At the time when the whole world is
plagued with Covid-19 one would expect that nothing else would be so
compounding as this Corona virus. But no, two musical giants have just passed
and one killed by the same virus and the World has even mourned more.
Kenny Kenneth Ray Rogers, singer and
musician, who was born back in August of 21st 1938 died this week on 20th March
2020.
Four days later, Cameroon saxophonist and songwriter Manu
Dibango lost battle to Covid-19.
These two are not just any other
musical artists.
Kenny Rogers is one artist who
personified blessings. He just had the right voice for his trade and no wonder
even in Malawi the least exposed would at least not to hesitate to mention him
as one of the drivers of the Country and Western genre.
Before I can tell my story on how was
influenced by the iconic American star, I would like to share with you just how
revered he was in terms of his contribution to the world of art.
Amongst his
countless honours are three Grammys, six Country Music Association awards and
eight Academy of Country Music awards. Seven years ago, he was inducted into
the Country Music Hall of Fame.
Besides being an author, Rogers was
also a keen amateur photographer.
His photographic toils came to the
fore in 1986 when he published Kenny Rogers’ America, which features pictures
he took while on tour. A year later he published another one Your Friends
and Mine which was comprised portraits of superstars including Elizabeth
Taylor and Michael Jackson. His other photography production of 2005 called This
Is My Country included some of his Country music stars like Willie
Nelson, Tammy Wynette and Parton.
He wrote a book that detailed his
musical play called The Toy Shoppe which was published in 2000. To his
credit is also his memoir, Luck Or Something Like It, which appeared in
2012. This was followed in 2013, by a novel which he co-wrote with Mike Blakely
called What Are the Chances.
He was also an actor and one act that
made him famous is a string of TV films where he played the title role of Brady
Hawkes that were crafted after his hit The Gambler.
Many Malawians know by heart some of
the famous tracks that Kenny Rogers, who has died aged 81, made for the world
including the all famous The Gambler, Lucille, and Coward of the County. Rogers
and Dolly Parton had also a huge success with their duet Islands in the Stream
in 1983 which also took over all spaces in the country.
Now turning to Emmanuel
"Manu" N'Djoké Dibango, a man born on 12th December 1933. He became famous
with his 1972 track called Soul Makossa, which has a special place in the
world’s music of Funk. The song was composed on the occasion of the 1972
African Nation Cup and become an anthem during the rest of the competition.
This Cameroonian saxophonist and
vibraphone player, who developed a musical style of fusing jazz, funk, and
traditional Cameroonian music benefitted a lot later in the years from this
track which managed to gain mass appeal when the New York legendary DJ, David
Mancuso who found a copy of the track within a West Indian record store based
in Brooklyn, New York, USA.
It got heard by New York premier
Black Radio DJ Frankie Crocker and once he started playing it on his show, the
song was on everyone's lips. Over 23 different record labels had their own
version of the song.
The song also gained even more
populace in modern times, as the "hook" was used in two songs by
major artists Michael Jackson within his song called "Wanna be starting
something" 1993 and Rihanna's "Don't stop the music".
In 2009, Manu Dibango filed a lawsuit
against Rihanna and Michael Jackson claiming that both of them had used the
"Hook" -"ma-mako, ma-ma-sa, mako-mako ssa" - without his
permission.
Michael Jackson admitted that he
borrowed the line and settled the case with Dibango out of Court.
What a loss we have suffered!
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