Manou Gallo

Manou Gallo, a musical pioneer and influential bassist, has been playing on the biggest stages in Europe and the US since 1997. Before her solo career, she was part of the legendary band Zap Mama. As a producer, she promotes young artists, her credits including Rising Tide (2012), the album that helped the then hardly-known band Mokoomba to achieve their international breakthrough. She has worked with Wyclef Jean, Marcus Miller, and Manu Dibango, and has composed music for the theatre. Since 2003, she has been touring with her own band, thrilling audiences with her blend of Afrobeat, funk, jazz, rumba, and salsa. She has been listed as one of Africa’s top ten bassists and, alongside many other honours, she received the Best African Instrumentalist Award in 2022. Referred to by fellow bassist Bootsy Collins of the US-American band Funkadelics as the ‘African Queen of Bass’, her playing is powerful and masterful, underpinned by a sense of rhythm that makes her the centre of gravity of her band and of each of their concerts.

 

The Congos

The Congos are one of the last Jamaican reggae bands to continue to play in their original line-up since the 1970s, and their concerts, which double as acts of Rastafarian worship, convey this sense of unity. Cedric Myton, Ashanti Roy, Watty Burnett, and Kenroy ‘Talash’ Fyffe are Rastafarians who have stayed true to their roots and principles, living in accordance with the image they project. They achieved fame with their album Heart of the Congos (1977), recorded at the legendary studio of Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, with whom they worked throughout his life.