Rumba Chronicles

WHAT IS RUMBA?

October 02, 2025 - 04:39 PM Generally, music is made to be enjoyed—that is, listened to and danced to. Nonetheless, the urge to understand it better has often led to the classification of music into genres and other clusters. That’s why the issue of genre oftentimes escapes even the musicians themselves, and on some other occasions, discussants can't agree on which genre a song belongs to. Even the parameters that define these genres are also contested at times. These very parameters may also vary from genre to genre. For example, reggae as a genre is identified by the dominance of the rhythm guitar and the manner ...

AN OASIS IN A MUSICAL DESERT (THE MUSICAL JOURNEY OF FREDDY)

May 20, 2025 - 04:19 PM While shading the map of Kenya for musical talent, this writer was surprised to learn that despite the Luhya tribe of Western Kenya having dominated the country's music in the first two decades after independence, the Maragoli sub-tribe hardly contributed any bigwigs of the era. All the big names from the era of "twist," a very popular genre in the 1960s and 1970s originating from what is today Vihiga County, either came from the Banyore sub-tribe in Emuhaya Constituency or from Hamisi Constituency, home to the Tiriki sub-tribe. Others came from neighboring Kakamega County. Daudi Kabaka, Shem Tube, Isaya Mwinamo, Ruben Shimbiro, John Amutabi, George Mukabi, Fànuel Amimo, and others......

KNOW MORE ABOUT PAPA LOLO HIT MAKER

March 12, 2025 - 02:00 PM Fanfan, as his fans know him, was a veteran musician of the second generation of Congolese rumba. He was primarily a guitarist but also excelled as a composer, arranger, and band leader. Born in October 1945, Mose Sengo, aka Mose Fanfan, debuted in music in 1966 with a band called Rickem Jazz in Kinshasa. He also had a stint with the Orchestre Revolution, a formation mostly consisting of musicians who had rebelled from Franco's OKJ in 1967. Fanfan, the only guitarist who could pull out a Franco on the fretboard, joined OKJ in 1968 and left in 1974. He played in the studio recording of several songs, including Beya, his own composition, dje melasi, and several others. He quit the band to......

THE SOUKOUS ACE WHO SANG & DANCED HIS WAY TO OUR HEARTS

March 07, 2025 - 04:46 PM In a photograph posted on his Facebook page to celebrate his 66th anniversary, the Republic of Congo's sensational musician looked frail, forlorn, and pale. His once vibrant smile, which depicted a man full of life, had since been reduced to one of misery. He was evidently sickly. Throat cancer had drained the life out of the Loketo supremo, who rocked the continent’s music scene in the early 1990s with electrifying stage performances in concerts. Congolese rumba has constantly been in a state of evolution. The slow-paced and heavily spiced Fiesta and Odemba styles, which prominently featured the saxophone, clarinet, trumpets, accordion, maracas, and more, passed the baton to......

LOWAY: KINSHASA’S INDOMITABLE SAXMAN

January 27, 2025 - 12:20 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 Magina described Loway's saxophone as sexy, stating that of all renowned saxophonists of the rumba......

THE HIDDEN VOCAL GEM

January 16, 2025 - 11:00 AM 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......

THE "AFRICAN FIESTA NATIONAL" UNSUNG HERO

January 07, 2025 - 04:21 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......

THE FAKE COUP

January 06, 2025 - 03:00 PM COLONEL BANGALA This is Leopoldville Governor Alphonse Bangala , immortalized in Franco's 1966 song 'Colonel Bangala' which has superb sax by Verckys, equally superb soloing by Franco and Franco himself sings as he is backed by Mujos and Boyibanda. President Mobutu faked a coup to gauge who was loyal and who was not, among his top government officials. The fake coupe was headed by Bangala who recruited and sought the support of several cabinet ministers, politicians, military guys, and other state officials. Those who fell for the trick were executed among them former Prime Minister Evariste Kimba, together with three cabinet members, Jerome Anany (Defence Minister), Emanuel Bamba......

BADIBANGA WA TSHILUMBA: THE LES MANGELEPA MASTER SHOWMAN

January 02, 2025 - 03:58 PM BY JEROME OGOLA Described by Standard Newspaper cartoonist Mado as “a band within a band”, Badibanga Wa Tshilumba aka Kaikai was a spectacle to behold in Les Mangelepa shows. His showmanship oozed naturally. He was a master of the stage. Although trying to do his choreography in synchrony with the other members on stage, he oftentimes ended up a one man show as he outwitted them. He knew how to do it. Badibanga Wa Tshilumba was a rare talent. He was Nairobi's most known trombone player, and possibly the only one in the secular circles outside the military. He made his trombone miraculously outstanding, thus creating a wonderful harmony with the super saxophones......

THE BIRTH OF KASONGO

December 06, 2024 - 11:05 AM 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......

Rumba Chronicles