Manu Chao

Manu Chao
Manu Chao performing at the 2007 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival
Background information
Birth name	José-Manuel Thomas Arthur Chao
Also known as	Oscar Tramor
Born	June 21, 1961 (1961-06-21) (age 48) Paris, France
Genre(s)	World music, reggae, Latin
Occupation(s)	Musician, record producer
Instrument(s)	Voice, guitar
Years active	1984–present
Label(s)	Nacional Records (U.S.) Because Music (France) Virgin Records
Associated acts	Mano Negra Radio Bemba Sound System
Website	http://www.manuchao.net/

Manu Chao (born José-Manuel Thomas Arthur Chao on June 21, 1961 in Paris, France) is a French-born singer and political activist of Spanish (Galician-Basque) origin. He sings mainly in Spanish, French and English and occasionally in a number of other languages. Chao began his musical career with Hot Pants, a French band that combined several musical styles and languages. The musician then founded the band Mano Negra with several friends in 1987, becoming a solo artist after it disbanded.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Career 2.1 Early years and Mano Negra 2.2 Solo years with Radio Bemba 2.3 Other works 3 Style and influences 4 Discography 5 References 6 Further reading 7 External links

Early life

Chao's mother was from Bilbao, in the Basque region of Biscay, Spain; his father, writer and journalist Ramón Chao, was from Galicia. They moved to Paris to escape Francisco Franco's dictatorship—Manu's grandfather had been sentenced to death.^[1] Shortly after Manu's birth, the Chao family moved to the outlying suburbs of Paris, and Manu spent most of his childhood in Boulogne-Billancourt and Sèvres. While growing up he was around many artists and intellectuals, most of whom were his father's acquaintances.^[2] Chao cites much of his childhood experience as inspiration for some songs.^[3]

Career

Early years and Mano Negra

Heavily influenced by the UK rock scene, particularly The Clash^[2] and Dr. Feelgood,^[4] Chao and other musicians formed the Spanish/English rockabilly group Hot Pants in the mid-1980s. The group released a demo entitled "Mala Vida" in 1984, which received plenty of local critical praise but otherwise gained them little attention. By the time the group released their first album in 1986 the Parisian alternative music scene had taken flight, and Manu, his brother Antoine Chao, and friends such as Alain from Les Wampas formed Los Carayos to incorporate this sound with the rockabilly and punk styles of Hot Pants. Los Carayos remained a side project of the artists for eight years, releasing three albums in the first two years followed by a final album in 1994.

In 1987, the Chao brothers and their cousin Santiago Casariego founded the multiracial band Mano Negra. Starting on a smaller label, the group released a reworked version of the Hot Pants single "Mala Vida," which quickly became a hit in France. The group soon moved to Virgin Records, and their first album Patchanka was released the following year. Though the group never gained much fame in the English-speaking market, popularity throughout the rest of the world soon followed, reaching the Top #5 in the Netherlands, Italy and Germany. The band achieved some fame in South America with 1992's Cargo Tour, where it played a series of shows in port cities, performing from a stage built into their tour ship's hold.^[5] Mano Negra also performed a tour through much of South America in a retired train.^[1] Still, rifts began to grow among band members during the port tour and the following year's train tour; many band members, including Manu's brother Antoine, had left the group by the end of 1994. Following that year's release of their final album, Casa Babylon, Manu Chao moved the band to Madrid, but legal problems with former band mates led Chao to disband the group in 1995.^[2]

Mano Negra's sound is mostly characterized by energetic, lively rhythms, symbolized by the title of their first album, Patchanka, derived from the word pachanga (which is a colloquial term for "party"), and a distinct informality which allows the audience to get involved and feel close to their sound. Mixed music genres are present throughout their albums.

Solo years with Radio Bemba

After arriving in Madrid, Chao and other band mates from Mano Negra formed a new group, Radio Bemba Sound System (named for the communication system used in the Sierra Maestra by the Castro- and Guevara-led rebels in the Cuban Revolution), featuring groups from diverse backgrounds, such as Mexican Tijuana No!, Brazilian Skank, and Argentinian Todos Tus Muertos.^[2] The goal was to replicate the sound of street music and bar scenes from a variety of cultures; to that end, Chao and the group spent several years travelling throughout South and Central America, recording new music as they went.^[6] The resulting music differed drastically from Mano Negra; the songs were primarily sung in Spanish with far fewer French tracks and the musical style had shifted from punk and alternative styles to the street vibe Chao was aiming for. The songs were collectively released as Clandestino in 1998, under Manu Chao's own name. Though not an instant success, the album gained a steady following in France with hits such as "Bongo Bong" and "Clandestino", and the album eventually earned the Best World Music Album award in 1999's Victoires de la Musique awards. It sold in excess of 5 million copies.^[1]

Chao's second album with Radio Bemba Sound System, Próxima Estación: Esperanza, was released in 2001. This album, named after one of the Madrid metro station stops (the title translates to "next station: Hope"), features similar sounds to Clandestino but with heavier Caribbean influences than the previous album. The album was an instant hit, leading to a successful tour that resulted in the 2002 live album Radio Bemba Sound System. Two years later, Chao returned to his French roots with the French-only album Sibérie m'était contée, which included a large book featuring lyrics to the album and illustrations by Jacek Woźniak.^[2][1]

Manu Chao's next album La Radiolina (literally "little radio" in Italian, but also "pocket radio") was released on September 17, 2007. This was the first international release since 2001's Próxima Estación: Esperanza. "Rainin in Paradize" was the first single from the album, available for download on his website before the release of the album.^[7] Concert reviews indicate that music from La Radiolina was already being performed live as early as April 2007's Coachella show.^[8]

