Wally Badarou

Waliou Jacques Daniel Isheola "Wally" Badarou (born 22 March 1955) is a French musician. Born in France with ancestry from Benin, West Africa, Badarou is known for his close association with the English group Level 42, and for his prolific work as a session musician with a wide variety of performers from around the world. One of Badarou's first recording experiences was when he was invited by bassist Julian Scott to play on his brother Robin's 1979 single, "Pop Muzik", released under the band name M, which became an international hit. As a session musician, Badarou also played on Miriam Makeba's album Comme une symphonie d'amour, and on Alain Chamfort's Amour, Année Zéro. Badarou was close to Island Records's founder Chris Blackwell, and was one of the Compass Point All Stars (with Sly and Robbie, Barry Reynolds, Mikey Chung and Uziah "Sticky" Thompson), the in-house recording team of Compass Point Studios responsible for a long series of albums of the 1980s recorded by Grace Jones, Tom Tom Club, Joe Cocker, Mick Jagger, Black Uhuru, Gwen Guthrie, Jimmy Cliff and Gregory Isaacs. Badarou was the long-time associate of the English jazz-funk band Level 42, contributing on keyboards, synthesizers and programming. He has co-written and performed on a number of the band's tracks since their recording début in 1980, later co-producing them. Though never an official member of Level 42, he could be considered a de facto "fifth member" of the band's classic line-up from 1980 through 1994, as he played keyboards and synths on all their studio albums, and co-wrote and/or co-produced much of their material. However, Badarou did not play with Level 42 on concert dates, and he has not been involved with the revived version of the group, which reunited in the early 2000s. Badarou's keyboard playing could also be heard on albums by Robert Palmer, Marianne Faithfull, Herbie Hancock, Talking Heads, Tom Tom Club, Foreigner, Power Station, Melissa Etheridge, Manu Dibango, Miriam Makeba, and Lizzy Mercier Descloux. He produced albums by Fela Kuti, Salif Keita, Wasis Diop, Trilok Gurtu, Carlinhos Brown; wrote for the films Countryman, and Kiss of the Spider Woman; plus directed and wrote for Jean-Paul Goude's French Bicentennial parade, Bastille Day 1989. So integral was his involvement on Lizzy Mercier Descloux's second studio album, Mambo Nassau, that he is tantamount to uncredited co-producer and unacknowledged co-songwriter.[citation needed] His solo instrumental work includes two albums: Echoes (1984) and Words of a Mountain (1989). The former included "Chief Inspector", "Mambo" (sampled for Massive Attack's "Daydreaming" (Blue Lines album)), and "Hi-Life". "Chief Inspector" peaked at No. 46 in the UK singles chart in October 1985. The Words of a Mountain album is believed to be[by whom?] one of the first fully tapeless recordings in contemporary/new-age history: co-pioneering the computerised home studio concept with other electronic musicians of his generation, Badarou established a reputation on the field with his extensive use of Sequential Circuits Prophet 5, New England Digital Synclavier, and custom voice-controlled Yamaha digital mixers. Badarou also helped organise the Kora All Africa Music Awards in 1997, while co-writing and producing So Why, a charity album for the ICRC, conceived as a call against ethnic cleansing in Africa, featuring Youssou N'Dour and Papa Wemba. He has embraced stage acting since the early 2000s, showing interest in aviation, movies, science-fiction and philosophy.[citation needed] By the end of 2009, starting with Fisherman, a 15-minute long "marathon in afro-beat territory", Badarou releases his albums—including his latest, The Unnamed Trilogy—exclusively online, one single at a time via the JukeSticker, a direct and sharable transaction tool: "At very long last, my fans are to receive the music that never stopped haunting me all these years. The whole of it will be available as a physical collector set, once the three albums are fully revealed". In 2012, he was elected to the board of SACEM, the French collective management organisation for authors rights in music. In 2014, along with a cast of music luminaries, he founded the African Music Academy (AMA). 