« ... We were in the Seventies and I wanted to play what I listened to on the radio and what I watched on the TV and at the cinema… and as there was never a violin, I naturally went towards the piano… but the violin sounds had given to me the sensitivity and the precision”.
With 17 years, his father gave to him an electric piano and a synthesizer. After that he founded the band “Bataaxal” together with his closer friends Ibou Bâ, Oumar Sow and Pape Dieng. Inspired by bands like Xalam, i fang bondi band, wato-sita and Doudou Doucouré, their music was a symbiosis of African traditional rhythms with the fusion of pop-rock and even jazz harmonies of the time period. By the time all their texts wanted to be engaged, (Allal and Day-Gui, contained very politicized messages). It was time for him to take the A-levels and Jean-Pierre Magaye Senghor went on with his studies in Brazil (country of Bossa Nova and Samba). In the capital Brasilia where he had settled down he took and passed a diploma of Architecture and Urbanism and as the School of Music was close to the University, he took there harmony and arrangement courses. With an African friend of Gabon and another of Surinam, he founded the group “Obina Shock” which one started to perform entertaining the parties given at the African Embassies of Brasilia. The singularity of the group was simple: modern Pan-African music with a special touch of international pop-music (arrangements and sonorities), the whole was really very dancing! The band signed in a contract with multinational RCA (BMG Ariola) and recorded 2 albums with the participation of famous artists like Gilberto Gil and Gal Costa. They made a lot of success, especially in the States of Bahia and Rio de Janeiro. Unfortunately, the band went to the end 4 years after its foundation because some members went back home after achieving the goal of their university degrees.
Jean Pierre Magaye Senghor then started to work as a free-lancer. He worked with Gilberto Gil, one of the greatest Brazilian artist (with whom he composed a title “Afrikaner Brother Bound”), and then he accompanied all over the world the Brazilian star, Marisa Monte. Later he recorded and went frequently on national and international tours with the Brazilian Reggae band “Cidade Negra” (several times golden record) and worked together with the majors record companies based in Brazil as Sony Music, BMG Ariola, EMI Odeon, Warner Music, Polygram, etc…, as an arranger, composer and keyboard-player. Lulu Santos, Jorge Vercilo, Cabeça de Nêgo, Ras Bernardo, Leo Maia are some of the artists that he has collaborated.
Jean-Pierre Magaye Senghor has just finished the production of “Made in Brazil”, the last album of Sylvia Tella (an artist who is considered as the queen of the UK Reggae).
At the moment he is exploring the soundtrack industry after an invitation to create the theme of ANOCI (National Agency for the Islamic Conference Organization) in Senegal and he is also preparing a CD as a solo on which he wants to bring together all the experiments and musical influences accumulated until now.