Totojam Cover Band
THROUGH THE BEST OF TOTO
In 2011, the concept's founders began by inviting musician friends to come and “jam” with them to the music of Toto, giving its name to Totojam. Quickly, a core of loyal and motivated musicians was formed: this is how the tribute was born.
Concerts followed, notably on the big Funkytown stage of the Geneva festivals in 2012 and 2013. After a 2-year break (2015-2016), some members have changed but the Totojam spirit remains the same.
The group is currently working to expand its repertoire by drawing on Toto's many albums. It is also difficult to choose from the rich discography of this legendary group.
Toto Jam is made up of 6 musicians: Lolo on keyboard, Renato on guitar, Jack on bass, Bernard on drums, Dudu on vocals and Welma, backing vocalist.
Passion, high standards and professionalism, around thirty legendary pieces from the American group.
The group is structured and surrounded by a team made up of:
- Christian Alciato, their dedicated sound engineer, who is the contact person for technical aspects.
- Corinne Marion-Gallois, their manager and manager of the New Gold Dream Records label, contact person for the organization of all their concerts and contractual aspects.
THE MUSICIANS
Andre Jacquemod (Jack) : Bass
-Starts playing music at the age of 9 (trumpet) at Geneva’s music Conservatory
-As classical music was too “strict” for him, he started playing guitar. After joining a band with 3 guitar players, which was too much, he naturally turned to bass. This was a revelation for him.
-He played in several band of different music styles for decades.
-He is the co-founder of the Totojam concept and the actual dedicated bass player of the band.
-Drums and bass cohesion as well as tempo regularity are his key points.
-He creates his own instruments
Olivier Gaillard (Lolo) : Keyboards
-From the age of 8, he practiced trumpet (Bb and Eb), music theory and piano in Sion’s conservatory.
-Author-compositor-arranger in different bands or personal/associative projects (Team Spirit, Vanoa, Egg Box, association. KyFéKoyhttps://kyfekoi.com) and others..
-Dedicated keyboard and co-founder of Totojam since 2011
Andre Dumartheray (Dudu) : Lead Vocals
-Starts playing at the age of 15 as a bassist in the progressive rock band Ixias. Quickly, the band realize that he is also capable of singing. He finally let the instrument on the side to devote himself to singing.
-In 1986, joins the band Quaver at Annecy as a singer with the leader of the band Christophe Godin for approximately ten years.
-In 2003, joins the tribute HITB (Hits in The Box) as a singer (still is)
-In 2012 he joins Totojam as the lead singer
Bernard Widmer : Drums
- Starts playing marchband drum at 10, because there was no free place at the karate club.
- Stops at 14 to start playing rock drums as he was not a big fan of the uniform
- Installed himself in London in 1993 to study music
- Between 1994 and 1998, he worked as a drummer for different formations, included Diancandor
- Played at the Paléo Festival, Montreal Jazz, Open Air St-Gall, BAM of Barcelona, made the opening of Neneh Cherry, McSolar, Therapy, The Young Gods, Silmarlis, The Silencers, Khaled, Mogwai, Aston Villa and others...
- After playing in different bands and styles in original composition, and being influenced by Toto since forever, he joins Totojam in 2019
Dani Renato : Guitar
- Plays the violin from 7 to 14 years old, until the day he borrows his brother's guitar by jumping on tables and wriggling to rock music. He knew at that moment that they were going to have a great bond.
- Several projects as composer and arranger were born from Pop, Rock, Electro, Love Motel, Heart Beat, Rash Panzer with European and world tours.
- He also works as a multi-instrumentalist studio musician with producer Johon Woolloff (Bruel, Balavoine), David Richard and Claude Frider (Studio Mountain), sound engineer for Queen, Dennis Weinreich, producer of Rash Panzer (Wham, Trust and Jeff Beck)
- And the adventure continues in 2021 with the Totojam project!
Vesna : Vocals
- Started the musical journey on a 2.5 octave keyboard rescued from a flood and never stopped since
- 10 years of playing flute, graduating from high school of music
- started singing at 14 in the school choir and spent 7 years in my 20s singing in a vocal group called Perpetuum Jazzile which gained millions of views for its acapella cover of Africa by Toto
- did backing vocals for a range of tribute bands of artists like Ray Charles, Phil Collins, Tina Turner
- lead singer and backing vocalist of several bands around Geneva
- continuous student of vocal technique
Christian Alciato : Sound technician
- He discovers music in the family circle as one of his cousins played in a well known band of the region
- At 17, with high-school friends, he played keyboard in a cover band. It was a rich and learning experience with a lot of laugh.
- After sportive and technical studies, he works for a small production of rock and metal bands in the Albertville (France) region.
- At 27 he is hired in a « floydish » adventure with some friends. This project became a great enterprise. He is the technical director since 2012.
- Fan of Toto since 1995, he felt love at first sight when he met Totojam, thanks to a lucky encounter with Jack in 2016. He immediately joined the artistic and human potential to enhance this project on scene.