September 19, 2016
Showtime @ 6pm
Legendary Afro-Pop Multi-Instrumentalist,
Songwriter & Bandleader
MANU DIBANGO & THE SOUL MAKOSSA GANG
Opening Act: JOMION & THE UKLOS
Who knows? If he had not been born under the star sign of Sagittarius, he might never have had the temperament of a nomad and the taste for adventure.. Having been sent to Europe at the age of 15, he would have come back an academic success.
As it was, he was affected by musical grace in the very first years in the protestant temple. Little Manu on the road between Paris and Brussels, thanks to the masters he discovers (Armstrong, Ellington, Young, Parker…), wandering in places where jazz rips the nights apart voluptuously, a musician’s soul was being formed.
Then the famous singer Kabasele arrived in Brussels from Zaire (Democratic State of Congo), and proposes he join their group “African Jazz” to play Congolese music ; Manu takes up the challenge. He features in around forty records, then goes on tour near Kinshasa. This was to be a decisive step.
An idea was gradually taking shape during his life as a well-known musician : to invent a patchwork made up of rich and spirited conversations between jazz and African styles of music. Being of an eclectic mind, listening to the sounds of his era – in 1972 Soul Makossa was the first “French” hit to conquer the States – Manu takes secret pleasure in breaking the musical chapels, building bridges between continents and throwing passageways between tradition and the sounds of future.
The first in France to clear the land where the African wave was well established ; he produced albums and went on tour endlessly with warm, passionate enthusiasm and committed himself to humanitarian causes, giving a hand to young talents along the way. He used his time to create musical scores for African music and ever to write his own autobiography.
Time to call it a day? Definitely not ! Manu is more than 70, but he’s not yet ready to put down his saxophone.
Showtime @ 8pm
Doors Open @ 6pm
Tickets $35 in advance, $40 day of show
237 West 42 Street
(212) 997-4144
