As I have mentioned before, Sonodisc was never very generous in the information they provided on the sleeves of their albums, and in the little they did provide not always very accurate.In this case I think they accidently replaced one track by another and forgot to mention this on the sleeve.
All the compositions on this lp by Orchestre African Fiesta are by Roger Izeidi (the short guy in the photo, to the left of Kabasele), except one. The odd one out is "Minge Rumba Fiesta", a composition by Rochereau which on the sleeve is called "Tremendo Punto". This version of a track by Orquesta Aragon is not on this album, but on African 360.071.
The lp contains some memorable songs from the -relatively short- time that African Fiesta was one. A time when Roger Izeidi, Rochereau and Docteur Nico were the heirs to Kabasele's throne. After a row with Kabasele, who (according to some) had retired from music before his marriage in 1963 and/or (according to others) had been kicked out of his own orchestra by the disgruntled trio, about the use of the Surboum African Jazz label (see this post), Izeidi had called on his business contacts and founded a new record label: Vita. All the songs of this lp were originally released on this label.
If I am not mistaken, some of the tracks of this lp have never made it to CD. As it happens, these are the most interesting tracks.
Take the catchy "Contentieux Belgo-Congolais". Although my knowledge of lingala is minimal, I gather the song is about the dispute centred around the settlement of debts from the colonial era (see this article, or this). It makes you wonder why this was never re-released."A.M. Decantonio" is another track that never ended up on CD. This is even stranger, as it is to my knowledge the only track from this era featuring Nico on acoustic guitar. I'm not sure though if Rochereau has any idea of what he is supposed to be singing (but then who had - in this era?).
All in all this is a very enjoyable lp from African Fiesta at its best.
African 360.015
