Flea Market Funk is the latest edition to my blogroll. I was looking for some info on Sound Experience and the author of FMF just happened to publish a post on them the day before, so it was synchronicity of the best kind. I scrolled down the blog and discovered some Manu Dibango to share with you here:
Born in Cameroon in 1933, this African saxophone and piano player left for France in 1949 to finish his education. He would remain here until 1956, where he’d then move again to Brussels. Along the way, his love of Jazz would send him on a journey that would eventually lead the way for African music to be broken here in the United States in 1972. Inbetween, he played Jazz in Paris, linked up with the band African Jazz led by Joseph Kabasele, and would go on to write a song for the President of Cameroon. This tune would be for the African Football Championship, and he stuck an instrumental on the B-Side by accident, which was “Soul Makossa”. This accident of course was a huge hit internationally, and eventually got into the hands of Atlantic, which imported them from France and sold more than 150,000 copies in a week. This record would earn him a Grammy nomination, and the rest is history. Dibango would go on to release over 40 records of his African Jazz, Reggae and Rhythm and Blues fused music to critical acclaims. Over 70 years of age, this man is not stopping.
I am the creator and site administrator at The Basement Rug. I have been collecting LP's and CD's for more than 30 years. I 
