The story of Samarabalouf begins in November 1997 at Amiens. That year the theme of the international film festival focused on gipsies, the people of the road. François, who had just recently moved to Amiens, had in his knapsack a few pieces written in the gipsy swing and 40s musette styles and was invited to play them for the festival. In a few months, new compositions had been written and worked on at home with his wife Isabelle on the string bass and Nicolas Ionas, a local rhythm guitarist.
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The story of Samarabalouf begins in November 1997 at Amiens. That year the theme of the international film festival focused on gipsies, the people of the road. François, who had just recently moved to Amiens, had in his knapsack a few pieces written in the gipsy swing and 40s musette styles and was invited to play them for the festival. In a few months, new compositions had been written and worked on at home with his wife Isabelle on the string bass and Nicolas Ionas, a local rhythm guitarist. The trio played regularly on the stages of the region for two years and decided to mark the year 2000 by producing thier own album with the name Samarabalouf . Some months later, François met Manu and Gavroche from the association « Toujours Plus », who decide to collaborate with developing the group. The concerts increased in numberand the trio began to gig in the different regions of France. I twas the cue for a personnal change in the musicians accompanying François : Pierre Margerin joined the group to take over the famous swinging rhythm guitar and Agnès Duvivier held the double bass chair. In 2001 as part of a cultural exchange program, Samarabalouf met the Mexican group Mono Blanco (in the Jarocho sound tradition : strings and singing). At Amiens then at Veracruz, the two groups joined together discovered each other and played together in the city, at home, in the countryside and on the stage ! Samarabalouf’s second album « La Valche Folle » produced by « Toujours Plus » and distributed by « L’Autre Distribution » came out in 2002. The trio gradually freed itself from the gipsy heritage to assert its own identity : the gipsy valse gave way to the « valche folle » and the trio now started shredding to the rythms of the rumba (of love), the java (of the beach) and the boogie (boolga)… These new compositions did their tour of France and Belgium and the concerts began take on the air of a mad ball : feet tap, hands clap to the new threesome with the double bass dancing and vibrating under the hands of Luc Ambry who joined Pierrot and François, making thier current line-up. In spring 2004, Samarabalouf flew off to Louisiana (Lafayette International Festival) and in July hit Canada (Francofête at Moncton). Between these two tours, the live album « Profitez-en » (Enjoy) hit the shelves with a special guest, the gipsy accordeonist Arnaud Van Lancker without whom the whole might never have started : i twas playing with him in a bar in Lille taht taught François’s fingers the gipsy style as well as the experience of accompagnying him for a several years in the group « Swing Gadje » before leaving for Amiens. Since the last album, the tours keep coming in France, Switzerland and in the USA, bringing with them new encounters and the chance to share with ever more people this music in perpetual motion and apparently without boundaries…
