Chico Mann

Bio:

CHICO MANN (pronounced: mæng)

Chico Mann, a time-travelling multi-instrumentalist-producer who with drum machines, synthesizers, and guitars has singlehandedly filled the 30+ year gap between afrobeat, afrocuban, freestyle and electronic music while throwing a wrench into the cogs of musical history.

Chico Mann grew up in a musical family in New York and New Jersey. His father was the owner of a Latin record label based in Hell's Kitchen in New York City and a young Chico observed the ins & outs of the biz while practicing his guitar and piano. It was then that he began to propagate his deep musical roots with such influences as Afrika Bambaata, Lisa Lisa, Willie Colon, Celia Cruz and Fela Kuti. Ignoring his father's advice to stay out of the business, he found his voice at age 12 and began his journey into sound.

It was in the winter of '04 that Chico began putting together a series of tracks during his offtime from touring with Antibalas. What started as a lo-fi beat making excursion quickly became "Manifest Tone Volume 1", a musical lesson that spoke volumes on the music of New York City, Miami, Cuba, Africa and the previously unknown love affair in sound that 'could have been' had Afrobeat, Electro, and Freestyle cross-pollinated. Hailed as an instant classic, it proved as the first step in a groundbreaking career that is destined to re-write the history books.

Chico Mann has created a musical time machine that simultaneously fuses the sounds of 1970s Afrobeat, 1980s Freestyle and Afro Cuban in a hybrid beast of culture and tone. Its the big 'what if' Freestyle, Afrobeat & Afro Cuban converged and hit the mainstream for an army of Chicos to pick up where Stevie B, TKA, George Lamond, Sa-Fire, Information Society, Noel, and Cult Jam, and Exposé left off. Chico's choruses of multi-layered vocals with funky guitar lines helps to cool off the heat created between the bass and rhythm... creating a unique conversation of color and value that pays homage to the past but raises the bar for the future.

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Analog Drift : Muy...Esniqui
Chico Mann

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Manifest Tone Vol. 3 EP
Chico Mann

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Manifest Tone Vol. 2 EP
Chico Mann

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Manifest Tone Vol. 1 (Original Version)
Chico Mann

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Member Since:

December 28, 2005

Influences:

Sounds Like:

Turntable Lab
“…This is the future of music, in case you didn't know. [Chico Mann] has come from the future to show you how the past should have sounded. This time-traveling mastermind is basically the Jersey City Cuban James Brown of the Casio. You heard it here first…Welcome to the future past. Recommended.”

Flavorpill (Jason Jeffers)
"...a funky electro-Afrobeat outfit that sends both boom boxes and backsides into glorious tremors."

excerpted from ReUp Magazine Issue 16
“Straight out of Jersey City, Chico Mann comes through with a heavy dose of instant-vintage electro-freestyle-Latin-Afrobeat. If you need a visual aid,picture an early ‘80s late-night jam session with Fela Kuti and the Fania All-Stars taking turns on that old Casio you used to jam out on at your cousin’s house. Chico Mann is the brainchild, or better yet, soulchild of Marcos Garcia, better known to some as a guitarist and singer for Antibalas, Brooklyn’s finest Afrobeat collective. Manifest Tone Volume 1, the first album by Chico Mann, was a one-man-show created by Marcos, combining old-school Casio drum patterns with Afrobeat guitar lines, funky synth grooves, and call-and-response vocals into a sonic blend that sounds like the past but tastes like the future.”

Dusty Groove America
“…a set of spare, gritty grooves that are all plenty darn funky -- and served up with a few global traces too!...a mean, lean quality that has the full force of Afrika 70 stripped down for the streets of New York! The tunes are simple, but quite compelling…”

Earplug
“…Marcos "Marquitos" Garcia, Antibalas' guitar player, has created a pretty damn good [band] with his Chico Mann project. Recorded with live instruments and '70s-era synthesizers, the end result is unabashedly retro…Garcia, like Antibalas, has a knack for bringing together disparate elements in a way that sounds natural. In this case, it's a very fine vintage indeed.”

