Bebe Kerozene, I have been listening to his works when he was with Les Marquis the past couple of days. It's common sense that you save some money for the future because you never know when you are going to need it.  They musicians in Europe need a regular job since they are not making enough doing music, hence why they are session artists and not full-time.

Life is difficult in Europe and generally in 'Poto'.
A numbe rof firends I know hwo live there have to hustle to make a living and some of the jobs they do would surprise locals here at home. Generally musicians and sportsmen have this problem, becuase their skills are very short-lived and unfortunately these talents are not advised to make hay while the sun shines.

Session musicians rarely get work, and wiht the combattants in Europe this is triple harder. not surprised that the is resorting to such jobs to survive.
Life is tough as a musician....

Dear Archos,

Some friend of mine just infomred me that T.P O.K Jazz Guitar maestro Thierry Mantuika succumbed.

Is this true?

I know he had suffered from heart ailments some time back.

Some Say Franco was for the masses, Tabu Ley was for the Elite.

Certainly Tabu Ley was more on vocal perfection, while Franco was more on Instrumentals. Franco's guitars and ensemble when performing was great to dance and raised the clouds from dancing. Tabu Ley was more melodic.

For a very long period there exists two schools of Lingala because of these two geniuses. Every music fan has a favourite singer to compare either to Franco or Tabu Ley.

Kolo Histoire is my favourite. Al Patchino was on fire....

A lot of  the then-Zairean musicians were attracted to East Africa for two reasons:
one was the Production studios of Nairobi where they could record and press their vinyl records as opposed to travelling to Kinshasa.This was a big deal in those days where the only way to sell music was by Vinyl records.
Two was that bands were the in-thing before magnetic tape recorders became cheap and common place,  enabling easy copying and recording of vinyl. The tastes of revellers also changed with the advent of Disco, killing off teh money made from live perfromances. The number of joints hosting resident bands dwindled, killing off teh demand for bands to come to East Africa.

One of the biggest influences of Lingala music in East Africa was Ilunga Wa Ilunga (Baba Gaston) who used to promote upcoming bands from Lubumbashi and bring them to East Africa by Road, perfroming in Towns and cities along the way until they reached Dar or Nairobi. There the bands always broke away from him and he would go back to recruit more. Groups like Les Mangelepa, Bwambe Bwambe, Moja One (of Moreno Batamba),  all were brought by him to East Africa. As they travelled along the way the perfected their Swahili and recruited local musicians and taught their blend of music to East African perfomers. Most chose to stay either in Kenya or Tanzania, becoming naturalised.

A generation of musisians has grown from them, like a group known as the Longomba's - sons of Lovi Longomba ( who was the son of Vicky Longomba of T.P. O.K Jazz Fame and brother to Awilo Longomba).  They Started in Kenya and have since moved to the U.S.A.

A group like Les Kinois came over, and later disintegrated in Nairobi. Their Band Leader Samba Mapangala moved to the USA. Remnants of other groups like Les Mangelepa and Super Mazembe are still in Kenya trying to revive their music careers. Theri music is now almost 60% Swahili, but the influence of Lingala is still there.

They still enjoy a niche market with the older generation of Lingala Fans in Kenya.

A number of new generation musicians have tried to blend Swahili and Lingala, modifying ndombolo to Swahili tunes but the influence of Lingala is still there.