Emmanuel Dibango N’Djoké was born on December 12 of 1933 in Duala, Cameroon. Manu Dibango arrived to Europe as a young student. With his extraordinary…
Artist Profiles: Manu Dibango
Category: Artist Profiles
Artist Profiles: Blick Bassy
Born in 1974, singer, songwriter, guitarist and percussionist Blick Bassy grew up with 20 siblings in Cameroon’s capital Yaunde, a city where people from all…
Artist Profiles: Drummers of Burundi
The spectacular rhythms of The Drummers of Burundi have been cited as inspirational to rock and folk musicians The Clash, Echo & The Bunnymen, Joni…
Artist Profiles: Alif Naaba
Alif Naaba has been steeped in the musical traditions of Burkina Faso, West Africa. His Afropop style combines pulsating polyrhythmic percussion, kora textures, and funky…
Artist Profiles: Orchestre Poly-Rythmo
Orchestre Poly-Rythmo is a national institution in Benin, West Africa. Formed during the late 1960s, they soundtracked the years following Benin’s independence under Kerekou’s Marxist-Leninist…
Artist Profiles: Gnonnas Pedro
Gnonnan Sossou Pierre Kouassivi, better known as Gnonnas Pedro, was a singer-songwriter, salsero and musician born in Lokossa, Benin. Gnonnas Pedro had always excelled in…
Artist Profiles: Gangbe Brass Band
Gangbe Brass Band promotes the originality of the music of Benin combining an original mixture of jazz and Beninese traditional music: voodoo rhythms (Sato, Zinti,…
Artist Profiles: Antoine Dougbé
Orchestre Poly-Rythmo not only composed and recorded hundreds of songs but they still found time to arrange and record for other artists, one of them…
Artist Profiles: Adama Yalomba
Malian musician Adama Yalomba was born in Bamako in 1970. He plays guitar, ngoni and dan. He became known to western audiences in 2003 thanks…
Artist Profiles: Waldemar Bastos
Waldemar Bastos was one of the best known artists from Angola. He lived in Portugal and the United States during his last years, working with…