Baba Gaston

I hesitate to post this lp because I have lost the photocopy of the record sleeve. On the other hand, the music is so compelling that I can't withhold it from you. The artist is the legendary Baba Gaston.

He was born in 1936 in the Katanga province in the southeast, and he died in 1997 in Tanzania.
But he made the greatest impact, not on the Congolese music, but on the music of East Africa. He settled in Tanzania in 1970 and moved to Nairobi, Kenya a few years later, where remained a leading player in the music scene until his retirement in 1989*.
His band was a training school for over 700 musicians, and split-offs have led to bands like Les Mangelepa, Super Mazembe and Viva Makele, while ex-members have ended up in bands like Les Wanyika and even the TP OK Jazz (singer Nana). You can read more about this remarkable artist on the site of Muzikifan.

Baba Gaston sang mostly in Swahili, but three of the four songs on this lp from 1983 are in Lingala. According to Peter Toll on Muzikifan the album may have been recorded in Kinshasa with local musicians, and features singer Stazo Ya Esta from Festival du Zaire.
Anyway, it's a great album!

ASLP 971 (new - and now correct - link including cover and improved track - see below. June 30, 2011)

* I wonder if there was a relation between Franco's death and his retirement?

EDIT: thanks to Peter Toll, here is an improved and complete version of track B1 "Rudi Nyumbani Africa" (new link June 30, 2011), plus a scan of the cover (below).