This pdf was last updated: Dec/29/2010. Manu Dibango
The global fusion that Manu Dibango created in the 1950s made the leader of the 'Soul Makossa gang' an African world-music pioneer. New CD/DVD 'Lion of Africa' in 2007!
Line-up Manu Dibango - saxophone, vocals, marimba Noël Ekwabi - bass guitar, vocals Jacques Conti-Bilong - drums Kaba Malekani - guitar Julien Agazar - keyboards Isabel Gonzalez - vocals Valérie Ekoume - vocals Thierry Gaulme - backliner Philippe Davesne - foh Arnaud Combes - monitors Claire Diboa - manager Michel Dibango - personal manager
On Stage: 8 Travel Party: 13
Website www.manudibango.net
Biography Dibango is Cameroon's, and perhaps Africa's, best-known jazz saxophonist. Starting in the 1950s, he became a globe-trotting musician, living and performing in France, Belgium, Jamaica, Zaire, and Cote d'Ivoire, as well as in Cameroon. In 1960, Dibango was one of the founding members of the Zairean band African Jazz, with whom he spent five years. World attention came to Dibango with the release in 1972 of Soul Makossa, a work that actually had precious little of the makossa sound in it, and scored later hits with Seventies and Ibida. Dibango's output has been prodigious and multi-faceted. He has worked with musicians as diverse as Fela Kuti, Sly Dunbar, Robbie Shakespeare, Don Cherry, and the Fania All-Stars. In addition to being one of the leading jazz saxophonists of his generation, Dibango has also run nightclubs, directed orchestras, and started one of the first African musical journals. A later release, Polysonik - featuring English rapper MC Mello, Cameroonian singer Charlotte M'Bango leading a choral section, and sampled pygmy flutes - shows that Dibango is continuing to flourish and expand in challenging new directions.
Discography 1972 Soul Makossa - Atlantic 1973 Oboso - London 1974 Makossa Man - Atlantic 1975 Makossa Music - Creole 1976 Manu 76 - Decca 1976 Super Kumba - Decca 1978 Afrovision - Island 1978 A l'Olympia - Fiesta 1978 Sun Explosion - Decca 1980 Gone Clear - Mango 1981 Ambassador - Mango 1985 Electric Africa - Celluloid 1987 Afrijazzy - Urban 1989 Deliverance - Afro Rhythmes 1989 Happy Feeling - Sterns 1989 Waku Juju - Disque 1989 Rasta Souvenir - Disque 1989 Homecade - Sterns 1992 Polysonik - Sound Wave 1994 Live '91 - Stern's Music 1994 Seventies - Sonodisc 1994 Tropical Garden - Sonodisc 1994 Wakafrika - Giant 1995 Negropolitaines, Vol. 2 - Melodie 1996 Lamastabatani - Melodie 1996 Bao Bao - M.I.L. 2000 Mboa' Su - JPS 2001 Kamer Feeling JPS 2002 Electric Africa - Varese 2003 Cubafrica - Melodie 2003 Dance with Manu Dibango - Masterplan 2003 From Africa - Soul Makossa 2006 The Very Best of African Soul - UMe Imports 2006 La Jamaique - Soul Makossa 2006 Sax & Spirituals Lamastabastani - Soul Makossa 2006 Soft and Sweet - Soul Makossa 2007 Lion of Africa - Global Mix Music
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