Live ’91 – Manu Dibango, 1991

🌍🎷🪘🥁🎤🎹🌴💿 After Polysonik in 90, already presented here, which plunged Afro-beat into rap and the acid-jazz movement, Manu Dibango performed at the Printemps de Bourges festival in April 1991. The resulting album, Live ’91, was partly a reworking of Polysonik’s repertoire, but also a much broader celebration of jazz and Africa, and a tribute to Serge Gainsbourg. The album opens with a memorable and sensitive version of La Javanaise, before giving way to the tropical heat of the rhythm, between makossa and soukous (Bolingo City). Manu celebrates the music of Duke Ellington, taking the ‘A Train’ from Douala to Yaoundé via Eseka. For this exceptional concert, he invites MC Mell’O, who ignites an anthology Senga Abélé, and relies on his Soul Makossa Gang with Jerry Malekani, André Manga, Francis Mbappé, Lokua Kanza, Florence Titty-Dimbeng, Peter Segona, Olivier Besenval and François Moity. Once again, I have to admit that the length argument gives a slight advantage to the CD version with three extra tracks – including Yekey Tengue – even if vinyl remains the medium of reference!