The
L'Afrique Danse series is without doubt the most important, early effort to catalog and preserve the extraordinary musical ferment occurring in the two Congos during the 1960s. This second in the series is dominated by early hits by
Rochereau with
African Fiesta, and the Rochereau tracks are truly wonderful. Yet there is also one killer song from
Kalle, crooning with a Latin swing, and two sweet songs from
Jean (Johnny) Bokelo with his band
Conga Succès. The album ends with two songs from
Orchestre Los Angel, an obscure band in the O.K. Jazz mold led by Albert Missia, aka
Robin.
This is a wonderful record with sublime music, and it has appeared elsewhere on the 'net. Yet this is a relatively pristine copy, suffering from a couple of original recording issues (especially on the Los Angels cuts), but thankfully free from defects caused by playing it over and over. Which, by the way, is your fate once you have this in your library. I have excellent copies of Nos. 3 & 4 as well, and will queue them up.
5 comments:
Grand Kalle is the founder of Congolese Music. Without him, I am not sure if you would have the likes of Koffi Olomide, Papa Wemba, Franco, Pepe Kalle, King Kester, Bozi Boziana, and Tabu Ley.
Bokelo was at the begining at his stage finding his own indentity and was able to make his own sound against Franco and Rochereau.
Tabu Ley was developing his confidence as a singer as he wanted to prove how good he was on his without being with Grand Kalle. Rochereau did a great job since he was a excellent vocalist and still is a excellent vocalist. Tabu Ley soon became the vocalist of the 1980s.
Thank you Rhythm Connection for this peace. You are a great music master.
Thank you Robert for this happy music! Apurva from Pune, India.
Thank you so much for this lovely music...realy looking forward to Vol.3 and Vol.4
Cheers,
@ FPK: I am humbled. Thanks for your informative comment and your praise.
@ Apurva: Un abrazo, hermano de la música.
@ santai: You are welcome and I'll prioritize the next volumes.
Thank you for this - the Bokelo pieces were especially interesting. But what's the story with the 'Savon OMO' piece? Clearly an advert for good old-fashioned OMO soap, do you know if it was released as a promotional record apart from this recording? Great fun! Thank you!!
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