Manu Katché

Manu Katché is a French musician of Ivorian origin, born in Saint-Maur-des-Fossés on 27 October 1958. He is a drummer and songwriter.

Career

Session musician

He became known by some in the music world in the mid-1980s mostly thanks to the huge success of Peter Gabriel's 1986 album So and his subsequent work with Sting on the albums …Nothing Like the Sun and The Soul Cages. Since then he has been prominently featured in the pop, rock and world music scenes playing with numerous bands and artists, including Afro Celt Sound System, Jeff Beck, Al Di Meola, Tears For Fears, Eurythmics, Simple Minds, Dire Straits, Jan Garbarek, Manu Chao, Loreena McKennitt, Youssou N'Dour, Robbie Robertson, Joan Armatrading, Joe Satriani, Tori Amos, Richard Wright, Kyle Eastwood, Ryuichi Sakamoto and the aforementioned Peter Gabriel and Sting, with whom he has also toured extensively. Manu has also worked with Zlatan Stipišić Gibonni, a popular Croatian singer, on his albums "Mirakul" (2001) and "Unca Fibre" (2006), he has also toured with Gibonni supporting the two albums. He also played drums on all tracks except one on Tracy Chapman's 1992 release "Matters of the Heart".

Band Preface

From 1985 to 1988 Manu Katche formed the band Preface, with fellow guitar player Kamil Rustam.

Solo career

In 1992, Katche released his first solo Album, It's About Time, largely in the Rock genre. His subsequent solo releases have all been jazz. He released his second solo album on September 12, 2005 entitled Neighbourhood, which has contribution from such talents as the aforementioned Jan Garbarek on saxophone, Tomasz Stanko on trumpet, Marcin Wasilewski on piano and Slawomir Kurkiewicz on double bass. His second ECM release, Playground was released in September 2007 (see below). In March 2010, Katche released Third Round, on ECM.

From 2003 to 2007, along with producer Dove Attia, composer André Manoukian and singer Marianne James, he was one of the four judges in the TV-show "Nouvelle Star", the French version of American Idol. He was the most feared of them for his wit and his severe judgement about the groove and the rhythm of the singing contestants.

Since January 2008, Katché hosts the monthly program One Shot Not on Arte.

In August 2011 the album "Rock the Tabla" is released. Featuring Manu Katché, Billy Cobham, A.R. Rahman, Hossam Ramzy & Omar Faruk Tekbilek. ^[1]

Discography

As leader

• It's About Time (1992)
• Neighbourhood (2005)
• Playground (September 2007)
• Third Round (March 2010)

As sideman

With Jan Garbarek

• Ragas and Sagas (ECM, 1990)
• Twelve Moons (ECM, 1992)
• Visible World (ECM, 1995)
• In Praise of Dreams (ECM, 2003)

References

External links

• Official website
• An information page
• Manu Katché on ECM Records