El Rego

El Rego

Biography

Théophile do Rego , known as El Rego (born in 1937 is a Beninese musician , one of the grandfathers of funk in the country with, in particular, the group El Rego and his Commandos . Owner of the Play-Boy nightclub in Cotonou , he played in Senegal before playing with Hot Jazz in Porto-Novo and then with Harmonie Voltaïque ( Burkina Faso ).

El Rego is one of the inspirations of the Poly Rhythm Orchestra of Cotonou. Its titles can be sung in fon (the songNonvi towe ku , on the Hessa disc , thus means "my brother (or my friend) is dead").

He released most of his records as 45 rpm . Several of his songs ( E nan mian nuku , Feeling you got , Vimado wingnan and Djobimé ) were re-released by the Analog Africa label in 2009 , in the Legends of Benin compilation . It was a friend of Lawani Afissoulayi who produced it on his label Aux Listening.