Manu Dibango life and biography

Cameroonian Saxophonist Manu Dibango was born Emmanuel Dibango N'Djoké on 12 December 1933 in Douala, Cameroon. He is also a vibraphone player. With agreat talent, he has developed a musical style fusing jazz, funk and traditional Cameroonian music.

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.

Albums of Manu Dibango:

Soul Makossa (1972) Fiesta records
O Boso (1973) London/PolyGram Records
Africadelic (1973)
Makossa Man (1974) Atlantic Records
Makossa Music (1975) Creole RecordsLicensed from "Societe Francais Du Son - France"
Manu 76 (1976) Decca/PolyGram Records
Super Kumba (1976) Decca/PolyGram Records
The World of Manu Dibango (1976) Decca Records
Ceddo O.S.T (1977) Fiesta Records
A l'Olympia (1978) Fiesta Records
Afrovision (1978) Mango/Island/PolyGram Records
Sun Explosion (1978) Decca/PolyGram Records
Gone Clear (1980) Mango/Island/PolyGram Records
Ambassador (1981) Mango/Island/PolyGram Records
Waka Juju (1982) Polydor/PolyGram Records
Mboa (1982) Sonodisc/Afrovision
Electric Africa (1985) Celluloid
Afrijazzy (1986)
Deliverance (1989) Afro Rhythmes
Happy Feeling (1989) Stern's
Rasta Souvenir (1989) Disque Esperance
Polysonik (1992)
Live '91 (1994) Stern's Music
Wakafrika (1994) Giant/Warner Bros. Records
African Soul - The Very Best Of (1997) Mercury
CubAfrica (with Eliades Ochoa) (1998)
African Woodoo (2008)

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