Add
Syran Mbenza to the personnel in the last post, et voila!
Quatres Etoiles, the fantastic all-star band that proved to be the gold standard for soukous through the 1980s and early 1990s. Besides the other Four Stars,
Bopol,
Wuta Mayi and
Nyboma, this album has awesome lead guitar from
Dally Kimoko on two Nyboma-penned cuts, "Omba" and "Samba."
While Quatre Etoiles recorded in the increasingly technology-drenched Parisian environment, their soukous retained the feel of classic Congolese rumba. How could it be otherwise, since these grand veterans had diverse, influential participation in many of Congo's seminal bands?
Two great sources for information on Quatre Etoiles and many other bands are
Frank Bessem's Musiques d'Afriques and Gary Stewart's
web version of his excellent
Rumba on the River. Global Groove has a good copy of Quatre Etoiles' 1985 recording,
Dance, so I will not need to post mine.
My copy of this record comes from a Zimbabwe pressing, and the album sleeve is pretty basic. I found the original cover on the net and posted both of them, for your amusement. Luckily the sound quality is nearly perfect for this very fine album.
Enjoy sometime soon!
9 comments:
Thanks a lot. This one is indeed a home runner. Great tunes by Les Quatre Etoiles.
LeFranck
Thank you for sharing. Great music. Apurva from Pune, India.
This is a great work of Nyboma and Wuta Mayi. They are the best singers are the Zaire music scene. It is incredible. Nyboma and Wuta Mayi are genius in the music scene. Thank you Rhythm Connection. Could you please post Pepe Kalle's 1989 Lp Pon Moun Paka Bouge.
@LeFranck & @Apurva: thanks a lot for visiting and commenting.
@FrancoPepeKalle: thanks much for your recent comments. The album you request is in my queue, possibly next up.
Thanks for posting this great Congolese stuff -- I have about 4 disks by 4 Etoiles, and some from each of their members, but not this one, and I look forward to hearing it.
D. Sullivan, Washington, DC
I was excited to see something from them that I didn't have, but it looks as if I do have it already -- the 6 track titles on this are all among the 12 tracks on the "Sangonini" CD (Stern's) by them, which I have long had and enjoyed. A disappointment not to find something new, but thanks anyway for posting this.
@D Sullivan: Unfortunately and strangely, I do not have Sangonini. Have to work on that. . .
No way for us to get the download link for this LP?
I see your site has been a little lonely recently. I just found it and am grateful for what remains actively linked. If it is possible, could you re-up Les Quatre Etoiles links that are no longer active? Many thanks!
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