Reverent Manou Gallo

Manou Gallo thinks of his elders.

© Christian Rose

By: Joe Farmer Follow

3 min

In 2020, when a pandemic panicked the planet, while our frenetic social rhythm slowed down, Ivorian bassist Manou Gallo felt the need to look back on her past and honor those who once showed her the way.

 is the fruit of this necessary introspection.

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By saluting the memory of his heroes (Manu Dibango, Fela Anikulapo Kuti, Franco Luambo, Marcellin Yacé), Manou Gallo takes the time to reflect on his prestigious career with a touch of nostalgia.

She praises and defends her chaperones with a touch of obvious artistic and cultural claim.

His convictions are sharp and assumed as in each of his creations.

Already on her previous album, she saluted the memory of Ernesto Djedje, the king of Ziglibithy, who died in 1983 at only 35 years old.

Manou Gallo has become aware, over the years, of the absolute need to carry the torch bequeathed by his elders.

They contributed to its artistic development and give body to its social existence.

It seemed unthinkable to him to ignore his curtsy. 

Manou Gallo at RFI (November 2021).

© Christian Rose

Manou Gallo is grateful and does not fail to proclaim it, however, she does not intend to plunge into an unproductive nostalgia. She lives in the 21st century and surrounds herself with brilliant contemporary instrumentalists capable of magnifying her daring re-readings of the great Afro-planetary classics. Bassists Étienne Mbappé and Christian McBride thus lend him a hand to sparkle a repertoire from "L'épopée des Musiques Noires" whose famous ritornelles we like to rediscover. How not to vibrate when listening to

 borrowed from Fela? How not to congratulate yourself on being able to hum

again

, the hymn of Franco Luambo? This historic composition is also, for Manou Gallo, the opportunity to call for more transparency of the political authorities in this bubbling world. For example, she wrote a letter to Marcellin Yacé, her mentor, who tragically died on September 19, 2002 at the age of 39.

Memories often fuel the creative appetite of artists.

This is undoubtedly the case for this

album

 which will be available in two volumes.

The first will be available this fall, the second will appear in spring 2022. Manou Gallo has so much to say that she allows herself this coquetry.

While waiting to hear it reveal itself a little more in a few months, let's already savor the first salvo of its overflowing expressiveness and we will meet in large numbers, on November 16, 2021, at the Studio de l'Ermitage in Paris where the impetuous virtuoso invites us. to celebrate his mythical idols and his forgotten godfathers. 

⇒ The

Poster of the Parisian concert by Manou Gallo.

© Blue Line Productions

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