Ambiance Congo Broadcast -- Sunday October 10, 2010

[amf]

The latest session of DJ Daudi's Congolese Music Broadcast - 'Ambiance Congo', brought to you from Richmond, Virginia in the United States -- is uploaded and ready for listening: http://www.africanmusicforum.com/main/Internet-Radios-Index.shtml |

In this session DJ Daudi presents music by: 2) M'Pongo Love * & Tsheke Tsheke Love, Kosmos Moutouari, Jpson Cardinal, Roi Soleil Wanga, General Defao, Benz Petrole, Empire Bakuba, Johnny Bokelo Isenge, Zaiko Langa-Langa Universel, Boom Des As, Abeba Lipordo ....and, in recognition of the 21st anniversary of passing of Franco, DJ Daudi included two extended songs by T.P. O.K. Jazz. .... [ READ DJ DAUDI'S BLOG ]

Here is some stuff about Franco:

1. The Undying Legend of King of Rumba Music, Franco a.k.a L'Okanga La Ndju Pene Luambo Luanzo Makiadi

2. Excerpts from Franco Biography by Kevin O'Sullivan
   Taken From: Jukwaa Boards

FRANCO AND POLITICS

Since 1953, Francois Luambo Luanzo Makiadi, 'Franco', been a member of the band first called Bana Loningisa , then OK Jazz and finally TPOK Jazz, and for most of the past two decades he'd been its leader.

His fame and influence had spread from Kinshasa to the provinces, throughout Africa, and then, presumably, into Europe. The whole world might have known the sound of Franco and his TPOK Jazz.

The ironies of the "Grand Master" appellation were not lost on Franco. He had always been rebuked for bad behaviour. As a kid he had been the scamp, the truant, the blasphemer, the jive-talker, the noise-maker, the law-breaker – as well as the pal, the charmer, the guitar ace, the rising star.

Renowned while still a teenager, not only for his music but also for the way he dressed, for the girls who followed him, for his impolitic remarks and for his run-ins with the gendarmerie, Franco seemed habituated to controversy.

To many of his compatriots he was a hero, one of them who had started with nothing more than talent and self-assurance and had earned real wealth and consequence. To others he was an uneducated upstart, a vulgar disgrace. Fellow musicians both admired and resented him.

To successive governments he was possibly a threat and certainly someone who had to be dealt with one way or another.

But although his band's motto was "On entre OK, on sort KO" (you enter OK, you leave KO'd), no one had ever kept him down for the count. Franco was never an outspoken activist-artist like Miriam Makeba of South Africa, nor was he a politico-musical provocateur like the Nigerian Fela Kuti.

He just wanted to be free to do as he liked, to live and let live. The colonial administrators of the Belgian Congo jailed him in 1958, not for sedition but for numerous reckless-driving offences.

They also banned a song of his that was interpreted as advocating independence, but they only burnished the young musician's rebel image.

Independence came anyway, in 1960, and Franco, with OK Jazz, led four days and nights of celebrations with paeans to the newborn Republic of Congo and its first Prime Minister, Patrice Lumumba.

Only seven months later, however, Franco sang an anguished lament for Lumumba's assassination, and during the ensuing civil war he recorded songs that conveyed a sense of betrayal and danger.

When, in 1966, General Mobutu made a gruesome public display of executing his opponents, Franco reacted with horror and outrage in "Luvumbu Ndoki." [CONTINUED BELOW]

Franco Interview 1985 pt.1


Franco Interview 1985 pt.2


Franco Interview 1985 pt.3


Franco Interview 1985 pt.4


Franco Interview 1985 pt.5


Franco Interview 1985 pt.6


Mobutu's henchmen promptly detained and interrogated the songwriter and destroyed every copy of the record they could find, and upon his release Franco fled with his band across the Congo River to Brazzaville, where they remained, beyond Mobutu's reach, for half a year.

Mobutu understood that Franco was a genuine man of the people – the same people he was determined to rule – and that if he couldn't extinguish the pop star he would have to co-opt him. The self-titled Supreme Combatant was a megalomaniac and a deceitful, lethal despot, but he obviously respected Franco and loved his music.

