Emmanuel Delly was born in Gonaïves, his early years were bathed in traditional Haitian music. When he was 6, his father gave him a drum, which began his love for percussion. In 2002, he joined the Selide Cultural Center, where he had the chance to learn rare traditional rhythms. In 2004, in Port-au-Prince, he developed a real passion for culture and traditional music.
Atypical musician, he succeeds in appropriating the heritage of traditional Haitian music to offer a personal and current approach. With musician friends he joined the traditional percussion group ‘Chaynanm’ in 2006. With them he has performed in the Dominican Republic, France, Belgium and Canada. In 2010 he participated in the CIOFF festivals (sponsored by UNESCO) in La Rochelle and Sainte in France. Passionate about cultural exchanges, he offered percussion workshops with musicians from Morocco, Estonia and Reunion Island. He was invited to perform with the famous Gipsy Kings in Paris and Barcelona in November 2011.
He moved to Quebec in 2012. In the fall of 2013 he joined the group Makaya, an avant-garde Montreal jazz quintet. A fusion of jazz and mainly instrumental Creole music, the group’s compositions reveal traditional Caribbean music in a new light. With Makaya he played at Place des Arts, at the Montreal Jazz Festival, at Upstairs etc. The group also won several awards at the 6th edition of the Showcase of local mixed music organized by Vision Diversité in 2016.
In the fall of 2014, he founded the Ensemble AFROVIBES group, made up of 8 musicians from different cultures and origins. The group offers a unique and new sound rooted in Haitian voodoo whose rhythms (Rara de Léogane, Ibo, Nago, Agbadja, Djoumba, Dahomey …) and songs intended for the Deities and also draw from the roots of the creator of Afrobeat FELA ANIKULAPO KUTI. This is the first group to offer a fusion of Vaudoubeat and Afrobeat on the Quebec City scene.
Ensemble Afrovibes immerses you in a universe of sounds and rhythms from Haitian voodoo, Afrobeat, Bel-Air from Martinique and other traditional rhythms from Latin America. This eclectic universe reflects the cultural diversity of the members of the group and combines fusion atmospheres sometimes soul, rock and jazz.
