In 1985, when Afropop Worldwide was but a gleam in his eye, Sean Barlow sat down with Luambo Makiadi Franco, one of the greatest African bandleaders of all time.
Ils ont brûlé le Congo
Enflammé l Angola
Ils ont brûlé Kinshasa
Fans called Docteur Nico “
Dieu de la guitare” (God of the Guitar). Playing lead, with his brother Déchaud on rhythm guitar, in various versions of this song, they added a third guitar between theirs. That innovation came to be known as the
mi-solo. Recently, a guitarist very familiar with this unpacked Docteur Nico’s innovation:
Black-owned Business
One reason Kallé has been called the Father of Congolese music is because he was the first African musician to create his own record label, Surboum African Jazz. He was responsible for striking deals with European record labels to ensure high quality recordings of his band s music for the Francophone market. Even some records from his key rival, Franco, came out on Kallé’s label.