A GLIMPSE OF PAPA NOEL'S MUSICAL JOURNEY

"Simplify it," Franco suggested persuasively.

"We have a long list of songs to rehearse," 

The late Grand Maitre Luambo had descended a floor down the Un-Deux-Trois building, from the UMUZA office to the ground floor where the band was practising, to intervene. 

At the time, Grand Maitre Luambo headed UMUZA, the musician's association, as such it was headquartered at his club, Un-Deux-Trois, which housed his orchestra, OK Jazz.

From his offices one floor up, he had heard the band guitarists mark time, struggling to master some jazz chords that had been introduced to them by Papa Noel, who insisted that they had to master.

Franco, himself being an astute guitarist who manoeuvered the fretboard with impeccable agility, knew those particular chords were too complex and a hard nut to crack for his guitarists, and thus implored Papa Noel to simplify them in the interest of time, because they had a raft of songs to practice. 

Coming from a guitar supremo who is thought by pundits to be the best, perhaps only rivalled by Nico that may have been a statement of admission from Franco, that Noel may have been the most skilful from his pool of talented guitarists that also included Thierry Mantuika, Dizzy Mandjeku and Gerry Dialungana, at the time.

Franco himself learnt his guitar in the streets and with limited formal education, he was deficient in music theory, requisite in understanding the jazz guitar and this is why he was amazed by Papa Noel's proficiency in Jazz mastery.

Papa Noel, born Antoine Nedule Montswet and given the prefix Papa by his mother and adopted the name Noel from a reversed Leon as his stage name, died in Paris on 11th November. His music genius straddles any particular band, OKJ, for this case. In fact, a narration of his music career sounds more like a recital of the history of Congolese rumba. 

Alongside Franco and Dr. Nico, he was clustered in the holy trinity by rumba aficionados. Given the perspective of generations, he is among the last, being survived only by Dizzy Mandjeku and maybe his brother Moro, who currently resides in Brussels.

To trace the contribution of Papa Noel, one must trace his involvement with at least ten bands that he played with in his career. Like a bull dies with grass in its mouth, Papa Noel too died while still active in music and at the time was engaged in some projects which he left incomplete.

His maiden involvement was in 1956. A teenage Noel having learnt his guitar fast, from the instrument procured for him by his mother, hung around Ngoma Records, the first record label to set foot in Kinshasa, which was then eight years old. 

His first studio assignment was to play the solo guitar in Clara Badimwene, a song by Leon Bukasa, a big name of the day in Leopoldville. This band also had legendary saxophonist Albino Kalombo and the contrabass big man Joseph Mwena. Albino Kalombo, who mostly played the trumpet, also played sax and did his trade for OKJ in the latter days, among many other bands. Joseph Mwena was to star with African Jazz and the latter African Fiesta.

At the end of 1956, Dino Antonopolous had been persuaded by Henri Bowane to establish Esengo as one of the earliest record companies, an addition to the existing Ngoma, Loningisa, Opika and CEFA. Opika had set base in 1950 and was responsible for the evolution of African Jazz, while Loningisa set base in 1952 and housed the evolution of OK Jazz.

In December 1956, Jean Serge Essous led a group of musicians in defecting from Loningisa to Esengo. It is at this new home that a phenomenal band known as Rock A Mambo emerged. This band, which remained a studio ensemble, had the greatest talent in Congolese rumba in its rank and file. Headed by clarinetist Jean Serge who later headed Les Bantous, the band also had Dr Nico (played accompaniment) Tino Baroza (solo) Nino Malapet (sax), Willy Kuntima (trumpet), Lucy Eyenga, Gogene, Dewayon, Kibonge among other superstars.

Came 1958, most members of Rock A Mambo crossed the river back home in Brazzaville, and the band collapsed, leaving Noel to explore other avenues of expanding his talent. He landed and Guy Fylla'a Makina Loca, travelled with him to set base in Libreville, the capital of Gabon. Noel replaced Tino Baroza at Rock A Mambo. He was brought to fill the void the latter remained behind when the band was touring Cameroon. 

Dicky Baroza had been the pioneer guitarist with the 1959 created Les Bantous, a band that was formed by musicians who had been part of both OK Jaz and Rock A Mambo. When he quit the band, he created a void that was filled by Papa Noel. He travelled with the band to Brussels for some recording sessions in 1962.

It was after the Brussels tour that the guitar wizard made his first attempt to patch up his own band, which he called Super African Jazz which set base in Bukavu in the Southern part of DRC, next to Lake Kivu. However, the band died of teething challenges and never outgrew its infancy. 

It was in 1963 that the big bang that splitter African Jazz happened. It was at Grand Kalle's wedding that several of his top musicians including Tabuley, Dr Nico, Charles Mwamba, Roger Izeidi, Willy Kuntima and others defected in an embarrassing episode in front of the guests. 

