Gabelo

Ambassador of Rhythm and Togolese Music

Christian Elo Gaba, AKA Gabelo, is a singer-songwriter and percussionist enamored with his African roots, and particularly his native country of Togo. His lyrics, sung in Mina and French, draw upon spirituality and philosophy.

Laureate of the first Togolese songwriting festival, Gabelo enrolled in the conservatory of Dijon, France, in the 70s to study saxophone. While in school, he founded his first band, AMEGAN, with whom he toured Europe and Africa.

Although far from his country, his passion for the rhythms of his motherland grew stronger. His dream became to educate the world on the cadences of his youth, known as Akpesse, Kamou and Agbadja. So in 1990 he founded the Association for the Promotion of Black Rhythms (“A.P.R.Y.N.O”) in Lyon, France and began teaching percussion in several music schools around France. He returned to school and became a professor of African Music Therapy, creating the concept “Kool & Zen,” which promotes teamwork within companies through group percussion classes.

Through the years, Gabelo add to his musical research a lot of African Gospel songs but his first EP's became harder to find beyond the borders of Togo. He himself didn’t own copies of his records. Nonetheless, his son Fabrice decided to find his father’s lost records. In 2013, he was able to buy Gabelo’s vinyls online and reacquire the rights of Gabelo’s catalog with the goal to fulfill his father’s dream to spread his music around the world.