Continuing with my occasional ramblings on albums that I love… Manu Dibango’s Gone Clear was the first reggae album I heard. Now that in itself is an odd statement: Manu and reggae? He’s known as the soul makossa man, the jazz saxophonist, original purveyor of African-style jazz and funk. But Manu and reggae?

Well a couple of things explain the reggae connection. For one, most of the tracks have a reggae vibe to them over Manu’s trademark melodic sax licks. But digging a bit more, there are more reggae connections to this incredibly funky, breezy and summery album. It was released on Mango, the now-defunct reggae label. It was also recorded in Jamaica around 1979 when Bob Marley was still alive. Finally, it was Manu’s studio collabo with the reggae drum-and-bass kingpins Sly & Robbie aka the Riddim Twins. S&R featured on many of Bob Marley’s albums and were the heart of his live band for a long time. Their rhythmic pulse combined with Manu’s soulful sax makes this is a truly funky album that’s withstodd the test of time.

I came across Gone Clear in an uncle’s record collection while visiting Singapore. I think I only listened to it because it had a cool cover — who the hell was Manu anyway? I copied it onto a cassette and forgot about it — then listened it to some time later, and I was hooked. It was probably that damn funky little number “Goro City” that got me — to this day I don’t know what the singers are saying, or what the song is about, but I love that song. I have thoughts about doing a cover version of the tune some day… with all due respect to MD.