click to enlarge Ngui-Ngon appears on Tiers Monde Cooperation s debut LP.
If you follow me on Twitter, you know I m a fan of avant-garde Ugandan labels Nyege Nyege Tapes and Hakuna Kalala. And now and then I ve written in the
Reader about current African artists, among them Nihiloxica, Kirani Ayat, and Muthoni Drummer Queen. But I ve long listened to older sounds from the continent soukous, juju, mbalax, highlife, mbaqanga, apala, benga, fuji and I don t often have a timely reason to post about them in Chicago.
Fortunately, sharing music that s decades past its press cycle is one purpose of this column. The Listener is for whatever we like, and that s the only rule as Salem Collo-Julin demonstrated last week by writing about a collection of vintage in-store music mixes from Kmart.
Why Franco is in a coveted position for any living Kenyan artiste
Franco Luambo Makiadi [Photo: Courtesy]
In October, the world marked 30 years since the death of Africa’s most famous singer, Franco Luambo Makiadi. That is a coveted position for any living Kenyan artiste.
Franco’s fame went beyond his role in associating the two Congos with ‘the heart’ of African music. Others rightly point out that his skill lay in the ability to praise and criticise the Zairean state at the same time. Franco’s genius was, for me, in the use of music to strengthen Congolese nationhood in ways that included our continent, and touched on issues that Africa contests with the world.
TPOK Jazz legend Josky Kiambukuta dead
Legendary TPOK Jazz crooner Josky Kiambukuta is dead. The
Chandra singer died in a Kinshasa hospital on Sunday, March 7, to be yet another dark addition to fallen TPOK greats such as the band’s founder Luambo Luanzo Makiadi better known as Franco. The colossus died in 1989.
Other departed TPOK heavyweights include Madilu System who sang
Pesa Position and is a household name with Kenya’s Rhumba lovers. Also gone is Simaro The Poet Lutumba, he of
Testament ya Bowule fame. He died in March 2019.
Simaro The Poet Lutumba [Photo: Courtesy]
Others are Papa Ndombe Opetum, who died of cardiac arrest on May 24, 2012, and Mose Fan Fan, whose hit