Wow, he's deluded. He could only do half of Palais des Sports, he'd be lucky to do half of Bercy, let alone sell the place out. I don't know if there's anyone who can give him a reality check.

Safi Ilonga sounds a lot like Sylvie Moboya by Bozi Boziana.

I needed to cleanse my ears with the original after listening to this. You don't fix what ain't broke.

His first post-crashout album. This should be interesting with the behind-the-scenes madness recently plaguing Cultura.

Considering the style he'd find after settling in Europe, I think this and Amour Interdit was where Bikunda started taking cues from Lofombo. Maybe Lofombo taught him how to improve his style, maybe he created some basslines the latter interpreted on the album. If you listen to some of the albums he participated in after Defao broke up the Big Stars, Bikunda kept this Lofombo-esque style while also making it more percussive.

I agree with Prince. Solola Bien would've still done well if it was recorded at Meko or GND (JP Kiss' old studio before he moved to Ndiaye), but it wouldn't give Maison Mere the push they needed to become international stars and it certainly wouldn't have amped up the JB/Werra rivalry in that case. If Maison Mere were stuck in Kin like El Paris, how would they compete with BCBG if they couldn't schedule a show on the same day JB did Zenith?

If I recall, Moise Mbiye was supposed to do Zenith as well and he's currently one of the biggest, if not the biggest, Congolese gospel artists of our time. He kept postponing it many times until he ultimately cancelled it for whatever reason.

If I remember well Koffi Olomidé used sometimes collaborate with Bobongo Stars (including Al Nzimbi) in big Kinshasa concerts to replicate the sound of his albums he did with Manu Lima (Rue d'Amour, Henriquet, Elle et Moi and Les Prissoniers Dorment). Because back at that time Quartier Latin didn't had a keyboard-player. King Kester Emeneya would do the same thing in 1990 during his show at Palais du Peuple and FIKIN (in the summer), also when he went to do his national tour sponsored by tobacco company Okapi and Primus (Moanda, Boma, Matadi, Butembo, Goma, Bukavu and Uvira) and his concerts abroad (Brazzaville, Burundi and Rwanda), by using Al Nzimbi and his collegue as keyboard players and Myriam as female singer of mixed race alongside late Thethe and Denise Diatezua.

I don't think that there would be alot of difference with Al Nzimbi and Phillipe Guez, because they both use programmed drums in their songs, Phillipe Guez not using them during sebenes. On the end it is the choice of the bandleader. For example with JB Mpiana, he let Makaba have full control over the artistic direction and Makaba is like his mentor Al Nzimbi pro programmed drums during sebene. On Kibuisa Mpimpa it was that they associated Djudju-chet otherwise Papy Kakol would have barely played drums during sebene. Al Nzimbi did everything to not having Djudjuchet associated to the project. On a la Queue Leu Leu he was lucky that Djudju was busy with Eboulement of El Paris.


With Philippe Guez's absence, I think that Al Nzimbi could have worked on Danger de Mort. But Koffi prefered to work with JC Tshikuta who started to have a big name in Kinshasa due to his work with gospel artist and Mbetenge, who Koffi already was impressed before Monde Arabe of his artistic knowledge. I still wonder what problem Koffi had with Philippe Guez, because he worked with other Congolese artists in the same period, but Koffi who was collaborating with him since 1992 (Koweit Rive Gauche). I really wonder how Danger de Mort would be with Guez. Would his role be minor like Magie and Pas de Faux Pas or rework all the rumba's ?

Interesting. I knew that Alain Makaba and Al Nzimbi both worked at Studio Bobongo back in the days, but I didn't know that Al taught Makaba how to program and arrange music. I thought he learnt that by himself.

Which other songs did Philippe contribute to on Magie? I know he played on the title song, Detresse, Petit na London and the intro to Mansouri, I recognise his sound when I hear it, but Eric Bamba also played keyboards on the album. Magie is the only song in which I can tell the difference between Philippe and Eric's contributions.