A swift response had to be made to save face and Les Batous was brought in to perform. In filling the void, Grand Kalle recruited Papa Noel, in the band's new line-up that also included Casino Mutshipule, Damasseau Kambite and others. In 1964 and 1965, Papa Noel played for Cobantu.This was the band of Dewayon, Franco's guitar teacher. His first band had been Watam. The musical family that also had Jean Isenge aka Bokelo, then created Conga Jazz which first mutated into Conga Success then Cobantu then Conga 68 and later Mbonda Africa. Conga was equally an Esengo band in its inception. After Cobantu, he rejoined African Jazz of Grand Kalle, meaning he actually played with the band on two separate episodes.

Papa Noel was to join Vox Africa of Jeannot Bombenga, another protege of African Jazz in 1967 and by 1969, Franco helped him build his second band, Bamboula. This is the band that had Aime Kiwakana, Bopol Mansiamina, Madilu Bialu, Wuta Mayi and others. Franco had helped this band come into existence to cut down the growing popularity of African Jazz and its scions the two African Fiestas, Sukisa and National. 

It is this band Bamboula that won a contest to represent Congo in the Pan African Festivals in Algiers in 1969. He did a couple of studio assignments for Jeannot's Vox Africa in 1974 and started courting Franco in 1976, before finally joining OKJ in 1978. 

The death of Bamboula is linked to the birth of Orchestre Kiam, midwifed by Verckys who lured all his musicians, thus joining OKJ of Franco, a known rival of Verckys could also be interpreted to mean a jibe at Verckys for bringing down his band. In fact, Noel had followed his band members at Veve studio and there was an altercation between him and Verckys. 

It was at OKJ that his star shone the brightest. He played in dozens of recordings and even created his own songs, among them the all-time great song 'tangawizi' and the instrumental ballad 'mobali malamu'. He played in very many songs, most notably Lacataire, Zala Sportiff, Mandola and many others. 

According to Michael Kibonge, son of legendary first-generation Congolese musician Antoine Kibonge, Franco paid homage to his father (Antoine) to thank him for training a virtuoso, Papa Noel. 

Gerry Stewart, the author of Rumba on River also revered Papa Noel, from his writings. Says that Noel's guitar inspiration came from Bill Alexandre, the Belgian musician who introduced electric guitar into Congolese rumba and Django Reinhardt, who had played with him, back in Belgium.

So good was Papa Noel in mastering the Jazz style virtuosity, that he was nicknamed 'little Django'. Papa Noel had learnt his guitar under Daniel Lubelo aka De La Lune, but his formal training on jazz was the work of Antoine Kibonge.

Back in the day, a broad buffer existed between a segment of the city frequented by natives, also known as Kinshasa and the affluent neighbourhood occupied by Europeans, also known as Leopoldville. 

Musicians who entertained revellers in the former mostly played Congolese rumba, while those who played for a European audience had to master their music, thus necessitating the learning of the complex Jazz chords, and this is how Papa Noel and some of his peers ended up under the tutelage of Antoine Kibonge. 

Kibonge had learnt to play jazz while in Belgium where he had gone to study and came home later with the requisite expertise for the genre since back home there was a shortage of musicians who could play jazz, a few took advantage of the void and learnt the tricks from Kibonge, Noel being one of them. 

This explains why Papa Noel occupied a special position at Franco's OKJ. Having mastered all the jazz chords, Papa Noel introduced them to Franco's band and played them in songs like 'mouzi' which earned Franco admiration and respect, for the song's success.

In the 1980s, when Franco mostly toured Europe with a segment of the band, Noel remained with the Kinshasa team and did all the studio recording, of the Simaro-led group, maybe save for Maya and Kitikwala, which was done by one Tshora Mukoko. 

When Franco came back and felt the urge to do some recording with this Kinshasa-based band, a development which yielded the hit song Mario recorded in Brazil league, it was Noel who played the solo as Franco did the second solo. This recording was historic because it also included former pioneers of the band who had made a comeback, tenor sax specialist Isaac Musekiwa and percussionist Felix Pouela aka Du Pool.

It is also worth noting that Papa Noel has in 1984 sneaked into the studio a few OKJ members Flavian Makabi, Du Pool, Carlyto and others to record Bel Ami, perhaps his most successful work. In 2000 Noel played acoustic guitar in the Paris-based producer Ibrahim Sylla managed Kekele Transcontinental, a veteran ensemble which also featured Syran Mbenza, Bumba Massa, Wuta Mayi, Nyboma, and managed to record two albums.

Michael, the son of Kibonge kept close contact with Pap Noel. He points out that in his last days, Noel was so concerned with a project he had conceived, a conference that would involve musicians and journalists to publicly narrate his long journey in Congolese music, and possibly get the authorities back home to realise that he was still active in music and needed their help.

The legend rested on 11 November in Paris. A mass was held on 16th November and his body will be flown back to Kinshasa for burial, bringing the curtains down to the career of one of the most illustrious musicians from DRC.

Credits and Refrerences: Benny-Armand (Sound Engineer), Michel Kibonge (Author of the Album "Difference), Benny-Armand, A.Petrof.

 By Jarome Ogola

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