Manu Katché

Manu Katché (born 27 October 1958) is a French drummer and songwriter of Ivorian descent. He has worked extensively as a session musician, notably with Sting and Peter Gabriel, and his solo albums as a bandleader are largely in the jazz fusion style.

Katché was born on 27 October 1958 in Saint-Maur-des-Fossés in the southeastern suburbs of Paris, France. He performed on several successful albums in the mid-1980s such as Peter Gabriel's 1986 album So and Sting's …Nothing Like the Sun (1987) and The Soul Cages (1991). Since then, he has been featured in the pop, rock and world music scenes, playing with numerous artists and bands, including: Afro Celt Sound System, Jeff Beck, Al Di Meola, Tears for Fears, Eurythmics, Simple Minds, Dire Straits, Laurent Voulzy, Jeanne Mas, Joni Mitchell, Mike Lindup, Jan Garbarek, Claudio Baglioni, Mango, Manu Chao, Loreena McKennitt, Youssou N'Dour, Robbie Robertson, Joan Armatrading, Joe Satriani, Tori Amos, Richard Wright, Kyle Eastwood, the Christians, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Tracy Chapman, Dominic Miller and the aforementioned Peter Gabriel and Sting, with whom he has also toured extensively. Manu has also worked with Zlatan Stipišić Gibonni, a Croatian singer, on his albums Mirakul (2001) and Unca Fibre (2006), and has toured with Gibonni supporting the two albums.

From 1985 to 1988 he was in the band Preface, with guitar player Kamil Rustam and keyboardist Jean-Yves D'Angelo.

In 1991, Katché released his first solo album, It's About Time, largely in the rock genre, with guest musicians like Daniel Lanois, David Rhodes, Peter Gabriel, David Sancious, Branford Marsalis and Sting. His subsequent solo releases have all been jazz. He released his second solo album on 12 September 2005 entitled Neighbourhood, which features Jan Garbarek on saxophone, Tomasz Stańko on trumpet, Marcin Wasilewski on piano and Slawomir Kurkiewicz on double bass. His second ECM album, Playground was released in September 2007. In March 2010, Katché released Third Round, again 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 the Idol series. He was the most feared judge for his wit and his severe judgment about the groove, rhythm and tempo of the singing contestants.