Dibango is Cameroon's, and perhaps Africa's, best-known jazz
saxophonist. Starting in the 1950s, he became a globe-trotting
musician, living and performing in France, Belgium, Jamaica, Zaire, and
Cote d'Ivoire, as well as in Cameroon. In 1960, Dibango was one of the
founding members of the Zairean band African Jazz, with whom he spent
five years. World attention came to Dibango with the release in 1972 of
Soul Makossa, a work that actually had precious little of the makossa
sound in it, and scored later hits with Seventies and Ibida. Dibango's
output has been prodigious and multi-faceted. He has worked with
musicians as diverse as Fela Kuti and Sly Dunbar and Robbie
Shakespeare, Don Cherry and the Fania All-Stars. In addition to being
one of the leading jazz saxophonists of his generation, Dibango has
also run nightclubs, directed orchestras, and started one of the first
African musical journals. A recent release, Polysonik, featuring
English rapper MC Mello, Cameroonian singer Charlotte M'Bango leading a
choral section, and sampled pygmy flutes, shows that Dibango is
continuing to flourish and expand in challenging new directions.