Editor's Choice

ATOMIC, THE BOMB MEANT TO FLATTEN JAMHURI JAZZ

February 12, 2025 - 08:00 PM Just like deprivation, rivalry begets creativity. Some of the most popular rumba songs, ie 'mokolo tonga aka taileur' of Franco or 'Jela' of Ochieng Kabasele, were composed while the musicians were incarcerated at Makala prison In Kinshasa and King'ong'o Prison in Kenya, respectively. The same can be said of rivalry. At peak of their careers, Tabuley and Luambo oftentimes sought to outdo each other and this urge worked wonders in pushing creativity a notch higher. When Tabuley and Nico disagreed over the management of African Fiesta Original, the altercation led to the creation of two of the finest bands: African Fiesta Sukisa and its sibling, African Fiesta National, which......

JOHNY BOKELO: A SCION OF A MUSICALLY RICH FAMILY

February 03, 2025 - 05:33 PM Are musicians born or made? Any attempt to Respond to this question in the context of Congolese rumba; is likely to land you at the doorstep of the Isenge family. This is for the reason that this is easily the largest musical family in the history of the genre. The Isenge octad, comprising eight musical superstars, compares well and even surpasses "The Jackson’s five" of the USA, Mushrooms quintet, sons of Kaloleni Giriama in Kenya, and even the six musical children of Dorcas, popularly known as Bana Kadori, of Kenyan benga, whose patriarch was Ochieng’ Kabaselle. For the Jacksons, the youngest star shone the brightest, while for Mushrooms and the Kadori, it was the eldest, but......

THE MUTUASHI QUEEN'S REIGN EXTENDS BEYOND HER DEATH

January 23, 2025 - 10:15 AM It has been two years since the Queen of Mutuashi, Tshala Muana, breathed her last in a hospital in Kinshasa, where she had been admitted. Her death marked the end of an illustrious career that lasted three decades and saw her become a celebrity not just in her home country, the DRC, but across the continent. Although DRC has had a galaxy of women musicians, from the days of Pauline Lisanga at Loningisa studios in 1952 to the era of Marcel Ebibya, Lucy Eyenga, and the generation of Mbilia Bell, and even those who came after her, like Cindy Le Coeur, Tshala Muana's contribution to Congolese music stands out for several reasons. She is the face of Mutwashi. She did not invent the dance, but......

ZAIKO LANGA LANGA

January 15, 2025 - 04:55 AM Today, we take our spades and dig into the rich Biography of Zaiko Langa Langa. This is an Innovative Congolese rumba band, formed in 1970. Its most prolific members included:Michel Anto "Evoloko" (born Kinshasa, May 20, 1954; vocal), Matima Kinuani (born Sona Bata, Congo-Kinshasa, Apr. 14, 1951; died Liege, Belgium, May 29, 1996; guitar), Félix Manuwaku Waku (born Kinshasa, Aug. 19, 1954; guitar), Siméon Mavuela Somo (born Congo-Kinshasa; vocal), Meridjo Belobi (born Congo-Kinshasa; traps), D.V. Moanda (born Congo-Kinshasa, 1947; died Kinshasa, Jan. 9, 1984; founder), Muaka Mbeka "Bapius" (born Boma, Congo-Kinshasa, Feb. 27, 1951; bass), Nyoka Longo "Jossart" (born......

KENYAN EXPORTED HIS GUITAR WIZARDRY TO CANADA

January 09, 2025 - 02:00 PM KENYAN EXPORTED HIS GUITAR WIZARDRY TO CANADA ADAM NDARO SOLOMON is a multi-talented musician who was a 2005 Juno Award Winner and a double winner at TAMA (Toronto African Music Awards) for Best Release and Best New Performers in 1997. Adam was born in Mombasa, Kenya, and began performing at an early age, playing kivoti (flute) and kayaamba (shaker) at village celebrations and festivals. He established his career playing lead guitar and singing on recordings and videos with Kenya's most popular bands and musicians, including Joseph Kamaru, Daudi Kabaka, Zetta success band, Kabasselleh Ochieng, Bana Citoyen, Super Kalles, Bana Batoto, Super Mazembe, Less Wanyika, Popo Lipo of Lessa Lessan,......

