naptu2:
I posted this some years ago and it's appropriate to post it again.

I've often heard people say that there was beef between Fela and Manu Dibango, but I've never seen evidence of it. Fela spoke highly of Manu Dibango when he was alive and Dibango also spoke highly of Fela.

(The only concrete thing that I've seen that points to any problem was when Seun Kuti was asked in the 2010s if he could work with Manu Dibango and he said that he respected Dibango but he was his father's rival, so he wouldn't work with him).


Anyway, Dibango was asked about Fela in this video and he said that he was good friends with Fela. He said that the president of the Ivory Coast asked him to manage an Ivorian TV station and that he left the US and went to live in Abidjan for 2 years. He said it was just an hour and a half from Abidjan to Lagos by air and he flew to Lagos every weekend to spend time with Fela at the Shrine.


He said that Fela was also a very good composer and if you listened to tracks like Lady you'd realise how good Fela was at composing music.

He said that the difference between him and Fela was that Fela was a politician and he didn't like to get involved in politics because politics is a messy business. He said that there are no real politicians in Africa, just people looking for how they can make money. He said that you must have vision in order to be a politician, but that these guys have no vision for their countries, they are just looking for ways to make money. He said that people like Kwame Nkwumah had a vision, but we don't have any of such people in African politics anymore.


He said that he performed with Fela at concerts in Italy, Holland, France and around the world.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EeWlia17y24

Emmanuel N'Djoké "Manu" Dibango (12 December 1933 – 24 March 2020) was a Cameroonian musician and songwriter who played saxophone and vibraphone. He developed a musical style fusing jazz, funk, and traditional Cameroonian music. His father was a member of the Yabassi ethnic group, though his mother was a Duala. He was best known for his 1972 single "Soul Makossa." He died from COVID-19 on 24 March 2020.


Early life

Dibango was born in Douala, Cameroon. His father, Michel Manfred N'Djoké Dibango, was a civil servant. Son of a farmer, he met his wife travelling by pirogue to her residence, Douala. A literate woman, she was a fashion designer, running her own small business. Both her ethnic group, the Duala, and his, the Yabassi, viewed this union of different ethnic groups with some disdain. Emmanuel had no siblings, although he had a stepbrother from his father's previous marriage who was four years older than he was. In Cameroon, one's ethnicity is dictated by one's father, though Dibango wrote in his autobiography, Three Kilos of Coffee, that he had "never been able to identify completely with either of [his] parents."

Dibango's uncle was the leader of his extended family. Upon his death, Dibango's father refused to take over, as he never fully initiated his son into the Yabassi's customs. Throughout his childhood, Dibango slowly forgot the Yabassi language in favour of the Duala. However, his family did live in the Yabassi encampment on the Yabassi plateau, close to the Wouri River in central Douala. While a child, Dibango attended Protestant church every night for religious education, or nkouaida. He enjoyed studying music there, and reportedly was a fast learner.

In 1941, after being educated at his village school, Dibango was accepted into a colonial school, near his home, where he learned French. He admired the teacher, whom he described as "an extraordinary draftsman and painter." In 1944, French president Charles de Gaulle chose this school to perform the welcoming ceremonies upon his arrival in Cameroon.


Career

He was a member of the seminal Congolese rumba group African Jazz and has collaborated with many other musicians, including Fania All Stars, Fela Kuti, Herbie Hancock, Bill Laswell, Bernie Worrell, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, King Sunny Adé, Don Cherry, and Sly and Robbie. He achieved a considerable following in the UK with a disco hit called "Big Blow", originally released in 1976 and re-mixed as a 12" single in 1978 on Island Records. In 1998, he recorded the album CubAfrica with Cuban artist Eliades Ochoa. 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 "(I) dance" in his native tongue, the Cameroonian language Duala. It 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.

He served as the first chairman of the Cameroon Music Corporation, with a high profile in disputes about artists' royalties. Dibango was appointed a UNESCO Artist for Peace in 2004.

His song, "Reggae Makossa", is featured on the soundtrack to the 2006 video game Scarface: The World Is Yours. In August 2009, he played the closing concert at the revived Brecon Jazz Festival. In July 2014, he made an 80th anniversary concert at Olympia, France which was broadcast by TV5Monde.

In 2009 he filed a lawsuit claiming that Rihanna's and Michael Jackson's "Don't Stop the Music" and "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'" used the "Mama-say, mama-sa, ma-ma-ko-ssa" hook without his permission. According to Dibango, the line is from his 1972 single "Soul Makossa". Agence France-Presse reported that Jackson admitted that he borrowed the line for "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'" and settled out of court. When Rihanna asked Jackson in 2007 for permission to sample the line, he allegedly approved the request without contacting Dibango beforehand. Dibango's attorneys brought the case before a court in Paris, demanding €500,000 in damages and asking for Sony BMG, EMI and Warner Music to be "barred from receiving 'mama-say mama-sa'-related income until the matter is resolved". The judge ruled that Dibango's claim was inadmissible: a year earlier, a different Paris-area judge had required Universal Music to include Dibango's name in the liner notes of future French releases of "Don't Stop the Music", and, at the time of this earlier court appearance, Dibango had withdrawn legal action, thereby waiving his right to seek further damages.

On 8 September 2015, Michaëlle Jean, Secretary General of the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie, honoured Manu Dibango with the title of Grand Témoin de la Francophonie aux Jeux Olympiques et Paralympiques de Rio 2016 (Special Representative of Francophonia to the Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games).

On 24 March 2020, Dibango died from COVID-19.

Evablizin:
RIP SIR.

naptu2:



HAPPY BIRTHDAY

naptu2:
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manu_Dibango