozambique. The new album Islands on Fire is now available.		Abou with this father
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Indian Ocean folk via Paris