MAKEBA: MAMA AFRICA

December 23, 2024 - 01:47 PM By Jerome Ogola She performed in Kenya's independence fete in Nairobi in 1963, she carried the Name of Mama Africa, for wearing the face of resilience and determination, she became the most successful African female musician, she was an anti-apartheid crusader, and this isn't all. She collaborated with American calypso legend Harry Belafonte in 1965, in a venture that yielded the 15-track album, A Evening with Belafonte and Makeba, she was once married to Jazz superstar Hugh Masekela, she spent almost her entire life exiled abroad and only made a return when South Africa gained independence in the early 1990s. She is Mirriam Zenzile Makeba. All these accolades don't adequately......

KALENJIN MUSIC HISTORY

December 23, 2024 - 05:18 AM In a whirlwind tour across Kenya's hinterland sampling the country's music from each community, the picturesque scenery of the lush green tea plantains of Kericho prepares one psychologically, for an enchanting musical cuisine, especially factoring the reality that Chandarana, the legendary music recording company set base in the town before the country's independence, long before other towns enjoyed such privileges. Kericho is home to the Kipsigis sub-tribe of the Kalenjin community. They are the most populous of these 11 subtribes, and some quarters also consider them elitist. The sub-tribe occupying two counties has the most vibrant music industry, which can be traced to the......

JOE MOPERO: KENYAN MUSICAL SUPERSTAR

December 05, 2024 - 06:32 PM From right: Moreno Batamba, Joe Mopero, Muhindi Joseph :behind Muhindi, on rythm is Kiarie extreme left Moses khayesa."Slim Ali and Kelly Brown are undoubtedly Kenya's all-time finest musicians," Joe Mopero told Jabulani Radio. "When a giant points in a direction and tells you that's a giant, then what you are being shown must indeed be a humongous mammoth." The founder and bandleader of Zambezi Band is easily one of the country's most glowing musicians, given his consistency and the popularity of his songs over the decades. His heavy baritone booms through the hall when his band is performing. Coupled with his composing prowess, guitar skills, and mastery of the Lingala language, Joe......

MAMAM AFRICA: MIRIAM MAKEBA LEGACY LIVES ON

November 23, 2024 - 07:05 PM Same date 92 years ago, in Prospect Township, near Johannesburg, South Africa, a South African-born singer who became known as Mama Afrika, Miriam Makeba was born. (died November 10, 2008, Castel Volturno, near Naples, Italy). She is one of the world’s most prominent Black African performers in the 20th century. The daughter of a Swazi mother and a Xhosa father, Makeba grew up in Sophiatown, a segregated Black township outside of Johannesburg, and began singing in a school choir at an early age. She became a professional vocalist in 1954, performing primarily in southern Africa. By the late 1950s, her singing and recording had made her well-known in South Africa, and......

KAKAI: THE BENGA PROTEGE WHO OUTSHONE THE MASTERS

November 05, 2024 - 10:40 AM KAKAI: THE BENGA PROTEGE WHO OUTSHONE THE MASTERS The Benga earthquake happened in the mid-1950s. Its epicenter was Nyanza, then known as Kavirondo at the 'tie dero' (beside a granary) on the shores of Lake Victoria. A choice of a 'tie dero' happened intentionally to keep children and at times women, off the lyrics that would occasionally veer off to what would pass as explicit. With the arrival of European explorers, a convergence of civilization occurred and the same beat began discarding the old nyatiti and replacing it with contemporary Spanish acoustic, and with the advent of recording technology, the shockwaves began reverberating beyond its Nyanza birthplace. The......