Makossa
Makossa is the name for a dance music style that is most popular in the urban areas of Cameroon .
Makossa is derived from a Duala - dance , the kossa is called, but has clear influences from the older Ambasse Bey added, but also from Jazz , Latin , highlife and rumba . Unlike the soukous , the makossa has a stronger, funk-like bass rhythm, which is characterized by an upbeat , and has a dominant brass section. It is clearly based on the principle of call and response , with a female choir or the wind instruments answering the singer.
Although the development of the style began in the 1950s, the first recordings were made and released a decade later. Musicians like Eboa Lotin , Misse Ngoh and especially Manu Dibango made this style of music known outside of Cameroon. Dibango's piece "Soul Makossa" (1972) became a global hit and sold more than 2 million copies.
Makassi is a lighter variant of the makossa. Sam Fan Thomas developed and popularized makassi during the mid-1980s. Moni Bile is also particularly popular . In Cameroon there are several hundred stars like Richard Bona or Petit Pays who are associated with the Makossa and who have further developed the style. Wolfgang Bender particularly points out the guitarist Toto Guillaume . The singing star Dina Bell also leans heavily on Dibango vocally. Tala André-Marie's composition “Hot Cookie” influenced James Brown's “Hustle Baby Do the Double Bump”.
literature
- Wolfgang Bender: Sweet Mother: African Music . Trickster Verlag, Munich 1985
- Graeme Ewens: Africa O-Ye! A Celebration of African Music . Guinness Publishing, London 1991
- Ronnie Graham: Stern's Guide to Contemporary African Music . Pluto Press, London 1989
- Ben West: Cameroon: The Bradt Travel Guide . The Globe Pequot Press Inc., Guilford, Connecticut 2004