Jabulani Library: Most Popular

SAMBA MAPANGALA: FROM CONGO TO THE WORLD

September 25, 2025 - 10:48 PM "Samba is easily the greatest of all Congolese musicians ever to set base in Nairobi," opines Jacob Owiyo, a football coach and music fan from Nairobi. He goes ahead to expound on the factors that make him come to that conclusion, beginning with Samba’s natural singing voice. Apart from being a vocalist, Jacob, who first met Samba in Mombasa in 1977, says Samba mostly composed songs themed on subjects that resonated with society, making his songs everyone’s favourite. That’s not all. He explains that Samba did several of his songs in Kiswahili, and this endeared him to Kenyans more than...

THE VOICE THAT BRIDGED ODEMBA AND SOUKOUS

August 11, 2025 - 10:33 AM It is truly strange how rumba fans shy away from admitting that Madilu Systeme's 1993 album, Sans Commentaire, is one of the greatest musical albums to ever grace the world of music. It's really weird. The composition, the arrangement, the instrumentation, the singing—everything is so on point. The transition from the 1980s TPOK's Madilu into the 1990s soukous Madilu is one of the most remarkable transitions in music. Just listen to “Autoroute” from start to end. Back in my days in Chad, a guy we lived with in the camp said that nobody transitioned to the climax better than Madilu. Madilu is the only artist whose music speaks to your body, mind, and soul. These are the......

THE STRIKING SIMILARITIES BETWEEN BENGA AND RUMBA

June 17, 2025 - 05:20 PM Although each exists as a distinct genre, there are numerous striking similarities between the two. Kenyan Benga is a close relative of Congolese rumba, based on their shared ancestry and the striking similarities in the structural formation of the songs, especially in terms of instrumental arrangements. Both are modernized traditional music styles, performed with contemporary instrumentation and recorded in modern studios. Over time, as globalization became a reality, the music embraced foreign influences to evolve into what it is today. Many other genres have emerged in the last century under similar circumstances. A rumba musician, in the Congolese sense, can easily fit into a Benga......

SIMARO LUTUMBA'S ONE ON ONE INTERVIEW WITH BANNING EYRE

June 09, 2025 - 08:46 PM Interview Between Simaro Lutumba and Banning Eyre Venue: Simaro's House INTRODUCTION Simaro Lutumba was perhaps the greatest poet among the composers of Franco's great TPOK Jazz. He joined the band in 1961 and later became the band's long-term vice president. His melancholy 1974 hit "Mabele," sung by Sam Mangwana, was a landmark in OK Jazz's "authenticité" era releases and cemented Simaro's reputation as "Poet." In the late '70s, he was one of the musicians jailed at Makala prison during Franco's most serious run-in with the authorities, a clash over two songs deemed obscene. Simaro operated the band during Franco's long absences in Europe in the 1980s. This interview took place......

TRACING LABAN OCHUKA'S FOOTPRINTS IN MUSIC

April 05, 2025 - 03:20 PM "Snakes give birth to long things." This saying helps explain why Dan Ochuka, son of Laban Ochuka, a superstar from the Maroon Commandos, is an accomplished musician, as were both of his parents.His mother, Agnes, was a professional mourner, a role that involved a great deal of music, while his father was a dancer of the traditional Abanyole dance known as Esirembe.Ochuka, one of Kenya’s finest musical sons, began his music career in the early 1970s in Ebunangwe, Emuhaya, in what is now Vihiga County, where he was born and raised. His earliest involvement in what would become a blossoming career began as a box guitar specialist, performing at funerals and entertainment joints.This......

KNOW MORE ABOUT PAPA LOLO HIT MAKER

March 12, 2025 - 03:00 PM Fanfan, as his fans know him, was a veteran musician of the second generation of Congolese rumba. He was primarily a guitarist but also excelled as a composer, arranger, and band leader. Born in October 1945, Mose Sengo, aka Mose Fanfan, debuted in music in 1966 with a band called Rickem Jazz in Kinshasa. He also had a stint with the Orchestre Revolution, a formation mostly consisting of musicians who had rebelled from Franco's OKJ in 1967. Fanfan, the only guitarist who could pull out a Franco on the fretboard, joined OKJ in 1968 and left in 1974. He played in the studio recording of several songs, including Beya, his own composition, dje melasi, and several others. He quit the band to......

THE SOUKOUS ACE WHO SANG & DANCED HIS WAY TO OUR HEARTS

March 07, 2025 - 05:46 PM In a photograph posted on his Facebook page to celebrate his 66th anniversary, the Republic of Congo's sensational musician looked frail, forlorn, and pale. His once vibrant smile, which depicted a man full of life, had since been reduced to one of misery. He was evidently sickly. Throat cancer had drained the life out of the Loketo supremo, who rocked the continent’s music scene in the early 1990s with electrifying stage performances in concerts. Congolese rumba has constantly been in a state of evolution. The slow-paced and heavily spiced Fiesta and Odemba styles, which prominently featured the saxophone, clarinet, trumpets, accordion, maracas, and more, passed the baton to......

THE GOLDEN VOICE OF AFRICA

February 22, 2025 - 03:00 PM CELEBRATING SAM MANGWANA'S IMPACT ON MUSIC When the 'Shakespeare of African music,' Simaro Lutumba, was asked which vocalist he felt delivered his poems best, he unequivocally stated that it was Mangwana. Indeed, Mangwana brought to life songs like "Ebale Ya Zaire", "Mabele", and "Faute Ya Commercant" in a way that captivated listeners. While Simaro had composed several songs prior, it was these two 1973 tracks that helped him gain recognition as an astute poet, with lyrics that were rich with philosophical interpretations.The fact that Simaro regarded Mangwana as the greatest, despite working with other vocalists like Josky Kiambukuta, Vicky Longomba, Youlou Mabiala, Djo Mpoyi, Malage De......

THE MAGICAL VOICE OF JOSKY

February 13, 2025 - 04:27 PM The city streets are filled with the fragrance of fresh roses because all spaces adjacent to the busy streets have been converted into makeshift flower shops. Hotels are advertising special offers for couples, and gift shops are abuzz with activities, all because love is in the air, and soon it will be Valentine's. February 14 is marked globally as a day of lovers. Although this tradition, with roots in the ancient Roman Empire, hadn't gained much traction in Africa until recently, it is now observed even in remote villages, where it is not strange to find the local grocer selling plastic roses. On Valentine's Day of 1949, a major development happened in the port city of Matadi, when......

A GLIMPSE OF PAPA NOEL'S MUSICAL JOURNEY

January 23, 2025 - 09:00 AM "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......

Jabulani Library: Most Popular