Africadelic - Manu Dibango (1972)
This was a great listen this morning. Sometimes I’m just in the mood for something to get my blood pumping. This is maybe not the most artful Afro-centric jazz / funk record you’ll hear, but it’s easy to get into and easy to love.
It was originally released as “library music,” which is to say music that was licensable to be placed in films and television. I would enjoy the actual library that played this music but I’m sure not everyone would.
But that belies the fact that Dibango and his band were a riot. A short while after this album, Dibango caused a global sensation with his track Soul Makossa that caused a re-evaluation of what he’d been up to the previous few years.
It’s a joyride through African and Afro-latin music that keeps rolling along.
