Wow you didn't know it? When I said that Héritier knows how to treat his employees better than Werra I meant this, this is the reason Wenge MMM acting childish, with people, even though I don't like Bercy Mwana as an Atalaku I can understand why he left, you don't treat people this way, Kimbangu, Gemerose and all those guys who had no money for living SMH.
In short he said that even though he wanted to stay in Wenge he went back to Férre because Werra instead of paying him he was making gifts, and he doesn't need cars or other gifts, because he have kids and they need to eat so he couldn't make a serious commitment in Wenge without a salary.
The journalist asks him about the armbrand of Bill and the fact that Bill took that Armbrand away he said that he doesn't care anymore armbrand are for little kids and he is (his words) the chief of all the Congolese and African information,to him Bill is done since he became a leader. About other atalakus he said that Lobeso is a brother and Brandon (son of Mimi Chikeva don't know if it is true) and he said "the guy who sings like my pal Brigade?", And add that he is his son and he already copied a couple of times.

Wow you didn't know it? When I said that Héritier knows how to treat his employees better than Werra I meant this, this is the reasone Wenge MMM acting childish, with people, even though I don't like Bercy Mwana as an Atalaku I can't understand why he left, you don't treat people this way, Kimbangu, Gemerose and all those guys who had no money for living SMH.
In short he said that even though he wanted to stay in Wenge he went back to Férre because Werra instead of paying him he was making gifts, and he doesn't need cars or other gifts, because he have kids and they need to eat so he couldn't make a serious commitment in Wenge without a salary.
The journalist asks him about the armbrand of Bill and the fact that Bill took that Armbrand away he said that he doesn't care anymore armbrand are for little kids and he is (his words) the chief of all the Congolese and African information,to him Bill is done since he became a leader. About other atalakus he said that Lobeso is a brother and Brandon (son of Mimi Chikeva don't know if it is true) and he said "the guy who sings like my pal Brigade?", And add that he is his son and he already copied a couple of times.

Classic behavior from ya Ngiama since the early days of Wenge. He waits until the very last moment when an employee is completely fed up due to nonpayment, then lures them back with gifts like his old cars and small villas around Kin. Even then he often doesn't give a consistent decent salary. One of the reasons why there's a high musican turnover at WMM.

Other bands now have direct deposit so employees aren't working pro bono.

Just because Heritier parties with his employees dosen't mean he treats them better, Werra just needs to pay the people who help him make music. The government needs to get involved with the payment of the employees in bands and not just collect taxes. 

Just because Heritier parties with his employees dosen't mean he treats them better, Werra just needs to pay the people who help him make music. The government needs to get involved with the payment of the employees in bands and not just collect taxes.

Forget about the government getting involved because band leaders will remind them how the government hasn't done nothing about piracy, helping Congolese music by building decent studios, duplication company..etc. what musician need to do is create a union and get it legalised.

I always wonder why you say you are not being paid AFTER  you leave.  Why not demand salary when you get recruited or in the band?

I always wonder why you say you are not being paid AFTER  you leave.  Why not demand salary when you get recruited or in the band?

Shamala all the musicians ask to be payed goes with Nsone on private meeting 1 on 1 when they have free time and they demand him, and Nsone starts to turn around the subject avoiding the topic until they get fed up and leave, for example you know that he left Kene Kene, Kojack and Eboa Lotin with no money in Kin for 7 months when he toured Europe? And that Kimbangu wasn'y payed throughout his all time in Wenge? Do you see why people in Maison Mere after the first generation leave easilly? Music is a job like the other ones if you wanna starts a music career with other peoples that work as employers for you,you have to find a way to pay them if not it will happen what happened to Wenge bad quality music and always bad mood around.

Just because Heritier parties with his employees dosen't mean he treats them better, Werra just needs to pay the people who help him make music. The government needs to get involved with the payment of the employees in bands and not just collect taxes.