Franco didn't lack that kind of love and respect, but he wanted good things for himself and for his country, so when Mobutu established peace and a semblance of stability in Congo – or Zaire, as he renamed the nation – Franco's resistance turned into accommodation. OK Jazz performed at political rallies and state functions and recorded Franco's songs promoting government policies and praising "the People's One Leader." The president rewarded the musician with business advantages, sinecures and official appointments.

Mobutu didn't make Franco successful or influential (the pop star had already done that for himself quite handily), but he made him wealthy and powerful. Inevitably for one so unruly, Franco chafed under Mobutu's control, and he voiced his discontent in song. But he did it covertly.

He couched his criticism of Mobutu and his cronies in allegory and wordplay, practising mbwakela, the artfully shaded Congolese way of hinting at subversive ideas in innocuous terms. He always claimed that he meant only what he said and sang, but whether smiling or straight-faced, he convinced no one of that.

Franco (like every Congolese and Zairean pop singer) usually sang in Lingala, the common language of 25 million people in Central Africa, and many of those millions could decipher coded meanings in certain of his songs. They sometimes – perhaps often – misinterpreted his words, but that was bound to happen. Mbwakela, by design, is hard to pin down; that way it eludes the censors, and the objects of criticism can't openly retort or retaliate without confirming unspoken suspicions.

President Mobutu, Franco's No. 1 fan, got hold of every OK Jazz record as it came out and scrutinised the lyrics, as so many Zaireans did, keenly attuned to discern hidden messages.

Mobutu understood hidden messages; he communicated in them too. He knew he didn't own Franco's heart or mind even if he had bought at least part of his soul. He couldn't get rid of so popular a potential rival, but he could dam the flow of music-business money, retract privileges and curtail liberties as efficiently as he granted them, all very discretely.

And when Franco slipped up badly, recording a couple of extremely obscene songs that got circulated far more widely than he had intended, Mobutu snatched the opportunity to throw him in jail. It was after being released from jail in 1978 that Franco began staying away from Zaire for long periods, touring other African countries more frequently and, increasingly, living in France or Belgium.

He went through a midlife crisis of sorts, divorcing his first wife, remarrying, and buying a large apartment in Paris and a townhouse in Brussels. He founded an international music-publishing house and registered three new record labels beyond Mobutu's sphere of interference and the grasp of pirates and peddlers in Africa.

He licensed VRAIMENT EN COLÈRE, VOL. 1 and several subsequent albums to speciality labels in the United States, where interest in contemporary African music was just beginning to germinate. He hadn't yet made any major breakthroughs outside of Africa, but after more than 20 years of national stardom and 15 of continental fame he seemed poised for global success.

The big question for his musicians, for his business and political associates and for his old fans was where this would leave them. They needn't have worried. Franco may have blundered, said and done things "truly in anger," made himself scarce in his homeland, split his band in two and dispensed with sidemen altogether for one session, but he would never abandon TPOK Jazz, his loyal supporters or his country.

He may have laughed at being deemed Grand Maître, but he appreciated the honour. It was a signal that he could return home (knowing the Union of Zairean Musicians would not have recognised him so ceremoniously without Mobutu's consent).

He began slipping quietly into Kinshasa for short visits, during which he might record a few tracks with the twenty-some TPOK Jazz musicians based there, even as he continued recording in Brussels and Paris with the musicians stationed there.

Coupe du Monde (Ndombe Opetum) - T.P. O.K. Jazz 1979


Liyanzi Ekoti Ngai Na Motema (Ntesa Dalienst) - T.P. O.K. Jazz 1980


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VIDEO -- SOME OF THE ARTISTS FEATURED IN THIS SESSION
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1. Mpongo Love [ Monama Elima ]



2. Jpson Cardinal  [ L Album Diagnostic - Tuta Ntuta ]



3. Roi Soleil Wanga  [ Après toi ]



4. Benz Petrole [ Nzuzi Makambo - Mobembo ]



5. Abeba Lipordo  [ Nouvel Album Lifelo Ya Mondele ]



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For more details about the program and David Noyes -- the broadcaster, visit: http://ambiancecongo.blogspot.com/
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