Wesli Band

Radio-Canada (CBC) Revelation of the year 2009/2010, Babel Med Music Award in France and Nominee for the Canadian Folk Music Awards and Gala Soba in the World Solo Artist of the Year category. Born and raised in Hati, Wesley Louissaint aka Wesli built his first guitar at eight years old out of an old NGO provided oil can and a nylon fishing line. Raised in a family counting seven children cramped in a household where music was omnipresent, it soon became second nature to him as well as a way to escape his miserable surroundings. He began his musical adventure by joining his neighbourhood church gospel choir and then started playing the guitar which quickly became his main instrument. Encouraged by his father and his older brother Wesli joined Jazz 4ever, an afro-roots quartet with which he gave a few performances throughout Hati. Working non-stop to hone his skills as it was his only hope for a better quality of life, Wesli got hired as a sideman playing with The Kreyol Mizik Company giving shows with some of the biggest West Indian names of the time ( i.e. La Galva, Sonia Derson and the sadly missed Edith Lefeyl). A short while later, he gets a gig with So Kute, a well liked Soul Music band with which he produced and recorded an album which attained a fair measure of success in Hati.

He immigrated to Canada in 2001 and decided to settle in Montreal where he worked closely with Les Productions Nuits dAfrique and backed some well known African artists such as Monique Seka, King Mensah, Amadou Sodia, Sekouba Bambino and Hamid Bouchnak among others. Having gained more self confidence by letting himself be known and appreciated, Wesli started to collaborate as a composer and a producer with Montreal bred artists such as Snaya (Garde la tte haute, 2005). He also worked as a guitarist with Gage, Nathalie Choquette, Lorraine Klaasen, Zal Idrissa Sissokho and Lilison Di Kinara and became the musical director of Troupe Line 1. Wesli also performed in several major indoor and outdoor festival events such as The Montreal International Jazz Festival, Les FrancoFolies de Montral, Quebecs International Summer Festival, The Chicoutimi World Music Festival, Ottawas Urbanfest, Le Festival International des Nuits dAfrique, the Roots & Culture event in Miami, Festival du Voyageur and Babel Med Fest, while working at the same time as producer, co-writer and composer on a variety of other musical projects. All this enriching activity added to Weslis reputation as an arranger and as a soloist.

His very first album entitled Kouraj (Courage) shows Wesli becoming one of Montreals most promising emerging artist: Talented singer, gifted multi-instrumentalist, socially engaged and versatile when working as a producer, Wesli delivers high-octane music which is at the same time rich in colour, festive and joyful although Kouraj is also a living testimony to the misery which unfortunately still exists and prevails in Hati as well as in other French Caribbean, African and too many other countries worldwide.

Wesli Band consists of musicians performing a torrid combination of original Roots music, toxic Afro-Beat, deep Groove, inspiring Reggae and traditional Haitian rythms. Fuelled by the energy of our daily struggles, the truth and the authenticity of their tradition(s), Wesli Band propels their audience into their own hot, colourful, positive and festive universe with their intense Afro-Beat sounding brass, their rock-solid rhythm section and their trance inducing vocals which lend the band a sound which is so original that no one can be indifferent to it. Dancing brasses and back-up singers, Wesli alternates between singing and playing guitar as well as various percussion instruments leading the audience into a contagious happy and spiritual dancing frenzy... Watch-out, climax is indeed guaranteed!

Wesli is astonishing! Not only can he play all styles of music, but he also is building quite a reputation for himself as a guitarist, composer, songwriter, arranger music director and as a record producer! Yves Bernard, ICI Magazine, Montreal.