News from the grapevine have it that a popular Ghanaian promoter is preparing the grounds for African soul master, Manu Dibango to perform in Ghana. The promoter who wants to remain incognito for now, says his agents abroad are making the contacts, and soon, music fans will hear something definite about the show.

Now, who is Manu Dibango?

It is almost impossible to find a fitting description for a musician such as Manu Dibango who has made such an enormous contribution to African music as a whole.

He is a saxophonist, nicknamed ?The lion of Cameroon?, from a track on ?The Very Best of African Soul? album.

Originally trained in classical piano, his musical career began in Brussels and Paris in the 1950s. 1960 finds him in Congo as a member of African Jazz led by Joseph Kabasele (Le Grand Kalle)! He formed his own band in Cameroon in 1963, moving to Paris in 1965. His international breakthrough came in 1972 with Soul Makossa.

Manu Dibango is extraordinarily versatile, having played almost every style of music you care to mention: soul, reggae, jazz, spirituals, blues...Anne-Marie Nzi? and Meiway and, on his Wakafrika album of 1994, many top African and international musicians contribute, In 1985 Manu raised funds for famine-striken Ethiopia through his successful ?Tam-Tams for Ethiopia? project with Mory Kante and others.

Manu?s first album was recorded in 1969 and in 1970 he accompanied Franklin Boukaka on a classic 12-track album.

In 2000 two were released: Anthology, a boxed set of 3 CDs and Mboa? Su which includes a new arrangement of Franklin Boukaka?s track ?Aye Africa? (Le Bucheron), made for the millennium celebrations on Robben Island in the presence of Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki.

Listening to the Anthology CDs you will find some amazing contrasts from one track to the next. An album with a difference was released in 2002: entitled ?B Sides?; most of the tracks are remastered from recordings in the 1970s where Manu plays, not sax but the marimba and vibraphone.

There are Rough Guides to the music of whole countries but Manu warrants one all to himself: the 13-track album The Rough Guide to Manu Dibango (2004) has the full range of his songs, classics and rarities.

Manu?s autobiography was originally published in French in 1989 with the English translation,Three Kilos of Coffee, published in 1994.

The book makes fascinating reading as Manu de cribes his experiences personally. In 1984 he originated the word ?negropolitain?.

Manu performed alongside Cuban Clave Y Guaguanco at the Barbican in London in 1999 and played there again in April 2001 with the spectacular Afro-Funk Big Band including Richard Bona, Claude Deppa and Tony Allen.

Recently, he was on stage with Ray Lema at WOMAD Reading 2003 (see photo above) In September 2003 Manu was in London, where he had a brand new collaboration with the Soweto String Quartet for an evening of songs of struggle and liberation.

To celebrate his 70th birthday Manu had a unique concert with special guests at London?s Barbican in October 2004.