Gerald Toto is a West Indian vocalist, guitarrist, arranger and composer living in Paris. He is better known as a vocalist, for his sweet tone and striking ‘falsette’, that deliciously ambiguous tone, masculine & feminine in the same inflexion, and has been compared on more than one occasion with Caetano Veloso.
His music is influenced by the ‘Creolle’ aesthetic, but also by popular contemporary music, such as nu-soul, R&B, pop, jazz, folk and Caribbean music. He made his debut in the year 1998 with the well-received “Les premiers jours”, released on the Wea label, which opened the way for working in collaboration with Smadj, Marcel Kanche, Lili Boniche & Zora; as well as performing as supporting act on the bill with Roy Hargrove. From the year 2003 onwards he has concentrated on his facet as composer, although this supposedly reduced his live concert performances, and since then he has been outstanding for hisjam sessions, ranging between funk & acid jazz, together with Whappy, Mathie Chedid, Totem and Tatoom.
The album Toto Bona Lokua on the “No Format” label, was released in July 2005, featuring Gerald, Congolese Lokua Kanza and Richard Bona from Cameroun. In 2006 he extended his ‘recording collection’ as leader with the album Kitchenette, released on the V2 label. Two years later, due to the overwhelming success achieved by Toto Bona Lokua, the trio bgan a world tour, which brought them, for example, to the “43 Heineken Jazzaldia 2008 Fest”.
Gerald Toto’s new album titled Spring Fruits invites us to share with him a poetic view of an artist living in an evolving world. This disc is as much the expression of the birth of new artistic bonds as a journey into the very roots of American music which finally leads us back to an acoustic contemporary world. The album was produced by Toto himself and mixed by Mike Pelanconi, and it reminds us that Gerald Toto is an artist redefining himself constantly.
2009 Colorado Producciones SL Contact