I think that government need to help the other congolese who are really in bad situation, Ngiama has the money to pay his musician but as Bill said in his crie " Bana balobi bazo lia te" a clear reference to the fact that nsone is hard on giving money to his musicians, and if he doesn't stop with this behaviour the Orchestra will become like the Defao and Reddy's one good music but not a lot of people really listen to them. I think that Héritier will be a better leader, he himself has known how Wenge is strict about that thing and remember Kunzardo? the guy that left Férrre because he said he wasn't payed, he is still in Team Wata for a reason, this is one of the reason Congolese music is not listened a lot anymore, look at Fally paying everybody so everybody are happy and everybody make classic songsthat's  how you lead an Orchestra

The truth is no band has a permanent salary structure for musicians. This we have said time and again. The reason they leave Werra has nothing much to do with pay because even in other bands there is no pay like we have heard Kunzardo talk about how he was not paid in Ferre's band. Even in BCBG there is no salary per say. These guys are just linked to donors who help them from time to time. They are also given opportunities to perform during weddings and functions to raise money.

The biggest challenge with WMM has to do with the leaders surrounding Werra. These leaders are different from other bands like in BCBG. Kakol and the administrators are responsible for most of the departures. If kakol or an administrator does not like you then you are gone. Bercy left over a long standing difference with Kakol. Brigade left because of Herritier. Gimerose left because he had differences with Kakol who never gave him any chance. It is like that! Kunzardo said he is only going to join a band that will assure him of a salary after leaving Ferre but Bercy goes to Ferre and says Werra does not pay. Don't you guys get the lack of logic in all this? Arnake leaves Ferre where he is pad and goes to Werra where he is not paid?? No logic.

My simple advice is just enjoy the music and stop this political cadre- like attitude whereby if you like Fally then others Musicians have to be wrong in everything and its only Fally who does it right. you always have to look for faults in Ferre. If you like Mopao then Werra and JB are always wrong and they are finished?? Each of these guys still has a lot to give and they are doing fine only if you decide to enjoy the diversity of music. Love the music and not the person!
 

I always wonder why you say you are not being paid AFTER  you leave.  Why not demand salary when you get recruited or in the band?

what i mean is that no-one complains when still in the band. They onyl complain after leaving. With the huge numbers of musicians these bands  have i doubt they can support a Salary system.When Equilizer left Koffi he said he will only join a band that will pay him salary,up to date there has been no takers. Further bands depend on show contracts to get money , administrators work behind the scenes to secure contracts and support the band. Initially if am not wrong PRIMUS contract supported some band members in terms of salary.
When you join a band your initiative and networking will help you more than asking the boss for hand outs.A big band should give you a bigger "audience".  By the way  if you consider what these bands were paid to perform in Kenya i wonder how the band leader can afford to pay salary. The other issue is priorities.... using your little hard earned cash to sustain your "highlife" is poor prioritizing. when you look at the leaders the money they have mostly come from other sources and not music.

Point to note nowadays BCBG  is performing almost every weekend  as opposed to a while ago. cCould it be because of reduced sponsorship in music by PRIMUS?

I always wonder why you say you are not being paid AFTER  you leave.  Why not demand salary when you get recruited or in the band?

what i mean is that no-one complains when still in the band. They onyl complain after leaving. With the huge numbers of musicians these bands  have i doubt they can support a Salary system.When Equilizer left Koffi he said he will only join a band that will pay him salary,up to date there has been no takers. Further bands depend on show contracts to get money , administrators work behind the scenes to secure contracts and support the band. Initially if am not wrong PRIMUS contract supported some band members in terms of salary.
When you join a band your initiative and networking will help you more than asking the boss for hand outs.A big band should give you a bigger "audience".  By the way  if you consider what these bands were paid to perform in Kenya i wonder how the band leader can afford to pay salary. The other issue is priorities.... using your little hard earned cash to sustain your "highlife" is poor prioritizing. when you look at the leaders the money they have mostly come from other sources and not music.

