Music has always been there for Petero “Pierrot” Amhigo, that and travel. As a kid he probably spent more time dancing than studying. But the real change came at the age of 15 when he discovered the tenor sax. For his 19th birthday, his mother offered him an alto and he started playing in bands.
What he knows he learnt from gigging – and his phenomenal musical ear. With some friends, he started gigging locally as The Friendship Street, notably picking up an Etoile from singer Philippe Swann at an Impro Session in Brussels.
With guitarist Nola Tekule, he created Tangawissi in 2003, a concentrated mix of African music crossed with jazz, reggae and funk. The mix brought them to the Esperanza festival (B) in 2010, followed by Yaoundé Jazz (Cameroon) and Ouaga Jazz (Burkina Faso) in 2012.
In parallel, he was gigging with Soul Tribe, Carry Life and The Rising Pulse. In 2014, he joined One Root (aka Sun Rockers), playing support for Max Romeo in Ghent and Amsterdam, as well as the Rototom event in the Hootenanny in Brixton.
Over the years, Petero met and played with luminaries such as Vieux Sax (Michel Kasongo of the Congo) who initiated him into Congolese Rumba and Mohamed Mesbahi, who opened him to Moroccan gnawa.
Since 2017, Petero has also played with Giant Tree, a reggae group with Senegalese roots. He met Ben Schwag in Brussels and they have been working on a number of projects together, including George Williams. He is now being produced by 3 Hats Music.