L'Harmonie Voltaique

L'Harmonie Voltaïque was founded by Antoine Ouedraogo in 1948. They were the first group created to play ‘modern music’ in Upper-Volta (nowadays Burkina-Faso). Antoine decided to create the colony's first modern orchestra. Their early repertoire consisted of French Songs (especially the ballads of French crooner Tino Rossi), and latin rhythms (for e.g. the cha-cha, and bolero). The repertoire started to change in 1964 when the multi-instrumentalist Maurice Sempore (tenor sax, flute) became the bandleader. It was under his leadership that the group started to perform songs in 'Moore' (the language of the Mossi people). He started to write modern arrangements of traditional rhythms.