About this Artist

Born Fernando Araújo, bass player YAMI traces his musical roots from Portugal to Africa and back again. His father left his small town life in northern Portugal, boarded a ship bound for Angola, and soon found work on a coffee farm in Luanda. He married an African woman and had children. YAMI left Angola at age 4 when, following the Portuguese Colonial War, his father moved the family back to Portugal, settling in the suburbs of Lisbon.  It was there that YAMI came to mix his magical and rhythmic memories of Angola with the deep, dramatic traditions of Portguese fado. YAMI has released a number of solo CDs in Portugal, connecting pan-African and LusoAmerican forms with Creole innovations, flavored with funk, reggae and rumba.