Stranger Magazine (Nick Radford)
“…It sounds as if it were recorded over 30 years ago but was way ahead of its time. Every track is a potential dancefloor bomb - hot foot, get up, get into it and get involved... get a copy.”

Loose-record.com (Maggie McQuade)
“…I even found myself so overcome by the funk that I was forced to shake my head back and forth in an effort to pantomime the sentiment, "too dirty, too sexy"! Listening to Chico Mann makes me feel like throwing understated bedroom eyes at sexy strangers, smoking cuban cigars, and wearing leisure suits.”

Boomkat
“…a fusion of Latin influences, old fashioned funk and electronics…Garcia manages to make the album sound authentically vintage – not just in terms of its content but the production itself. Even on the Casio keyboard beats of Piensalo (Bien) there’s a surprisingly impressive salsa-funk pedigree lurking beneath the surface. Very nice.”

Montreal Mirror
“…in the end this is a raw, much needed addition to the growing international sound of afrobeat. Proof positive can be found in the filthy stomp of Hot Foot, or the future dancefloor classic Say What. This record is a must…”

Soultrade
“…Garcia comes correct in his Chico Mann guise for another slamming Afrofunk throwdown…”

Fly.co.uk
“…the album immediately blossoms, with the opening track Mayombe establishing the album’s cheerful mood and contagious groove…Hearing Manifest Tone Vol.1 in full delights the listener with unrestrained, jubilant sounds capable of stirring up a dancefloor…”

Dancetracks Digital
“A stand-out album displaying the crossover between afrobeat and electronics without missing a beat! A record for the whole family to enjoy.”

Groove Distribution
“Ultra dope… time this is serious Latin & afrobeat headnoddery.”

Radio Rawal (R.B)
“…un afrobeat low-fi con coros latinos y de algún modo crea un ambiente de sofisticado vintage.”

Urb Magazine (Carlos Nino)
“…It's like a classic Afro-Soul-Salsa mash-up that has all the jumpin', live energy of Fela Kuti leading a procession in The Shrine with the raw, improvised hip-hop of Madlib flexing on the 303.”

Amp Camp (Glass Bendrix)
“Not Aimee Mann's half brother, not the Latino version of Man Man, but Antibalas guitarist Marquitos Garcia doing lo-fi electro afropop. Yup. And it sounds great.”

PopMatters (Kristofer Ríos)
"Chico Mann—an afrobeat-tinged, synth-driven musical oxymoron blending warm analog sounds with modern digital techniques—is as original on the stage as in the studio. As the chekere break to “Dilo Como Yo” dropped, frontman and creative mastermind Marcos Garcia took the stage, introducing his motley crew: Antibalas synth-master Victor “Ticklah” Axelrod, turntablist Telekinetic Kat, and sultry soul sisters Vinia Mojica and Mayteana Morales.

Once introduced, Telekinetic Kat kicked in the drum break, and the crowd was instantly transported by the futuristic Cuban guajira to an ’80s breakdance party in Lagos, Nigeria. Together, the blended lo-fi Casio keys, warm digital synths, soulful Spanish vocals, West African Highlife guitar riffs, and heavy afro-funk break-beats hit heavy and transcended time and place.

To those who may have seen Chico Mann in their first incarnation, the absence of a guitar and addition of DJ Telekinetic Kat were somewhat unexpected. The new arrangement reinvents the group’s approach, adding to the role of the DJ as a performer. Telekinetic is the band’s rhythm section; he cues and cuts in the drum line, bass line, and rhythm guitar with surgical precision and timing. Free from the guitar now, Garcia can freak out on the Casio and lead the vocals.

Throughout their set, Chico Mann shattered multiple musical boundaries, but as far as the audience was concerned, it was a dance party—the band’s funky afro-rhythms summoning everyone’s inner booty-shaker out and onto the dance floor."



Directed by Hasan Mclendon for HJ Films






Chico Mann
"Who You Runnin' From"
Manifest Tone Vol. 1
Kindred Spirits/K7!
2007

Directed by Gabriel Omar Añel





Chico Mann
"Ya Yo Sé"
Analog Drift : Muy Esniqui
Furious Panther
2009

Produced by LeArsenalAV

Record Label:

Furious Panther