Music must be body and soul. If you do not have the body, it doesn’t work. | | | | Manu Dibango in the early 1970s.
(Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images) | | | | | |  | “Music must be body and soul. If you do not have the body, it doesn’t work.”
| | | | | | rantnrave:// In the five days since I last wrote, Covid-19 has taken the lives of at least four musicians of note: Congolese soukous king AURLUS MABÉLÉ, leader of the band LOKETO; jazz pianist MIKE LONGO, who was DIZZY GILLESPIE's longtime musical director; New Orleans bounce fixture GO DJ BLACK N MILD; and, on Tuesday, MANU DIBANGO, the great Cameroonian saxophonist. Dibango's career bridged so many continents and cultures that when you saddle him with the descriptor "world music" you can confidently say you're not describing his music but rather the size and shape of his reach. Mama say, mama sa, ma makossa indeed. So first things first. Stay safe, stay sheltered, stay indoors. Wash your hands. Keep your distance. Please. Please. Please. You can no more escape this virus by chance or luck than you can escape the sound of the man born Emmanuel N’Djoké Dibango, who to various degrees conquered Cameroon, the rest of Africa, Paris, the rest of Europe, and America while dancing his way through jazz, funk, highlife, disco, salsa, reggae and other destinations that rarely sounded like he was doing anything but following his heart and his muse. The hit, a watershed moment in modern African music's American landfall, was a proto-disco b-side that made its way onto the influential turntables at DAVID MANCUSO's the LOFT and FRANKIE CROCKER's WBLS radio show and, in summer 1973, the lower reaches of the American top 40. A decade later, it was quoted, at length and without permission, on the first track of the biggest selling album of all time, for which Dibango both sued (successfully) and thanked ("he extended the song's life cycle") MICHAEL JACKSON. Two decades after that, RIHANNA did the same and Dibango did the same/same, too. He was blessed with both pride and an open heart. He mingled and/or collaborated with FELA KUTI, KING SUNNY ADÉ, BOB MARLEY, the FANIA ALL-STARS, HERBIE HANCOCK, Jackson's producer QUINCY JONES and so many more. But the Loft and WBLS had been the perfect landing spots for his music, which was always aimed at one dancefloor or another. An anecdote (from a great 2018 interview with Quincy Jones' QWEST TV) about Dibango trying to turn jazz fans in Kinshasa in the 1960s onto THELONIOUS MONK: "They listened and said, 'But how do we dance?'" RIP... KENNY ROGERS, who died last week—not from the virus—holds a special place in my heart as one of my mom's favorite singers. Even though I didn't hear him all that much way back when (dad tended to control the car radio), I'm pretty sure Kenny and mom were subliminally responsible for my lifelong love of country music. Rogers of course, never felt the need to shelter in place on country radio; like Dibango, he was an all-time great crossover artist whose music seemed to travel organically toward whichever audience it needed to get to. This is the psychedelic rock hit with which he introduced himself; this is a perfect country weeper that somehow was never released as a single; this is what happened when PRINCE wrote him a song; and this is the LA TIMES' BRIAN RAFTERY on "the greatest karaoke duet ever," I assume you know which one. Also, he was a Texan through and through... D-NICE, spinning records over INSTAGRAM LIVE from a Los Angeles apartment while RIHANNA, ALICIA KEYS, OPRAH WINFREY, STEVIE WONDER, STEPH CURRY, MICHELLE OBAMA and seemingly the rest of the civilized quarantined world virtually drop in to say hi via text bubbles, is the coronavirus era's house DJ, a source of unmitigated joy when we all could use some. He's back on IG Live at 6:30 pm ET today, spinning a voter-registration set in partnership with Michelle Obama's WHEN WE ALL VOTE initiative. Which makes the experience even more joyful, if you ask me... Socially distanced album covers... Recordings by DR. DRE, WHITNEY HOUSTON, TINA TURNER and MR. ROGERS are among the new inductees into the Library of Congress' NATIONAL RECORDING REGISTRY... Musicians appeal to legislators to extend unemployment benefits to gig economy workers... RIP also BILL RIEFLIN, PAUL K, CHARLES WUORINEN, ERIC WEISSBERG, BILL SMITH, GABI DELGADO-LÓPEZ, TRES