1979: Back to Scales Tonight 1984: Echoes 1985: Chief Inspector (EP) 1989: Words of a Mountain 1997: So Why 2001: Colors of Silence : Musical poetry for Yoga 2009: The Unnamed Trilogy 1981: Dickie Jobson: Countryman 1982: Nathalie Delon & Yves Deschamps: They Call It an Accident 1985: Hector Babenco: Kiss of the SpiderWoman (additional music) 1991: Lol Creme: The Lunatic 1997: Idrissa Ouedraogo: Kini & Adams 1997: Don Letts & Rick Elgood: DanceHall Queen 1999: Chris Browne: Third World Cop 2000: John Berry: Boesman & Lena 2024: Mati Diop: Dahomey 1979: Janic Prévost – J'veux d'la Tendresse 1981: Alain Chamfort – Amour Année Zéro 1983: Marianne Faithfull – A Child's Adventure (and co-writer) 1985: Level 42 – World Machine (and co-writer) 1986: Alain Chamfort – Tendres Fièvres (and co-writer) 1986: Fela Anikulapo Kuti – Teacher Don't Teach Me Nonsense 1987: Level 42 – Running in the Family (and co-writer) 1988: Level 42 – Staring at the Sun (and co-writer) 1990: Level 42 – Guaranteed (and co-writer) 1993: Level 42 – Forever Now (and co-writer) 1995: Salif Keita – Folon 1996: Carlinhos Brown – AlfaGamaBetizado 1998: Yannick Noah & Zam Zam – Zam Zam 1998: Wasis Diop – Toxu 2000: Trilok Gurtu -The Beat of Love (and co-writer) 2001: i Muvrini – Umani 1977: Fireball - Drive Me To Hell 1979: M – New-York, London, Paris, Munich ("Pop Muzik") 1979: Miriam Makeba – Comme une symphonie d'amour 1980: Bernie Lyon – Bernie Lyon 1980: Grace Jones – Warm Leatherette 1980: M – The Official Secrets Act 1981: Lizzy Mercier Descloux – Mambo Nassau 1981: Grace Jones – Nightclubbing 1981: Level 42 – Level 42 (and co-writer) 1981: Bernie Lyon – I'm Living in the Sunshine 1981: Gibson Brothers – Quartier Latin 1981: Barry Reynolds – I Scare Myself 1981: Will Tura – Tura 81 1981: Jimmy Cliff – Give The People What They Want 1982: Level 42 – The Early Tapes (and co-writer) 1982: Charlélie Couture – Pochette Surprise 1982: Joe Cocker – Sheffield Steel 1982: Black Uhuru – Chill Out 1982: Gregory Isaacs – Night Nurse 1982: Grace Jones – Living My Life 1982: Gwen Guthrie – Gwen Guthrie 1982: Robin Scott & Shikisha – Jive Shikisha ! 1982: Level 42 – The Pursuit of Accidents (and co-writer) 1983: Level 42 – Standing in the Light (and co-writer) 1983: Talking Heads – Speaking in Tongues 1983: Tom-Tom Club – Close to the Bone 1984: Level 42 – True Colours (and co-writer) 1984: Foreigner – Agent Provocateur 1985: Mick Jagger – She's The Boss 1985: Power Station – Some Like It Hot 1985: Level 42 – World Machine (and co-writer) 1985: Gwen Guthrie – Just For You 1985: Sly & Robbie – Language Barrier 1985: Robert Palmer – Riptide 1987: Level 42 – Running in the Family (and co-writer) 1988: Manu Dibango – Electric Africa 1988: Melissa Etheridge – Melissa Etheridge 1988: Talking Heads – Naked 1988: Julio Iglesias – Libra 1994: Power Station – Living in Fear 2008: Grace Jones – Hurricane 2009: Phil Gould – Watertight 2021: Phil Gould – Beautiful Wounds Melissa Chemam, "Massive Attack: Out of the Comfort Zone", Tangent Books, ISBN 978-1910089729 (2019). Jeremy Allen, "The Engine Room: Wally Badarou", Record Collector, No.580, February 2026, p.126 Chris Blackwell with Paul Morley "The Islander: My Life in Music and Beyond", Nine Eight Books (9 June 2022), p. 241-246 - ASIN B0CYNQG5RC. Chris Salewicz's Keep on Running: The story of Island Records, Universe, pp. 120 & 135 David Dalton's Faithfull: An Autobiography, Little Brown & Co, pp. 242 & 245 Chris Frantz Remain in Love, White Rabbit (921 July 2020), pp. 5, 275, 312, 334, 336, 343, 349, 370, 371, 375 & 378 - ASIN B07Y5GKQMF Rikki Stein Moving Music: The Memoirs of Rikki Stein, Worldville (19 Nov 2024), pp. 178 & 179 - ASIN B0DP7SJPZM. Jacques Attali Verbatim: Chroniques