Manu Dibango
was born Emmanuel N'Djoké Dibango in the Cameroonian city of Douala on December
12, 1933, which at the time was under French colonial rule. He grew up in a
religious Protestant family, and his first musical influences came from the
church. He attended high school in France and began learning instruments: first
the piano, then saxophone – for which he became best known – and vibraphone. His
musical career spanned across more than six decades.
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| MANU DIBANGO |
Manu Dibango
moved to Brussels and toured Europe with Africa Jazz under the bandleader Joseph
Kabasele and spent time in Congo and Cameroun before returning to Paris in
1965. He blended the cosmopolitan styles from Africa and Europe into his own
fusion, resulting in his biggest hit, Soul Makossa, with a blazing saxophone
line over a breakbeat and Dibango’s spoken vocals, originally written for the
1972 African Cup of Nations football tournament. Soul Makossa arrived at the
dawn of the disco era and made its way to dance floors across the United
States, Europe and Africa.
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| MANU DIBANGO ON STAGE |
Manu Dibango
achieved a considerable following in the UK with a disco hit called "Big
Blow", originally released in 1976 and re-mixed as a 12 minutes single in
1978 on Island Records. In 1998, he recorded the album ‘CubAfrica’ with Cuban
artist Eliades Ochoa.
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| MANU DIBANGO AND ELIADES OCHOA |
Perhaps one
of his greatest advice to the upcoming African musicians in his own words is
this: "Play different kinds of music before playing your own. I think that it's very important to play other people's music. As you are an African the
whites expect you always to play African music. Forget that. You're not a
musician because you're African. You're a musician because you are musician.
Coming from Africa, but first, musician."
Manu Dibango
has collaborated with many other musicians across the world, including South
Africa’s Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Hugh Masekela, Fela Kuti, Herbie Hancock,
Bill Laswell, Bernie Worrell, King Sunny Ade, Don Cherry and Sly & Robbie.
Other artists including Busta Rhymes and the Chemical Brothers have also
sampled his tracks.
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| MANU DIBANGO AND HUGH MASEKELA TOGETHER ON STAGE |
At the 16th Annual Grammy Awards in
1974, he was nominated in the categories Best R&B Instrumental Performance
and Best Instrumental Composition for "Soul Makossa". The song "Soul Makossa" on the record of the same
name contains the lyrics "makossa", which means "dance" in
his native tongue, the Cameroonian language Duala. The song has influenced
popular music hits, including Kool and the Gang’s “Jungle Boogie”. The 1982
parody song "Boogie in Your Butt" by comedian Eddie Murphy
interpolates Soul Makossa's bassline and horn charts while "Butt Naked
Booty Bless" by 1990s hip-hop group Poor Righteous Teachers heavily
samples its musical bridge and drum patterns.
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| 'PAPPY GROOVE' MANU DIBANGO |
In 1986 Manu
Dibango filed a lawsuit claiming that Michael Jackson stole a hook from his
song, Soul Makossa, for two songs on the world’s best-selling album, Thriller.
The line ‘mama-say, mama-sa, ma-makossa’ from Michael Jackson’s Wanna Be
Startin’ Somethin was lifted from Dibango’s chorus on Soul Makossa. He
therefore sued Jackson over the uncredited interpolation, winning an
out-of-court settlement with the Popstar. Twenty-three years later, precisely in 2009 Rihanna sampled that segment
of Jackson’s song for her single “Don’t Stop the Music” and Manu Dibango again
took them both to court, although his complaint was deemed inadmissible.
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| MANU DIBANGO ON STAGE IN STUTTGART, GERMANY IN 2013 |
Manu Dibango
passed away on 24th of March 2020, at 86 years old, as a result of
Coronavirus infection. This disease codenamed COVID ’19 is currently ravaging
the whole world. Africa has yet lost another of her biggest music ambassador.
Rest on Pappy Groove!
