Kasongo Musanga (RIP)

This is Isaac Musanga, brother of Kasongo who started this blog.

It is with great sadness I tell you of Kasongo's untimely death. Kasongo was killed in a car accident two months ago. I have been grieving too much to write about it.

This is a tragedy I cannot recover from. I don't know if I can continue his work on this blog. Maybe later I can do something. I am too sad now, thank you all for supporting this blog for the past times.

LES ON DIT / FRANCO,BANIEL,NANA & OK JAZZ (CHOC CHOC 009,1988)

There is some controversy at the moment about the blog Congo Na Biso because they do not credit other bloggers when they use their uploads.

Please be assured we always credit other blogs when we use their links to add to the OK Jazz legacy. We continue today with this link from Global Groovers, a beautiful record from 1988 featuring the gorgeous vocals of Baniel and Nana. Female singers are rare on OK Jazz releases, so this is a real gem. Enjoy!

LES ON DIT / FRANCO,BANIEL,NANA & OK JAZZ (CHOC CHOC 009,1988)
 

Side A 

LES ON DIT  (Franco)                                                            
C'EST LA VIE D'UNE FEMME CELIBETAIRE (Franco)                                   

Side B 

JE VIS AVEC LE PDG (Simaro)                                                      
FLORA UNE FEMME DIFICILE (Franco)              

http://globalgroovers.blogspot.com/2011/03/le-grand-maitre-franco-et-le-tpok-jazz.html

Still Alive (1990) Koch International CD 63

This album is like a Holy Grail for us. Even though it was released on CD in 1990 it is very hard to find and out of print. We finally sourced a copy and are so happy to share it with you. It is a great real live performance by Franco and TPOK Jazz at the African Festival in Utrecht from 1988, the year before the Grand Maitre sadly left us.

There is such great energy on this record and a huge line-up of musicians. Franco brought 28 members of OK Jazz to Utrecht for this concert at his own expense as a favour to former OK Jazz member Joseph Ngonga who was an organiser of it.

1 Likambo (Franco)
2 Bolingo ya Ngai No Tata (Josky)
3 Pesa Ngai Position Na Ya (Madilu System)
4 Tres Fache (Franco)
5 Mario (Franco)
6 Mono Munutu Nieki Amo Ta Ndila (Franco)
7 Etumba (Franco)
8 Mawe (Ndombe Opetum)
9 Tokoma ba Camarades Pamba (Franco)

http://www.4shared.com/file/DUqNvGW9/Still_Alive.html

Youlou Mabiala Dans Lili et Nsona 'Live in Miguel - Casse Coup" Disco Stock DS 7966

You may remember we posted the infamous OK Jazz Live Recording of the Afro European Tour LP here
http://francorestored.blogspot.com/2010/02/live-recording-on-afro-european-tour.html

That otherwise great album was somewhat ruined by fake audience noise.

Unfortunately the same is true of this solo album by Youlou Mabiala recorded after he left OK Jazz, but the music is so great we just had to post it.

We don't know who Youlou has in this band, but they are really tight and carry on the OK Jazz tradition. Some of the members probably played with OK Jazz.

We especially like the beautiful second track Walimeya, it has great guitars and a thundering bass line. Whoever the bass player is on this record is really great.

Side A

Lili

Walimeya

Side B

Nsona Hombele

Na Komi Kilawou

http://www.4shared.com/file/wdk7WPRu/Live_in_Miguel.html

Nguashi N'Timbo - Mboyo' Osala Ngai Nini (1982)

 We previously posted some great Ngaushi N'Timbo and OK Jazz material here

http://francorestored.blogspot.com/2010/03/nguashi-ntimbo-manguta.html

Our friends at Global Groovers have recently posted another great album of his here.

http://globalgroovers.blogspot.com/2011/02/nguashi-ntimbo-mboyo-osala-ngai-nini.html

It's not an OK Jazz release, but since Ngaushi was a member of OK Jazz, the great Ntesa Dalienst is also on it and the sound of the record is very like the great band we thought it would be good to include a link to the album here for those who missed it on Global Groovers.

Side A

1 Mboyo, osala ngai nini
2 Na retiré bolingo

Side B

3 Mokolo ekonginda
4 Bolingo pasi

Digital OK Jazz

Well we don't know whether to rejoice or to be annoyed. We have just discovered that Tamasha Corporation have digitally released many Franco and Ok Jazz records. They have in a lot of cases released albums in their original track order, but in other instances have done the same thing that Sonodisc did, by pairing bits from different albums together.

Here is one example http://itunes.apple.com/ie/album/anjela/id387922205

'Anjela' was originally just a two track album. Tamasha Corporation have released it with two extra tracks, unfortunately they are not long lost out-takes but just two tracks from another album 'Mamie Zou', which is incidentally available if you search for Ntesa Dalienst on iTunes.

So there are pluses to this, the tracks seem to be free from the skips and clicks that are on some of our vinyls and we have found some tracks that we have not heard before, like Malunzi found on this album

http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/tobeya-to/id391064986

We had to be careful to check this was a real OK Jazz track because we are sure the track before it 'Afrique Aux Africains' is not. Also be careful if you see a track with a name you don't recognise, it is probably because it is wrongly titled. Like Amour Retreouve which you can see here http://www.amazon.com/Amour-Retreouve/dp/B004189I4G is actually the same as Amour Viole from the Live Afro-European Tour album. This one doesn't have any fake audience noise though which is good.

There are a lot of releases there now but it has been poorly catalogued, often with no reference to OK Jazz or even Franco! If you look up Youlou Mabiala you will find the Franco Presente albums. The cover art is also very poor in most cases, we don't know why a big record company like Tamasha couldn't reproduce the original labels.

Anyway, it is better than the music not being available and I'm sure many of you will be happy to find these tracks available digitally now. The full 20 minute version of Tres Fache is there, which is good.

Owawa/Camp Luka - Fiesta 51.042 (1970)

This 45 is quite rare. Neither 'Owawa' or 'Camp Luka' appears to have been released on CD or LP.
Both are Franco compositions. 'Camp Luka' is a funky rumba with two sections, the first has some speaking, the early version of rapping maybe?

'Owawa' is in a beautiful and more traditional Congolese style called a 'Polka-Piket.' It has an interesting spoken introduction.

It is also labelled Editions Populaires No.17

Side A

Owawa (Franco)

Side B

Camp Luka (Franco)


http://www.4shared.com/file/hT7oMXCs/Owawa_-_Camp_Luka.html