Achos ,
This person  "chef d'orchestre" .What does he do in congolese music context?

Hi Archos,
What does chef 'd'orchestre' mean? I speak passable French which enables me to translate it literaly as 'cheaf of an orchestra' .But when I loked up the meaning of the word,apparently it was attributed to music arrangers of europian orchrestas! So I wish to know the meaning of the world in congolese music context. I will be delighted!
Regards,
Bepari.

 he is the boss favorite,the most important person in the group except of the boss himself, in some groups like bcbg he is even allowed to sign some contracts, there are two profiles of chef d'orchestre, the type of chefs who basically got it because they are the star of the group,and the second type is those who have true leadership skills even though sometimes it happens to have a chef who has both stardom and leadership
 i hope i helped you,they are in charge of doing transition between the boss and the group so its hard for a musician who is out of favour with the chef to remain longterm in the group

Mr Grand Archos, i think i would go further and explain the other artistic roles in a group using the Congolese Music Context i.e. Atalaku, Artistic director, cheftaine, etc . That is if Bepari is interested.

artistic director like chef d'orchestre can be given depending only on importance in boss' eyes,but also of musical knowledge,artistic directors have a role on picking songs at concerts,making sure rehearsals are efficient by teaching songs well to members
so there  are two groups aswell of artistic directors some are just given that role just because they are among the longest serving and the other ones are heavily involved in rehearsals,concerts and studio,most of the artistic directors also have arranger skills
atalaku is pretty simple,its the guys in charge of the dancing parts when singers and dancers dance
cheftaine of the female dancers is  a bit similar to chef d'orchestre role between dancers, a charismatic person who can have authority on the rest,make sure they work properly,make sure they buy clothes for concerts( the uniforms the female dancers wear are picked by the boss and the cheftaine)make sure there is discipline within them,solve conflicts....
in many groups female dancers have strong rivalry between themselves because all or most of them are among the boss' sidekicks or with donors so it ends up in a lot of things including spiritual attacks

Soukous Fan,
Being interested is an understatement,I drink and eat congolese music! Enlighten me!

Archos,
L'explication est parfaite!

Soukous Fan,
Being interested is an understatement,I drink and eat congolese music! Enlighten me!

bepari2016, i am not even Congolese! I love this music to the core and this group teaches me everyday about Congolese Music, its soo scary!

haha! me too.Since when  I was a kid!

SAMUEL TSHINTU LOKANGA " SAM TSHINTU CHEGUEVARA"

sam was born in 1968 and like most musicians started to sing in church with his parents
then in 1980's when he reaches high school he will start music outside church,in the groups of his schools starting with athenee de la victoire where he will be classmate with jb mpiana then later in itc ngaliema where he gets his high school diploma with jb and adolphe
in itc ngaliema,sam will participate in the school's group itc flash until he reaches university
and when he starts university,he creates with friends irania musica and later flash musica  with the likes of  suzuki luzubu,lebou kabuya,modogo abarambwa,willy bula,the current chef d'orchestre of quartier latin rocky blanchard...the group will be invited by jb mpiana at funerals of wenge musica's mi-soloist of then blaise kombo and many of them will caught the eye of koffi lomide who was around
and most of the group will join the new formula of quartier latin,sam hesitates to join as he plans to finish university and work and have music as a hobby and he will be convinced to join quartier latin  by modogo and suzuki and 1993
his natural charisma will be much appreciated by koffi who will even nickname him "president"and he has a song 'shambuyi"(which means parent of twins in tshiluba) in quartier latin's second group album magie which gets a great reception
two years later in the next group album he gets another song miss nicole where he changes his way of singing compared to shambuyi and it also gets a good reception
he will then be part of the quartier latin which " re-opens" the way for olympia and zenith de paris in 1998 even though he does not release a song in group album droit de veto
shortly after that tour,he will leave quartier latin along with other guys  each of them having their reasons
 in 1999,its the official birth of quartier latin academia with sam,modogo,bouro mpela,mboshi lipasa, somono dolce,lebou kabuya,pathy bass with sam as the president of the group and they record album sanction with french label secteur A
they will have a massive success with this album and have euro-african tour then record second album viagra in 2001 where  the song colation alluding to a graduation party gets a very positive reception
like all groups of that period they will also suffer from the "ngulu affair" and will record in difficult conditions 4 coins kandala which marks the end of the group
sam then refuses to return to quartier latin and plans to record a solo album which he will first name droit d'asile then sacrifices(alluding to how he had to sacrifice himself to fund album  on his own) and in the same year he will be an unexpected guest at quartier latin's anniversary
after that he will participate in recording of album black bazar which a musical vesion of a book written by author alain mabanckou along with modogo,cnn...
and after that album he will announce album eyoma which is yet to be reelased

