Soy

I have been very busy with other matters, but wouldn't like to finish the month without at least a small post. There is plenty more to come, and I hope to have more time in the coming month.

Anyway, here is a single originally recorded for Franco's Boma Bango label. But it's not by the O.K. Jazz, but by the Negro Succes, the orchestra which Vicky Longomba had started in 1959 before joining Kabasele at the Table Ronde in Brussels.

I particularly like the A-side "Yo Se Que Soy", as superb bolero which I am sure Franco would have loved. It's probably a cover of a latin song, and I have tried very hard to find out by whom. Going by the dramatic lyrics and the words used, I would guess the original is Cuban. But so far I have not been able to trace the source.
Perhaps you have an idea. If so, please let us know.

Side two is rumba, composed by Franco's brother Bavon Marie-Marie, and very much in the Negro Succes style, which the typical maracas shaking in the background.

For more singles I refer you to the great Dial Africa blog which is sharing some great Congolese singles (and please do go on!). But in the future I will be posting some more singles as well.

 African 90.202

Origine Esengo

Returning to the series of posts of singles, here are two EP's on the Columbia label. Originally all the eight tracks of these records were recorded for the Esengo label, which -as I reported before- had started on January 1, 1957.
Four of these tracks are by Orchestre Bantou, which had been started in 1959 by musicians from Brazzaville who had been working in Leopoldville. With the prospect of the independence of the Belgian colony, they thought it might be wiser to return to their side of the Congo river. The heart of the new orchestra consisted of key members of the Rock-a-Mambo orchestra. With a history on the Loningisa label and the OK Jazz, Essous, Pandi and Nino Malapet had created havoc in Leopoldville. As Rock-a-Mambo or combined with Kabasélé's African Jazz and Dewayon's Conga Jazz they produced a stream of brilliant hits on the Esengo label, so they were received as veteran artist when they returned in Brazzaville.
All the four songs were composed by Jean Serge Essous, who also is the lead singer on two ("Padrona de la Musica" and "Una Noche"), and at least three of these -and especially "Una Noche" and "Luiza"- can easily be mistaken for songs by Rock-a-Mambo.

The other half of these two records is for artists which normally will be associated with the OK Jazz. Vicky Longomba had left the OK Jazz to join Kabasélé at the Table Ronde in Brussels, and on returning to Congo had founded his own orchestra, Negro Succès. For this he recruited among the existing orchestras, snatching (amongst others) a young guitarist Léon Bombolo, a.k.a. 'Bholen', away from the Loningisa stable where had just started alongside Franco. In more than one way the two songs by his Negro Succès bare a strong resemblance to tracks by the OK Jazz.

The last orchestra on these two EP's is perhaps the least known. But Kongo Jazz contains some of the most noteworthy, but unfortunately not so well-known artists of Congolese music. And I am not referring to the young rhythm guitarist Lutumba Simaro, who not much later made the move to the OK Jazz. I am, however, referring to Gerard Madiata, a singer who has performed with nearly all the great Congolese orchestras, but has nevertheless remained a solo artist throughout his entire career. And I am referring especially to -in my opinion- the star of these tracks: the unbelievable guitarist Raymond Brainck*. Listen carefully to this highly underrated master. In a future post I will be sharing more wonders by this musical hero....

Columbia ESDF 1407
Columbia ESRF 1415

*his name is spelled "Braing" or "Brainq" on this record, but this must be a mistake.

Bridge

Although he was born at the other side of the Congo river, Franklin Boukaka's first serious move into a musical career was made in Leopoldville. In Brazzaville he had helped to form the Negro Band, and when the band started recording at the Esengo label he came into contact with the Rock-a-Mambo/African Jazz clan and Joseph Kabasele (a.k.a. le Grand Kallé), who was at the time the Big Star of Congolese music. He joined Rochereau and Jean Bombenga in Jazz Africain in 1960, when Kallé was at the Table Ronde.
Gary Stewart states that Boukaka joined Bombenga and Casino Mutshipule in forming the first version of Vox Africa in 1960, but personally I think Jazz Africain was not abandoned so quickly, - although Rochereau left when Kallé returned.

Around 1963 or 1964 Franklin returned to Brazzaville to join Cercul Jazz, the band of the cercle culturel* in the Bacongo quartier of Brazza. It was with this orchestra that he moved away from songs about love and nature (as Ntesa Dalienst once described it), and started singing about social matters, and even politics (which finally cost him his life - but that's the subject of a later post).

And that brings us to this great lp from the Merveilles du Passé series on the African label, released in 1986 and claiming to contain tracks from 1967.
This is likely to be true for the tracks with the Cercul Jazz. The most famous of these two tracks is "Pont Sur Le Congo", in which Boukaka calls on the two Congos to unite (a translation of part of this song can be found in Gary Stewart's "Rumba on the River"). I don't want to go into the lyrics of this song.
What strikes me with this song is the vocals, with a strong influence of African Jazz - and more precisely Jean Bombenga - in the duets.
My favourite tracks on this lp are, however, the two tracks of Franklin Boukaka with the Negro Band. In every aspect in the style of Franco's OK Jazz, including the great guitar picking, which must be by (the strangely unknown) Willy Stany. Both songs are composed by the other singer on "Journal Dipanda", Démon Kasanaut.

The B-side of this lp contains four nice (but not as nice as the A-side) tracks by Franklin Boukaka and Negro Succes, composed by Bholen and Bavon Marie Marie.
If all these tracks were recorded in 1967, Franklin Boukaka must have had a busy year. Because in the same year he founded his ensemble which he named "Franklin Boukaka, ses sanzas et son orchestre Congolais".

I'll be posting more of Franklin Boukaka in the very near future, starting with more of Franklin and the Cercul Jazz.

African 360.153

*a centre set up by the French after World War II to educate the population (i.e. mainly in the French ways...)