In December 2013, Alain Pilot and his “Bande Passante” on RFI celebrated Manu Dibango’s 80th birthday by bringing together prestigious guests around the great master of African music, including the ambassadors of Ethio-Jazz: Akalé Wubé. The group decides to resume live on African Pop Session and Ekedi – both composed and recorded by the Cameroonian saxophonist in the early 70s – and are quickly joined by Manu Dibango armed with his saxophone. Two live recordings of these versions will be taken from this unprecedented and improvised encounter. A great complicity quickly developed between them and, a few months later, Akalé Wubé invited Manu Dibango on their title Anbessa (The Lion in Amharic) from the album SOST, specially composed to pay homage to him. This new collaboration will allow them to share scenes several times over the following years. It is then under the impetus of Manu Dibango, and with the memory of this live session at RFI, that they take the road to the studio together so that Akalé Wubé arranges and re-records with him 5 other unknown nuggets of his repertoire: The Wrath of the Gods, Du Bush a Bush, Gentlemen of Camp Yabassi, Otetena Munja and Peaceful Homeland. Unfortunately, Le Lion will not be able to go to the studio of the Parisian group at the beginning of 2020 to perform their last solos there, fate having decided otherwise… Akalé Wubé today pays a strong and sincere tribute to this friendship through the album Anbessa – bringing together all the tracks written by or for Manu Dibango and performed by the group – on vinyl.
Studio Prado - Recording and sound creation in Paris