Tam Echo Tam

The music and sounds of the earth are blended into the unique vocalizing of Brussels-based quartet Tam Echo Tam. While they've attracted attention with their harmonized soundscaping, incorporating improvisation, vocal games, and rhythmic echoing, the group has branched out to a diverse range of influences. Their 1995 debut album, A Capella, included uniquely harmonized interpretations of James Brown's "I Feel Good," the Temptations' "Papa Was a Rolling Stone," the Backstreet Boys' "Everybody," and Edith Piaf's "La Vie en Rose." According to http://www.home2.planetinternet.be, "These people are a melting pot of world a capella -- a blending of nationalities, music styles, languages, and skill, a mix of male and female, black and white, self-made songs and covers in many languages." The website http://www.jaro.de took a similar view, praising the quartet for their "multicoloured, petic, inventive, and literally without boundaries sound." Formed in the winter of 1993, Tam Echo Tam combines the efforts of four very different performers: Valerie Lecot, Aline Bosuma, Luarbi Alami, and Daniel Vincke. France-born Lecot previously studied classical singing at Les Trinitaires music school in Metz (1985-1986) and the Music Academy of Brussels (1987-1992). Bass vocalist Bosuma, a native of the Republic of the Congo, studied piano, music theory, rhythm, and musical expression as a child. Although he briefly turned his attention to acting, studying drama at Parallex, he resumed his interests in music after helping to form Tam Echo Tam. Silken-voiced vocalist Vincke, a native of Guyana, studied classical guitar for five years before switching to electric guitar as a member of the French rock band Just One Shot between 1985 and 1990. Before joining Tam Echo Tam, he performed in a duo for which he wrote all the songs and sang lead. The inspiration that resulted in Tam Echo Tam was conceived by Morocco-born vocalist and arranger Alami. Having learned his craft by recording a capella versions of his original tunes on a four-track recorder that he bought in 1988, he was seeking to form a band when he placed an ad in a Brussels newspaper looking for interested vocalists. Tam Echo Tam placed first in a vocal competition at the Biennale De La Chanson Francais in 1996.
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