Point to note nowadays BCBG  is performing almost every weekend  as opposed to a while ago. cCould it be because of reduced sponsorship in music by PRIMUS?

Shamala I don't agree, Koffi was paid 80000 US Dollars for his aborted concert and remember this is net because the guy's hotel and food was paid for as well, ferre on his last visit here was paid 40000. This is pure bad manners, these musicians helps you to make the music and they deserve proper pay. Bad manners must be condemned, these leaders are foolish and they must be ashamed. Werra is one selfish man. Before you make your own its clear that you must start with the big bands that means the likes of Kunzardo have no option but just to join even when they are not paid. If its not money issue then its one to do with disrespect to workers, it is bad. Why recruit so many musicians if you can not pay them?

And what is it with the "love the music and not the person"...? Do you extricate the music from who sang or made it? This is wonderful! I don't think music just came out of the blues without adding a persona to it. I think we would just have to make do with having people talk about what they don't like about whoever they have brought his/her case up here please. It is a forum for crying out loud.And I don't think we have got the right to tell people what to like and what not to like....Or is that the new rule here?  Why don't we just be open to different views and opinions rather than always attaching emotions unnecessarily to what seems like some kind of bad taste to us...

Lol sometimes i actually kinda dream of some topics and happen to find out that something similar is posted when i wake up,this money issue is very special
because first of all,even leaders have help from donors outside the concerts and sponsorship,then the second problem is the too high number of employees in groups nowadays
 the difficulty with salary in congolese music is that no matter how high salary is its still lower that what a musician can collect in one day or even one hour so even with salary the guys are still unhappy and there was one leader who was known for paying his musicians and if you came too him with a problem outside your salary in many cases he'd tell you either  foolish things or he'd tell you i am removing that amount then on your next salary or if he is in very good mood he'll give you extra money
all admins from groups despite their bad side of blocking money for themselves so that musicians are not paid properly will tell you that musicians are very very hard to deal with one day he'll come with  a 500 dollars  problem,the day after with 1000 and so on while if on a salary it rarely represents more than that amount,they have a lifestyle which is very demanding money wise,which is why eversince fally and co went solo now 99,99999999999999 per cent of the musicians go solo so they can have full control of the money
also lets ask ourselves assuming for example genta or lobeso did animation which lifted the group for a whole year,would it be fair that they remain on lets suppose their 500 dollars per month?
for me the best possible situation would be the end of salary and the beginning of proper rights from copyright company plus matolo but the big difficulty with that is that if for example lobeso got big money through kata fumbwa  as the author,it might not please either the chefs or even the big boss, in the sense that most leaders tend to notice,whether they are right or wrong, that when band members have too much advantages they become big headed and hard to deal with( the european long term papers for example)

Archos you are correct... I meant the numbers of band members from musicians to support staff is to high that you will need a lot big concerts just to get by.

Well the solution is simple only 8 or 9 guys for singing 5 or 6 dancer and one musician for every instrument so you will have 30 employees pay them each a 1000 dollar per month it is 30000 a month? Yes have you got those money to pay them you as your own? Yes? Ok go ahead with your orchestra No you haven't got them? Take a small amount of musicians.
And for the fact Nsone, Férre and co had histories about people who aren't payed and some others yes, it is that sometimes you are the favourite of a leader and this leader gives you more money than he could give to some other guy, Werra has two daughters and one of them is in College my american friends do you confirm that Colleges are not less than 20000$ per year (speaking of bad quality colelge never mind big ones) So Werra and all those guys has the money they share it with who they want, I like JB  from this fact Calludji said a lot of times Papa Chérie goes in  Europe or through Western Union give him 1500€ 2000€ euro even though he left

Ending salary would make no sense, because a lot of people from other fields of work still have salary even though their stuff is copyrighted, the admins are wrong for keeping money for themselves and not giving the musicians. And why is it you have to be on good terms with them when they are not the boss. And if the bandmembers want European papers what is the problem since many of them have kids in Europe already. The musicians need to get payed what they deserve!