Artist

Moni Bile

Last updated: 6 days ago

b. August 1957, Douala, Cameroon. For many people, Cameroonian makossa music means Manu Dibango. However, after the saxophonist gave the style an international profile in the 70s, a new generation of performers emerged to build and develop on the framework he had established. At the forefront of these younger artists are Sam Fan Thomas and guitarist/vocalist Moni Bile. The most important of Bile’s innovations, throughout the 80s, were lush and lavish orchestral productions, used as a backdrop to his idiosyncratic, nasal voice, and the way he grafted an Africanized beguine rhythm onto makossa’s basic, four-on-the-floor beat. Originally a bass guitarist, Bile moved to Abidjan in Côte D’Ivoire in 1979, where he recorded Nganda Tumba. A year later he settled in Paris, which was fast becoming the European centre of new African music, and hooked up with Cameroonian producer Aladji Toure. With Toure, he released four albums between 1982 and 1985- Bijou, O Si Tapa Lambo Lam, Chagrin D’Amour and Tout Da C’Est La Vie, establishing himself as Dibango’s most serious rival in the makossa pantheon. Parting company with Toure in 1985, he faltered before releasing the outstanding Makossa Ambiance in 1987 - no longer attempting to reproduce Toure’s complex arrangements and concentrating instead on emotionally charged simplicity. In 1990, he re-recorded a number of his greatest hits - including ‘Chagrin D’Amour’ and ‘O Si Tapa Lambo Lam’ - for the Moni Bile album. He returned to tour England in 1991 for the first time in three years, with promoters hoping to cash in on the publicity generated by the England and Cameroon football match. 10eme Anniversaire was the perfect overview of his skilled craft.

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