Other works

In 2003 he approached Amadou & Mariam and later produced their 2004 album Dimanche à Bamako ("Sunday in Bamako"). His song "Me llaman Calle," written for the 2005 Spanish film Princesas, earned that film a Goya nomination for Best Original Song. It has been released in 2007's La Radiolina. Vocals from the song are included in the Go Lem System song "Calle Go Lem". Time magazine named "Me Llaman Calle" one of The 10 Best Songs of 2007, ranking it at #8. Writer Josh Tyrangiel observed,

Chao's warm singing over José Manuel Gamboa and Carlos Herrero's leaping Flamenco counter melody creates a direct emotional line to the core of this mid-tempo ballad. With its easy melody and universal rhythm Me Llaman Calle walks proudly in the shadow of Bob Marley, the last guy who made world music this disarmingly simple.^[9]

He is working on the soundtrack for the upcoming documentary film Maradona with Serbian filmmaker Emir Kusturica.^[4] Manu Chao and Tonino Carotone performed the theme song "La Trampa" for the short-lived improvisational comedy Drew Carey's Green Screen Show.

The songs "Bongo Bong" and "Je ne t'aime plus", which appear back-to-back on Clandestino, were covered by British singers Robbie Williams and Lily Allen, who recorded them as a single track, "Bongo Bong and Je Ne T'Aime Plus" and released it as a single from the album Rudebox.^[10][11]

Style and influences

Manu Chao sings in the English, Spanish, Galician, Portuguese, French, Arabic and Wolof languages, often mixing them in the same song. His music has many influences: punk, rock, French chanson, Iberoamerican salsa, reggae, ska, and Algerian raï. These influences were obtained from immigrants in France, his Iberian relations, and foremost his travels in Mesoamerica as a nomad following the disbanding of Mano Negra.

Many of Chao's lyrics are about love, living in ghettos, immigration, and often carry a left-wing message. This reflects Chao's own political leanings—he is very close to the Zapatistas and its public spokesman, Subcomandante Marcos.^[1] His band Mano Negra is possibly a reference to an anarchist group. Chao is openly critical of the Bush administration in the United States. He has many followers among the European left and the anti-globalization movement.^[12] Punk and reggae historian Vivien Goldman commented of his work, "I was writing about Good Charlotte and The Police. They adopted the trappings of punk. They aren’t bad groups, but the punk aspect is more manifested by somebody like Manu Chao. He’s one of the punkiest artists out there I can think of. It's an inclusionary spirit that is punk."^[13]

Chao also has a tendency to reuse music or lyrics from previous songs to form new songs. The hit single "Bongo Bong," in contemporary French style, takes its lyrics from the earlier Mano Negra hit "King of the Bongo," which owes more to The Clash. The musical backdrop for "Bongo Bong," in turn, was used in several other Chao songs, including "Je ne t'aime plus" from the same album and "Mr Bobby" and "Homens" from Próxima Estación: Esperanza. The music from that album's "La Primavera" is used in several other songs on that album, while lyrics for a few songs on Sibérie m'était contéee are repeated several times with different music, leading the lyrics to be interpreted in various ways depending on the mood of the track. Several musical themes and clips from that album also appear on Amadou & Mariam's Chao-produced Dimanche à Bamako, which were being produced at approximately the same time.

Though Manu Chao is one of the world's best selling artists, he is less well-known in the English-speaking world. Tours in the United States with Mano Negra never led to much success in that country, and Chao seems inclined to focus his efforts in Europe and Latin America, where his musical style finds its roots. Though his live performances in the U.S. are exceedingly rare, Chao played a handful of dates in that country in 2006, including a headlining spot at Lollapalooza 2006.^[14] His final appearance on his 2006 U.S. tour was a benefit concert in the Prospect Park Bandshell in Brooklyn, New York on August 7. He returned to that venue in the summer of 2007 for two concerts, part of the multicultural "Celebrate Brooklyn" concert series. The crowd was treated to a nearly two-hour performance, including two encores. Manu Chao also appeared at Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Maryland to a sellout crowd on June 23, 2007. This was a semi-spontaneous endeavour between Thievery Corporation and Manu Chao facilitated by a new-found friendship developed during Lollapalooza 2006.^[14] He was one of the headlining acts at the 2008 Austin City Limits Music Festival.

Discography

Main article: Manu Chao discography

• Clandestino (Virgin, 1998)
• Próxima Estación: Esperanza (Virgin, 2001)
• Sibérie m'était contéee (Virgin, 2004)
• La Radiolina (Because/Nacional, 2007)

References

Further reading

• Chao, Ramón. Mano Negra en Colombia. Un tren de hielo y fuego (originally Un train de glace et de feu), 1994. A chronicle of Mano Negra's 1993 tour on Colombia's decrepit railway through small, rural villages, written by Manu's father, Ramón Chao. The name of the train, Expresso de Hielo, was inspired by the opening line of Gabriel García Márquez's novel One Hundred Years of Solitude.
• Chao, Ramón. The Train of Ice and Fire - Mano Negra in Colombia - (ISBN: 9781901927375) Translated by Ann Wright, published in English by Route Route's Website

External links

• Official site

Manu Chao Studio albums Clandestino · Próxima Estación: Esperanza · Sibérie m'était contéee · La Radiolina Live album Radio Bemba Sound System Singles "Bongo Bong" · "Clandestino" · "Merry Blues" · "Me Gustas Tú" · "Mr. Bobby" · "Rainin In Paradize" · "Me Llaman Calle" · "Politik Kills" See also Discography · Hot Pants · Los Carayos · Mano Negra · Ramón Chao

Persondata
NAME	Chao, Manu
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Chao, José-Manuel Thomas Arthur
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Singer, guitarist, record producer
DATE OF BIRTH	June 21, 1961
PLACE OF BIRTH	Paris, France
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH