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Manu Dibango

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Manu Dibango, in full Emmanuel N'Djoké Dibango, was a Cameroonian saxophonist, vibraphonist, bandleader and composer. He was born in Douala in 1933. As a child he learned music in the Protestant church. At fifteen his parents sent him to school in France, where he learned piano and began playing in jazz clubs. In Brussels he met Joseph Kabasele, leader of the Congolese band African Jazz, and in the late 1950s he played with that group in Léopoldville, today's Kinshasa. Kabasele recorded the pan-African anthem Indépendance Cha Cha at that time.

Music and breakthrough

In 1972 Soul Makossa was released. Makossa is an urban dance music from Cameroon, and the word means in Duala roughly: I dance. The track blended jazz, funk and Cameroonian music and was also picked up in America, where in 1974 it received two Grammy nominations. The refrain later became famous through others: Michael Jackson took it over without permission in Wanna Be Startin' Somethin' (1983), and Rihanna used it via Jackson in Don't Stop the Music (2007). Dibango took legal action. Soul Makossa also influenced Jungle Boogie by Kool & the Gang. Later Dibango had a disco hit in England with Big Blow and worked with, among others, Fela Kuti, Herbie Hancock and Sly and Robbie.

Influence

Soul Makossa is regarded as the most sampled African song, and Dibango as the most sampled African musician. He brought African music into the discotheques of New York and Paris, long before anyone spoke of world music. He died of COVID-19 in 2020.

Listening

Listening tip. Listen to Soul Makossa and notice the tight, funky groove of bass and drums, with Dibango's saxophone above it. Listen too for the sung refrain that keeps returning, and then put the ending of Michael Jackson's Wanna Be Startin' Somethin' next to it.

Discography

Studio albums

In School of Rock

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Categories: Artists