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A NIGHT WITH JAMNAZI IN SOY
THE TOWERING FIGURE OF KENYAN MUSIC
BIOGRAPHY OF THE "FATHER OF CONGOLESE MUSIC"
A MELODIOUS VOICE THAT TALKS TO THE HEART
THE GUITAR AND THE VOICE: REVISITING THE LEGACIES OF TABU LEY & FRANCO LUAMBO MAKIADI and Franco
KWAMY MUNSI: THE UNTOLD STORY
JIMMY CLIFF: REGGAE ICON & GLOBAL CITIZEN PASSES AWAY
KIMPA KISANGAMENI LYRICS TRANSLATION BY FRANCO ET TPOK JAZZ
GUNS AND GUITARS: THE STORY OF MAROON COMMANDOS
MYTH, MUSIC & MIGHTY FRAME
VETERAN MAROON COMMANDOS MUSICIAN DIES
KENYAN COAST: WHERE THE COUNTRY’S MUSIC ROOSTS
JOE MOPERO DIES
FROM STUDIO TO PARLIAMENT
FRANCO: GWIJI ASIYESAHULIKA (MIAKA 36 TANGU KIFO CHAKE)
THE DAY KINSHASA WEPT, FOR THE DEATH OF FRANCO
FRANCO'S GOLDEN HITS
WHAT IS RUMBA?
SAMBA MAPANGALA: FROM CONGO TO THE WORLD
DJO DJO IKOMO DIES IN KINSHASA SHORTLY AFTER REUNITING WITH HIS KENYAN DAUGHTER
A NIGHT WITH JAMNAZI IN SOY
THE TOWERING FIGURE OF KENYAN MUSIC
BIOGRAPHY OF THE "FATHER OF CONGOLESE MUSIC"
A MELODIOUS VOICE THAT TALKS TO THE HEART
THE GUITAR AND THE VOICE: REVISITING THE LEGACIES OF TABU LEY & FRANCO LUAMBO MAKIADI and Franco
KWAMY MUNSI: THE UNTOLD STORY
JIMMY CLIFF: REGGAE ICON & GLOBAL CITIZEN PASSES AWAY
KIMPA KISANGAMENI LYRICS TRANSLATION BY FRANCO ET TPOK JAZZ
GUNS AND GUITARS: THE STORY OF MAROON COMMANDOS
MYTH, MUSIC & MIGHTY FRAME
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RHUMBA OVERDOSE SHOW FRI 30 2025
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Sam Mangwana, Franco, Le TP OK Jazz
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BIOGRAPHY OF THE "FATHER OF CONGOLESE MUSIC"
December 10, 2025 - 09:43 PM
Kabasele, Joseph "Le Grand Kalle" (Kabasele Tshamala), celebrated Congolese singer and band leader; born Matadi, Congo-Kinshasa, Dec. 16, 1930; died Kinshasa, Feb. 11, 1983.Kabasele was born to a prominent Congolese family that included Joseph Malula, who rose to become a cardinal in the Catholic church. As one of the period's better-educated Congolese—he completed secondary school—Kabasele gained employment as a typist at a succession of commercial firms in colonial Léopoldville (Kinshasa). Music was his true calling, however, and he found an opportunity to pursue it around 1950 at a new...
SAMBA MAPANGALA: FROM CONGO TO THE WORLD
September 25, 2025 - 10:48 PM
"Samba is easily the greatest of all Congolese musicians ever to set base in Nairobi," opines Jacob Owiyo, a football coach and music fan from Nairobi. He goes ahead to expound on the factors that make him come to that conclusion, beginning with Samba’s natural singing voice. Apart from being a vocalist, Jacob, who first met Samba in Mombasa in 1977, says Samba mostly composed songs themed on subjects that resonated with society, making his songs everyone’s favourite. That’s not all. He explains that Samba did several of his songs in Kiswahili, and this endeared him to Kenyans more than other musicians who mostly sang in Lingala, because the language created a barrier.......
THE VOICE THAT BRIDGED ODEMBA AND SOUKOUS
August 11, 2025 - 10:33 AM
It is truly strange how rumba fans shy away from admitting that Madilu Systeme's 1993 album, Sans Commentaire, is one of the greatest musical albums to ever grace the world of music. It's really weird. The composition, the arrangement, the instrumentation, the singing—everything is so on point. The transition from the 1980s TPOK's Madilu into the 1990s soukous Madilu is one of the most remarkable transitions in music. Just listen to “Autoroute” from start to end. Back in my days in Chad, a guy we lived with in the camp said that nobody transitioned to the climax better than Madilu. Madilu is the only artist whose music speaks to your body, mind, and soul. These are the......
