FACTS YOU DID NOT KNOW ABOUT LUAMBO MAKIADI

September 26, 2024 - 05:30 PM

GRAND MAITRE: IN BRIEF

These are interesting facts you might not know

1. Grand Maitre always walked with a notebook and a pen. He was always writing a new song.

2. He had 18 children from 14 mothers. 
 
3. He puffed but in hiding. He never wished his band members to know.
 
4. Franco didn't drop out of school for lack of fees as often said. He was never interested in education.
 
5. Franco recorded his first song on November 17th, 1953 at Loningisa studio, backed by Watam band.
 
6. That song was titled Kombo ya Loningisa. By then he was 15 years old.
 
7. Isaac Musekiwa, a long-time Franco saxophonist put the number of OKJ songs at 3000 and also said 50% of the songs were composed by Franco himself.

8. We put the number at 1500, up to 60-65% being Franco's composition. (Based on what's available)
 
9. Jean Jean Tshita Tshima, Franco's wingman, was the band's chief scout.
 
10. Franco never experimented with anything new. He didn't innovate anything. He was a master perfectionist. Always did it far better than the originators of the idea. 
 
11. Franco was incarcerated twice (1957 and 1978) for a traffic offense and for composing and recording an explicit song.
 
12. He hated/feared deaths/dead bodies and rarely attended funerals, even those of close relatives.
 
13. On the specific ailment he was suffering from he told Lukunku that those who wish to know should wait for his death, then perform a post-mortem.
 
14. Franco's first encounter with a guitar was a stolen one from Ebengo Dewayon, with whom they shared a residential home in Ngiri Ngiri. The impressed Dewayon encouraged him to keep stealing when he was away, on noticing his talent.
 
15. You must play the song Masumbuku because it was named after and dedicated to the coxswain who was steering the vessel Franco boarded from Kinshasa to Mbandaka, to catch up with the band, when he was released from prison in 1958.

We will be celebrating Franco's 35th Anniversary soon.
Get more updates on the site!
Keep yourself updated.

By The Monk 


Jabulani Radio Livestream


Next Track



Track History

See also

MUSICAL MOTHERLANDS

MUSICAL MOTHERLANDS

Comments(0)

Log in to comment