Les Têtes Brûlées
https://amf.didiermary.fr/zanzibar-atebass-tetes-brulees/
Les Têtes brûlées était un groupe camerounais connu pour son Bikutsi, rythme traditionnel, qu’ils font évoluer en l’électrifiant, s’attirant des critiques. […]
Isnebo & Faadah Kawtal – Le maître des éléphants
https://amf.didiermary.fr/isnebo-faadah-kawtal-maitre-elephants/
La bande son (BOF) du film “Le maître des éléphants” de Patrick Grandperret a été composée par Isnebo Sali Gondjeh (du groupe Kawtal), Georges Rodi et Steve Shehan.
Jay Lou Ava – Soir au village
https://amf.didiermary.fr/jay-lou-manu-dibango-soir-village/
A cover of Manu Dibango’s “Soir au village”, from Ava’s album “Ebotan” in 2005.Guitarist Jay Lou Ava, born Israël Jean-Louis Ava in Cameroon, is often described by members of the French media as “the Wes Montgomery of Africa.” His signature music is a fusion of jazz and African music, drawing from both contemporary and traditional […]
Bebe Manga – AmiO
https://amf.didiermary.fr/bebe-manga-amio/
Bebe Manga rose to stardom and international fame in 1980 when she covered Ebanda Manfred‘s 1962 radio hit, “Amie” (meaning “friend” in French). Bebe Manga’s version known as “Amio” earned her the prestigious “Maracas d’or” award from SACEM, and a firm place in history as one of Cameroon‘s greatest voices […]
Encyclopedie d’Assiko – Olivier Declovis Bonga
https://amf.didiermary.fr/encyclopedie-assiko-olivier-declovis-bonga/
Olivier Declovis Bonga live with dancers (athletes?) at the Festival of Traditional Music & Dance in Limbe, Cameroon.
I met Olivier the last time I was in Douala. Now that Jean Bikoko Aladin is gone, he’s the new King of Assiko.
This is traditional music and dance from the Douala region, from the Bassa people.There […]
Manu Dibango – Elolombe / Afreedom
https://amf.didiermary.fr/manu-dibango-elolombe-kof/
From the album Past Present Future, released in 2011, “Elolombe” means “dove” (colombe) in Duala language, and refers to the bird that symbolises peace.
“A forward-in-all-directions effort from the masterly Manu Dibango, who at 78 is still committed to trying out new ideas, still experimenting and collaborating on what happens to be his thirtieth album. […]
Cameroonian classic! Zangalewa
https://amf.didiermary.fr/cameroonian-classic-zangalewa/
Zangalewa est un succès populaire Camerounais, mais dont la popularité est allée bien au-delà des frontières du pays…
#80smusic #Bikutsi #Cameroon #Makossa #Zouglou #OldAfricanMusic
Bikutsi with Martin Atangana
https://amf.didiermary.fr/bikutsi-with-martin-atangana/
Martin Atangana (sometimes “Martino”) is an AfroJazz musician born in Cameroon. With Georges Seba, he played and arranged guitars on the song “Proof” from Paul Simon’s eighth solo studio album “The Rhythm of the Saints” in 1990, released after his acclaimed “Graceland.” […]
André-Marie Tala – Hot Koki
https://amf.didiermary.fr/andre-marie-tala-hot-koki/
Connaissez-vous la petite histoire autour de la chanson “Hot Koki” ?
André-Marie Tala est connu pour ses “Bend Skin Beats,” une évolution urbaine du Mangambeu, rythme et danse camerounaise qui a ses origines dans les traditions Bamileké dans l’ouest du Cameroun.
André-Marie Tala, musicien Camerounais, perd sa mère à 4 ans, son père 12 […]
Sam Fan Thomas – Wini
https://amf.didiermary.fr/sam-fan-thomas-wini/
Sam Fan Thomas (born Samuel Thomas Ndonfeng, in 1952 in Bafoussam) is a Cameroonian musician. He began his career in the early 1970s as a guitarist in the band Black Tigers (Tigres Noirs) with André-Marie Tala, where he stayed until 1976, when he launched his solo career.
Makassi is the name of Thomas’ music style, […]
Kareyce Fotso - MAMA HÉLÈNE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F75PyzGQIE0
From "Gwa" - "a powerful album that amplifies the stories of women - narratives that were often silenced, whispered, full of pain, yet carried immense strength."
Francis Bebey – Psychedelic Sanza
https://amf.didiermary.fr/francis-bebey-psychedelic-sanza/
The incredible “Psychedelic Sanza (1982-1984)” album is a beautifully dreamy celebration of the uniquely affective timbre of the sanza, or African thumb piano, by Francis Bebey.
[…] I did not participate in the production of the various records that my father devoted to the sansa. He did it himself, you might say, in his “laboratory.” […]
Black Styl & Nkotti François – Makossa
https://amf.didiermary.fr/nkotti-francois-black-styl-makossa/
Want to learn how to dance Makossa?
