Franck Biyong - Jazz & Africa : Knowledge Identity Reconstruction (2022)

Recorded with a stunning crew of Afro-American artists comprising poets, singers, deejays and MC's, this brand new release of Cameroonian musician Franck Biyong focuses on the sound continuum between Mother Africa and the Music named "Jazz".

'The fact we performed mostly cover songs on this record, up to real jazz standards offered me the opportunity to stretch out more and essentially create a new rhythm process' says Biyong 'to make it more circular, more African flavored. Then I asked them to throw some blues on it'.

These highly original renditions of great songs (Charlie Parker, James Brown, Sun Ra, Manu Dibango, Wayne Shorter, Ornette Coleman etc…) create another kind of Good Book where the African ancestral rhythm finally encounters the spoken word narrative tradition.

This album is for sure an unpredictable departure from Franck Biyong's former recording, but definitely a giant step towards a new barrier crossing musical direction.