WARREN, JEREMY MARRE, SKIP MAHONEY, ELINOR ROSS and SUZY DELAIR. | | | - Matty Karas (@troubledoll), curator | | | | | | | on a warm summer's evenin' | |  | The New York Times | | Decisions in copyright cases involving Led Zeppelin and Katy Perry suggest the open season on lawsuits could be coming to a close. | | | |  | Stereogum | | Coronavirus is boosting yet another avenue for musicians to give their work away. | | | |  | VICE | | When the restaurants closed and tours were cancelled after the coronavirus outbreak, some Philadelphians lost two jobs on the same day. | | | |  | Middle Class Artist | | The following article may be hard to read for those suffering from the catastrophic personal losses caused by the COVID-19 crisis and the near-universal invocation by arts presenters of Force Majeure. | | | |  | Qwest TV | | The Cameroonian saxophonist Manu Dibango was an essential figure in breaking down barriers to African music, particularly thanks to the international success of "Soul Makossa," in 1972. Here, he reveals his journey, moving between jazz, rumba, funk and reggae, crossing paths with Sidney Bechet, Quincy Jones, Herbie Hancock, Bob Marley and Muhammad Ali along the way. | | | |  | Level | | Over 100 thousand people attended Derrick ‘D-Nice’ Jones’ Instagram Live fete on Saturday. LEVEL tracked down some notable folks to relive the monumental jam. | | | |  | Billboard | | Freelance contractors are the backbone of the live music sector, but since the COVID-19 pandemic canceled concerts around the world will they get left behind? | | | |  | KLOS-FM | | In Honor of the late Kenny Rogers, Christian Hand breaks down "The Gambler" which was one of five consecutive songs by Rogers to hit No. 1 on the Billboard country music charts. | | | |  | Vulture | | Pop-country owes a debt of gratitude to the late singer and his debut hit “Lucille.” (Excerpted from Kenny Rogers' memoir, "Luck or Something Like It." | | | |  | Los Angeles Times | | The coronavirus outbreak has already devastated the live music economy. For a small independent venue like Lodge Room in Highland Park, it may be a death knell. | | | | | | | on a train bound for nowhere | | | Billboard | | Following our Billboard staff-picked list of the 100 greatest songs of 2000, we're writing this week about some of the stories and trends that defined the year for us. Here, we flash back to late March of that year, when one of the biggest groups in pop music released their much-anticipated sophomore album -- and set a record-breaking mark for runaway success that stood for 15 years to come. | | | |  | SPIN | | The mid-career hurdle proved to be a turning point for these artists. | | | |  | She Shreds | | We spoke with luthier Nicole Alosinac about how to disinfect musical instruments, the most common methods, and how they could react with your gear. | | | |  | NPR | | Spotify "data alchemist" Glenn McDonald has been regularly scanning the platform for new songs addressing the crisis, updating his master playlist along the way. | | | |  | Water & Music | | There’s one transformation from Covid-19 that remains as yet under-discussed in music circles, but I think could have significant longer-term effects on the way the industry operates: The normalization of remote work. | | | |  | NPR Music | | The New Normal includes some Tiny Desk concerts without the Tiny Desk. Sophie Allison, aka Soccer Mommy, performed a short set while quarantining in her Nashville home during the coronavirus crisis. | | | |  | Rolling Stone | | Awesome rock & roll reads, from Keith Richards and Patti Smith to Slash and Nikki Sixx. | | | |  | Music Journalism Insider | | "Historically, economic dips haven't been very good to arts writing." | | | |  | Pollstar | | One of the horror stories of the road that touring bands tell is of rolling into town, loading into the venue for that night’s gig, and discovering some band they didn’t agree to opening the show for them. | | | | | The New York Times | | The live performance wasn’t really live, but it felt like being there all the same. | | | | | Rolling Stone | | America’s live-music venues are facing unprecedented challenges. See scenes from the clubs, hear from their owners, and find out how you can help. | | | | |  | | YouTube | | | | | | | | Manu Dibango and the Fania All-Stars | | | | | | | | | | | © Copyright 2020, The REDEF Group | | |
