Ricky Randimbiarison was born on 23 June, 1964 in a small town in the South East of Madagascar,
After working temporarily with the young Malagasy group, Hippies, Ricky’s vocalization and polyphonic exercises led him to explore drum techniques and traditional music. He studied the hazolahy drum and began to combine his melodious voice with traditional types of percussion such as amponga or adabo. Ricky also collected different types of indigenous music such as the sireko (a special song for the funeral of an elderly, a wise or a wealthy person); the koendra (the form used by the Vazimba people to sing for prayers, funerals and weddings); and the balitika (the rhythm of a dance from the Antaisaka tribe in the South East).
It wasn’t until 1989 that Ricky decided to reappear in the public eye, choosing to do so on the popular television program, Salohy, using the name ‘Dio-ricky-mangamalandy’, signifying: ‘Dio’ – the purity, the originality; ‘imangamalandy’ – the clarity and quality of Ricky’s voice, which has been described as “clear as the blue sky”. Since then , Ricky has gathered around him a group of the hottest musicians in Madagascar to form an electric band whose stated aim is to fuse their native vako-drazana folk music with jazz to produce a mixture they call vakojazzana. The band is built around the extraordinary bass player, Toty, who uses his instrument to simulate the deep. buzzing resonance of the cythar which underlies marovany music.
The result of this forward-looking approach to traditionally-rooted music has been so popular as to have engendered the phenomenon identified by the Malagasy press as ‘Rickymania’, with Ricky emerging as by far the most popular performer in Madagascar. In 1995, the Swiss band, Patent Ochsner, toured Madagascar and met Ricky. Determined to give Ricky and his band the opportunity to record, they flew the six Malagasy musicians to Switzerland, where they recorded 12 songs. When Robert Trunz heard the sixty minutes of music, he noted the similarity of some of the sounds to Brazilian music and wondered if Airto Moreira might be interested in working with Ricky.
Consequently, Ricky Randimbiarison came to Brownhill Farm during the summer of 1997 and worked on the tapes of his album Olembelona Rocky (BW113) with Airto Moreira, completely re-building the tracks . Suzan Hendricks, Mabi Thobejane and Diana Moreira were also staying at Brownhill and got involved with the project.
Discography:
Olombelona Ricky (M.E.L.T. 2000, 2000)
Author: Angel Romero
Angel Romero y Ruiz has dedicated his life to musical exploration. His efforts included the creation of two online portals, worldmusiccentral.org and musicasdelmundo.com. In addition, Angel is the co-founder of the Transglobal World Music Chart, a panel of world music DJs and writers that celebrates global sounds. Furthermore, he delved into the record business, producing world music studio albums and compilations. His works have appeared on Alula Records, Ellipsis Arts, Indígena Records and Music of the World.
