Today’s Manu Dibango is an excellent vintage. The 2021 Sony reissue of Afrovision, originally released in 1976 on Fiesta. All tracks that have become must-haves, from the opener by Big Blow to Bayam Sell’am or Aloko Party, somewhere between jazz funk and afrobeat. Or the incantatory Afro blues of Baobab Sun 7, all of which Manu has included on subsequent albums at one point or another. For example, the fantastic electro treatment of Big Blow on Electric Africa (with Herbie Hancock, Wally Badarou and Bill Laswell). But here in 1976, Manu Dibango was already accompanied by a dream team. Judge for yourself: Vicky Edimo’s bass and Claude Vamur’s drumsticks for rhythm, the guitars of Jo Tongo, Bernard Torelli and Jerry Malekani, the keyboard of the future Gibson Brother, Alex Francfort, and the percussion played by Freddy Nkounkou and Aiyb Dieng. This recent reissue (no, burning the record in red wasn’t strictly necessary, but hey…) is very well-made and includes a bonus track, the full-length version of Big Blow, to close the album.
Afrovision – Manu Dibango, 1976
