Who is Achu Normad?

As a boy growing up in the village of Mankon in Bamenda Cameroon, Achu Normad, born Ndifor Achu, always felt as if his heart beats in sync with the drum beats played by the village dance groups around him. Being the son of a guitarist, the 29-years-old soon picked up the guitar and started playing to these African rhythms. Soon After, Jazz music caught his attention and he was engulfed in Django Reinhardt’s work.

Achu Normad started experimenting by combining the Cameroonian rhythm guitar playing style with Cuban grooving and a dash of jazz. All these coupled with his soulful sounding voice enabled him to tell his story to the world.

In the Fall of 2014, he immigrated to the United States, where he was finally able to put into action what he had been grooming. Achu Normad went on to start an Afro-Cuban jazz band in Lexington Kentucky where he worked on blending the West African rhythms of Makossa and Bikutsi with Cuban Jazz and soulful singing. Two years after, the resulting blend is ready to be served in his debut album Alieh.