Here’s a classic video…
Makossa” was the first single taken from “Black Styl Le Grand Retour” (1993) with Nkotti François, the last album of a mythic band. François Nkotti, aka Desto, (1951 – 2021), founded the Black Styl band (or Les BlackStyls) with Toto Guillaume, Émile Kangue et Yves Lobe. […]
Los Camaroes
https://amf.didiermary.fr/los-camaroes/
Los Camaroes emerged at the end of the 1960s from the town of Maroua in the northern, predominantly Islamic area of Cameroon. After changes in name, in lineup and in management, they worked their way south to the capital to make a name for themselves; in the span of only a few years they changed […]
Trésor Magnétique – Francis Bebey
https://amf.didiermary.fr/tresor-magnetique-francis-bebey/
Francis Bebey was a true musical trailblazer. An artist who refused to choose between past and future, tradition and technology. Born in Cameroon and educated in Paris, Bebey carved a path all his own, blending pygmy flutes and thumb pianos with drum machines, tape loops, and synthesizers long before such hybrids became common. With this […]
BeBe Zahara Benet – Banjo
https://amf.didiermary.fr/bebe-zahara-benet-banjo/
Nea Marshall Kudi Ngwa (born in 1980), better known by his stage name BeBe Zahara Benet, is a Cameroonian-American drag performer, television personality, and musician best known for winning the first season of the reality-television drag competition RuPaul’s Drag Race in 2009.
Prior to starting drag, he was a choir director and music teacher.
Manu Dibango – Africadelic
https://amf.didiermary.fr/manu-dibango-africadelic/
“The Panther” is the main AfroFunk track found on “Africadelic,” an album released in 1973 by “Manu Dibango And His African Pop Group”.
In fact, this album was released a year before as part of the Mondiophone collection, a “library of recorded background music”…
Music design by Papa Manu, what else?
Cameroon Garage Funk
https://amf.didiermary.fr/cameroon-garage-funk/
“Cameroon Garage Funk” is a compilation of “obscure” tracks from 1964 to 1979.
Yaoundé, in the 1970´s, was a buzzing place. Every neighbourhood of Cameroon´s capital, no matter how dodgy, was filled with music spots but surprisingly there were no infrastructure to immortalise those musical riches. The country suffered from a serious lack of proper […]
Assiko Godfather Jean Bikoko Aladin
https://amf.didiermary.fr/assiko-godfather-jean-bikoko-aladin/
La reprise d’un vieux billet de mon défunt blog KoToNTeeJ, pour vous remettre en mémoire l’un des meilleurs représentants du style Assiko du Sud Cameroun, région de Douala, communément interprété au sein du peuple Bassa : Jean Bikoko Aladin (RIP).
Remarquez la manière particulière de jouer la guitare…
Selon les régions d’Afrique de l’Ouest […]
Donny Elwood – Négro et beau
https://amf.didiermary.fr/donny-elwood-negro-et-beau/
De son vrai nom Ella Owoudou Albert Dieudonné, né en 1968 à Ebolowa, Donny Elwood est un chanteur camerounais et pygmée par ses grands-parents. Auteur, compositeur et interprète, sa force vient de ses mots : simples et incisifs, intelligents, engagés, mais drôles à souhait, ses textes sont un véritable régal.
L’album éponyme date a priori de […]
Pierre Didy Tchakounté
https://amf.didiermary.fr/pierre-didy-tchakounte-lui-moi/
Pierre Didy Tchakounté “Ou c’est lui, ou c’est moi”, from album “Magabe Man”.
Pierre Didy Tchakounté is considered the father of modern mangambeu, a traditional Bamiléké music and dance from Cameroon. He harmoniously merged traditional African instruments (sanza, balafon, drums, etc.) and Western instruments (drums, bass, guitar, synth, violin, brass, etc.). [...]
Brassens en Afrique – Kristo Numpuby
https://amf.didiermary.fr/brassens-en-afrique-kristo-numpuby/
“Brassens en Afrique” est un album paru en 2007, où l’artiste camerounais Kristo Numpuby reprend les classiques du poète, sur des rythmes issus du continent, de Douala, de Kinshasa, de Dakar jusqu’à Pointe-à-Pitre.
“Georges Brassens avait un swing hors du commun. Un swing dépouillé. Un vrai swing. Quiconque s’intéresse à son répertoire s’en rend compte […]
Ghetto Blaster live (rare)
https://amf.didiermary.fr/rare-ghetto-blaster-live/
The Ghetto Blaster adventure starts in 1983, when two French musicians (Romain Pugebet and Stéphane Blaes) asked Pascal Imbert to produce them. He decided to go with them to Lagos, Nigeria, by car in order to make a record with the musicians he knew there.
This trip from Paris to Lagos was filmed as a […]
Manu Dibango – Ah! Freak sans fric
https://amf.didiermary.fr/manu-dibango-afrique-sans-fric/
Ah! Freak sans fric…
Afrique sans fric…
Un très bon morceau, bien dansant de Manu Dibango.
"This album is dedicated to all brothers for a better vibration." [sleeve note]
L’album “Home Made” de 1979, enregistré au Nigeria, puis remixé et mastérisé à Paris, contient […]