PATRICK BONGO AKA ECLIPSE MOSOSO

patrick bongo was born in 1982 and is from a family of artists with his mother being a traditional musician,his oncle bongo wende a famous guitarist and another of his uncles being a drummer in tabuley's afrisa
during holidays he will be following his mother at concerts of the traditional group she was in and when back in kinshasa he will have desire to start music aswell but his parents will tell him they do not accept until he graduates from high school which is what happen
 they allow him to start music in various small groups of his area of limete as a singer  and then become an atalaku following footsteps of  tutu caludji,he will be spotted by djouna mumbafu and participates in album tonnere de brest
he will learn a lot from this experience but decides to look for another group as djouna is too often abroad,he will then attend a test in wazekwa's cultura to replace atalaku papy louange who remained in europe and he will be the one who impresses the most among the 30 atalakus tested,his new nickname will come out of nowhere during his chat with wazekwa to get information about him so he can be registered as a member of the group
 in fact,he will say he comes from mososo,a small quarter within the area of limete,his test  coincides with the day of solar eclipse and wazekwa links this phenomenon with how patrick did impros during half an hour without ever stopping unlike other ones
from then he is then called eclipse mososo and  will be the official replacement of louange next to  gesac tshipoyi
he will participate in cultura's albums and europe tours and in 2007 when wazekwa and koffi olomide fall out again he is the first to be contacted but he rejects the move and informs his leader about what is going on
 in the same time wazekwa who sees in him a very professional guy despite his age gives him responsability to  recruit and train  new atalakus so that they can add a different flavor in their albums next to the two starting atalakus,he then forms what he call "gouvernement mososo" in other terms his understudies which will have atalakus like bercy muana,moise chine,anti rebelle,sabalo...
in 2009 he shines when cultura performs at olympia and wazekwa rewards him with a brand new mercedes coupe but he'll destroy that car as he did not admit  he did not know how to drive or he could have been given something else a gift and he keeps showing he has entered the category of the best atalakus in the country
 he gets even closer to wazekwa in 2011 when wazekwa  spends most of the year in france  as he suffers from a strong aplasia and also a mystic attack,eclipse will use the money he gets from donors to pay musicians in wazekwa's absence and will fund trips to europe himself to go to hospital and pray with wazekwa and return by the week end to perform with cultura in his absence and when wazekwa  reaches top fitness again and goes back to kinshasa he names eclipse the vice chef d'orchestre in charge of discipline as he is very moved by what eclipse did in that very difficult year
 in 2013  when the chef pitshou concorde goes to europe for private reasons,eclipse is meant to be handed the main role but he refuses because he does not feel ready for the role but shortly later,the group members decide to vote and most of them pick him as they see in him the perfect fit and he accepts to take the role until today but as a sign of humility he decides that he would not release a song until the singers all have their chance to add a song (in cultura instead of  group and solo albums,group members share 4-5 songs between them and wazekwa the rest)and will continue to prove his worth as a top atalaku with fimbu
 in 2016 they start recording of a new album and wazekwa wants him to have two songs as the chef d'orchestre which he politely declines to allow another singer who was yet to have his chance
he reveals in an interview that his song with be a sebene song because he does not see why an atalaku would focus on  rumba which is for singers and that he was offered possibility to record an album but he prefers to go step by step by first releasing songs in the group

Eclipse is the Image of what a group member should be, I wonder if Wenge Musica had guys like him as a chef instead of Papy Kakol, it is good to see that in Cultura year in and year put there are very sincere guys, that really wants the goos of the Group and doesn't distract himself, the other guys who has been trained with Bercy in atalaku sectuon, what they are doing in terms of music?

Akademia's last album was Sexy Chocolate from 2004/05, which had Folklore R&B, Zouk,Dancehall, Salsa & Coupe Decale flavours

That was a really good thing for Eclipse to do, to pay the musicians out of his own pocket and to fly to Paris with his own money to see his boss week after week. Wazekwa should just let Eclipse have a maxi-single instead of a song on an album. And that's surprising how he didn't know how to drive, like how did he get around all those years.

indeed i forgot sexy chocolat( haha sam had too much tchoko on his cheeks )

thinking about it eclipse's brilliant behaviour in 2011 almost saved cultura,many of the guys started losing it after one month without the boss and started to contact maison mere and co to join as they heard wazekwa was going to stay for almost the whole year abroad
and he is duly getting the reward for his big heart today with his 20 per cent  on group's contrats,that's how a chef d'orchestre should be