THE STRIKING SIMILARITIES BETWEEN BENGA AND RUMBA
June 17, 2025 - 05:20 PM
Although each exists as a distinct genre, there are numerous striking similarities between the two. Kenyan Benga is a close relative of Congolese rumba, based on their shared ancestry and the striking similarities in the structural formation of the songs, especially in terms of instrumental arrangements. Both are modernized traditional music styles, performed with contemporary instrumentation and recorded in modern studios. Over time, as globalization became a reality, the music embraced foreign influences to evolve into what it is today. Many other genres have emerged in the last century under similar circumstances. A rumba musician, in the Congolese sense, can easily fit into a Benga......
SIMARO LUTUMBA'S ONE ON ONE INTERVIEW WITH BANNING EYRE
June 09, 2025 - 08:46 PM
Interview Between Simaro Lutumba and Banning Eyre Venue: Simaro's House INTRODUCTION Simaro Lutumba was perhaps the greatest poet among the composers of Franco's great TPOK Jazz. He joined the band in 1961 and later became the band's long-term vice president. His melancholy 1974 hit "Mabele," sung by Sam Mangwana, was a landmark in OK Jazz's "authenticité" era releases and cemented Simaro's reputation as "Poet." In the late '70s, he was one of the musicians jailed at Makala prison during Franco's most serious run-in with the authorities, a clash over two songs deemed obscene. Simaro operated the band during Franco's long absences in Europe in the 1980s. This interview took place......
NDOMBE OPETUM: AN INCREDIBLE MUSICIAN
May 28, 2025 - 10:34 PM
"Mokolo nakokufa, nayebi ndenge bakolela ngai" When Madilu System died, Ndombe Opetum gathered a few musicians present at the funeral to sing this line over his coffin moments before it was lowered into the grave. The line, which translates to "when I die, I know how they will mourn me," originates from a song titled "Nayebi Ndenge Bakolela" by Opetum himself and OKJ of Franco. That was in August 2007, and five years later, it was time to experience how the world would mourn Ndombe Opetum himself. He died on May 24, 2012. It has been 12 years since this star musician from the DRC, the country of musical gods, died in a Kinshasa hospital. Opetum, also called Pepe Ndombe, is easily one of......
THE MAGICAL VOICE OF JOSKY
February 13, 2025 - 04:27 PM
The city streets are filled with the fragrance of fresh roses because all spaces adjacent to the busy streets have been converted into makeshift flower shops. Hotels are advertising special offers for couples, and gift shops are abuzz with activities, all because love is in the air, and soon it will be Valentine's. February 14 is marked globally as a day of lovers. Although this tradition, with roots in the ancient Roman Empire, hadn't gained much traction in Africa until recently, it is now observed even in remote villages, where it is not strange to find the local grocer selling plastic roses. On Valentine's Day of 1949, a major development happened in the port city of Matadi, when......
A GLIMPSE OF PAPA NOEL'S MUSICAL JOURNEY
January 23, 2025 - 09:00 AM
"Simplify it," Franco suggested persuasively."We have a long list of songs to rehearse," The late Grand Maitre Luambo had descended a floor down the Un-Deux-Trois building, from the UMUZA office to the ground floor where the band was practising, to intervene. At the time, Grand Maitre Luambo headed UMUZA, the musician's association, as such it was headquartered at his club, Un-Deux-Trois, which housed his orchestra, OK Jazz.From his offices one floor up, he had heard the band guitarists mark time, struggling to master some jazz chords that had been introduced to them by Papa Noel, who insisted that they had to master.Franco, himself being an astute guitarist who manoeuvered the......
GRAND KALLE: THE FATHER OF CONGOLESE RUMBA
January 18, 2025 - 12:00 PM
'Mongongo kitoko, tokozua yango lisusu wapi?' This is Tabuley in his song, In Memoriam, in which he collaborated with another titan, Franco. In the song, he is extolling the greatness of Grand Kalle, wondering aloud where the music world can find such a melodious voice, now that the musician is no more. Tabuley himself was considered one of the greatest voices of Rumba Congolaise. For him to declare that someone is as great means that person was exceptionally good. American jazz musician Yves François, who heads a group known as Rocambu (whose name was largely inspired by the Congolese studio ensemble of the late 1950s, Rock A Mambo), also once stated that of all singers of the......
MBARAKA MWINSHEHE MWARUKA
January 08, 2025 - 02:00 PM
MBARAKA MWINSHEHE MWARUKA “Hakuna kitu kibaya sana humu duniani kama shidaHaichagui mtu siku wala miaka oh oh ohHaina katu taarifa shida wengi shida bila hodiSi mtoto wala mkubwa wote shida...Kila siku shida Shida haiishi hadi siku ya mwisho oh ohh...” These are the lyrics from one of the many songs that used to be played early in the mornings on the Voice of Kenya radio, now KBC. The man behind these immortal words was Tanzanian singer Mbaraka Mwaruka Mwinshehe, who died 38 years ago. Mbaraka was born on June 27, 1944, and was the second born in a family of 12 children. His father, Mwinshehe Mwaruka, was a clerk at one of the big sisal farms in Tanzania. But the early......
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