Rumba Chronicles

LOWAY: KINSHASA’S INDOMITABLE SAXMAN

January 27, 2025 - 01:20 PM Ida is a masterpiece from Franco and his OK Jazz. The song features the magical voice of Malage De Lugendo on backup vocals as Franco does the singing, actually lamenting about a lady, Ida. At some point, Franco loses hope and hands over the baton of lamentations to the saxophonist Empopo Loway by declaring, 'Loway, lelela ngai' (cry it out for me). At this point, Loway unleashes an emotional saxophone that captures the theme of the song. It is such uniqueness that defined Empopo Deyese Loway's sax in his illustrious career that straddled several bands. Italian-based rumba aficionado, Eugene ...

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......

THE HIDDEN VOCAL GEM

January 16, 2025 - 12:00 PM THE HIDDEN VOCAL GEM Wuta Mayi(from the water) was with TP OK JAZZ in the 1970s before leaving to join Syran Mbenza, Nyboma Mwandido, and Bopol Mansiamina to form the Four stars/4 etoiles in 1982. Sometimes I feel they had a side band known as KASS KASS fronted by the late Jean Pappy Ramazani and the late Passi Jo, anyway the late Bopol Mansiamina used to play solo, rhythm, and bass. The guy was gifted, just like the late Nene Tchakou who used to play solo and rhythm guitar. I learned yesterday that after independence in 1960/61 somehow the Musicians from Congo Brazzaville opted to go back home, Franco had no vocalists since he used to play the solo guitar in the background, that's......

WHAT CHANGED THE ORIGINAL CONGOLESE MUSIC STYLE.

January 08, 2025 - 09:00 PM WHAT CHANGED THE ORIGINAL CONGOLESE MUSIC STYLE. The recent trend of increasingly programmed music over live instrumentation is because it's cheaper to record and release. Half the battle of making music today is done when you can program percussions, horn sections, and synths on the keyboard. Where back in the day, you had to factor in whether live horns would sync well with the guitars, keyboards, and drums. This means that music composition was the foundation of song creation, as opposed to improvising melodies on a keyboard or guitar partition and then stretching them out into songs. In order to conserve cost, rehearsals were constant and music compositions of some of our......

THE "African Fiesta National" UNSUNG HERO

January 07, 2025 - 05:21 PM By JEROME OGOLA Dead men tell no tales, and this reality offers authors a license to skew history in a manner that hoists them as heroic status than they really are in reality. Writing while every other player is dead, inspires the writer to make statements that may be untrue as he is sure to get away with. In his book, Les Couilises De La Musique Congolaise, writer Faugus Izeidi, has been accused by pundits of trying to gobble more limelight through his writings, than he really worked for, as a musician. The bone of contention has largely been about the innovation of the mi-solo guitar, which he claims to be his creation. This position as presented in his narrations, could......

KASONGO TRENDS

December 07, 2024 - 01:23 PM Do you want your son to become a musician? Name him, KASONGO. It is a musician's name. 1. ANTOINE KASONGO is the first generation who recorded at Ngoma in the 50s. His peers were Paul Mwanga, Camile Feruzi, Leon Bukassa, Wendo Nkolosoy, Henri Bowane, my favorite musician Henrique Tinapa, etc. Franco, Grand Kale, Tabuley, Bavon, etc. are second generation, and Lipua Lipua, Bela Bela, Zaiko, Kamale, etc, are third generation. 2. RONDOT KASONGO WA KASONGO, the bald head OKJ sax player. Kasongo, who joined in 1969, replacing Verckys, died of lung cancer in the 90s. He was a consistent figure in OKJ songs, and you'd easily mistake him for part of the band's sound system, which is comprised......

THE BIRTH OF KASONGO

December 06, 2024 - 12:05 PM One evening, Katele and Dodo Doris, both musicians with Super Mazembe, thought it was time to visit their colleague Kasongo Songoley in his Pipeline Estate abode in Nairobi. They only found his wife. Kasongo, who was a guitarist, was missing. Upon inquisition on the whereabouts of their colleague, the wife responded by stating that she, too, had not seen him for several days. Apparently, the musician hadn't been home for several days. The wife was worried because the family was running short of supplies. The woman narrated her tribulations to her husband's colleagues with the intention that the duo may prevail upon him to shape up his wayward ways. Musicians being musicians joked about......

ATOMIC, THE BOMB MEANT TO FLATTEN JAMHURI JAZZ

November 30, 2024 - 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......

THE MAGNET THAT PULLS

November 22, 2024 - 08:00 PM THE MYSTERIOUS MAGNET THAT PULLS.When veteran Telezaire broadcaster Lukunku Nsampu asked Franco who was on stage, while pointing at the late Mayaula Mayoni, Franco responded by introducing Mayaula as a former footballer who went to Europe for higher education and then converted to be a musician. Lukunku: Amoni mosolo (He's seen money in music?) Franco: Mosolo te. Elengi! (Not money but pleasure) Mayaula Mayoni was born in Kinshasa in 1946 and began his education in the local schools. He was a great footballer and featured for the country's team AS Vita and even the national team Leopards, which played in the FIFA World Cup of 1974. He later joined his father, who was a......

DO MUSICIANS DIE YOUNG?

November 16, 2024 - 11:47 PM DO MUSICIANS DIE YOUNG? In musical discourses, it isn't strange to hear discussants say musicians die young. This can be attributed to the norm, that death isn't welcome at age, and kith and kin of the bereaved will also watch despair even if the deceased is a centenarian. There is no appropriate time for death as man will always wish to live longer, possibly because of the uncertainty about the eventuality of man, after death. The pertinent question here is, do musicians die young as alleged? Let's have a musical safari around Africa to either confirm or debunk the myth. From down South, we choose two three superstars representing three genres, reggae, jazz, and......

Rumba Chronicles

LOWAY: KINSHASA’S INDOMITABLE SAXMAN

A GLIMPSE OF PAPA NOEL'S MUSICAL JOURNEY

THE HIDDEN VOCAL GEM

WHAT CHANGED THE ORIGINAL CONGOLESE MUSIC STYLE.

THE "African Fiesta National" UNSUNG HERO

KASONGO TRENDS

THE BIRTH OF KASONGO

ATOMIC, THE BOMB MEANT TO FLATTEN JAMHURI JAZZ

THE MAGNET THAT PULLS

DO MUSICIANS DIE YOUNG?

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Rumba Chronicles

LOWAY: KINSHASA’S INDOMITABLE SAXMAN

A GLIMPSE OF PAPA NOEL'S MUSICAL JOURNEY

THE HIDDEN VOCAL GEM

WHAT CHANGED THE ORIGINAL CONGOLESE MUSIC STYLE.

THE "African Fiesta National" UNSUNG HERO

KASONGO TRENDS

THE BIRTH OF KASONGO

ATOMIC, THE BOMB MEANT TO FLATTEN JAMHURI JAZZ

THE MAGNET THAT PULLS

DO MUSICIANS DIE YOUNG?

News

Jabulani Library (199)

Jabulani Swahili (7)

Rumba Chronicles (24)

Trending (0)

Programs

Rumba Fiesta by The Rumba Monk

Soukous Fever

Rhumba Overdose Show Replay

Echoes of Africa Show

Jabulani African Hits

Rhumba Overdose Show

Latest podcasts

Legend Franco Luambo Makaidi

Find us on

Contact us

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