The Vortex is delighted to host 5 nights of the 12th London African Music Festival
Kad Achouri was born to first generation Algerian Berber parents in the small provincial town of Mazamet in the Tarn, south-west France, in 1969.
He began teaching himself to play the piano and briefly attended the music conservatory in Toulouse. Then he moved to Barcelona, where he spent 5 years listening to jazz and hanging out, and finally to London in 1993 where he began to play piano bars to earn a living.
His debut album ‘Liberté’ was released internationally in 2002 to both critical and commercial acclaim as well as his other CDs.
Since then, Kad has continued to write, compose, remix and produce, both for himself and others. The others include Vanessa Mae, Femi from Young Disciples, Ivy Mendes and Archie Shepp. Through his publishing deal with BMG Music Publishing he has written a song for Pop Idol in The Netherlands. And he has recently been commissioned to produce an album for a Western Saharan band called Tiris.
Kad Achouri’s own music occupies a previously unexplored hinterland located somewhere between funky mix of French chanson, Basque pop and world jazz, delivered with Kad’s distinctively poetic and seductive vocals.
In this performance leads his four piece band as they perform classic standard alongside songs from his own recordings.