So I was listening to A La Queue Leu Leu, really taking the songs in. As I got to Calmement, I was less than a minute in when I realised something. This was the only other song on the album, apart from Ligne 11, without any musical backings from Al Nzimbi or Philippe Guez. Instead, you have Papy Kakol and Thierry Synthe playing throughout the entire song rather than just the sebene. Even the intro was different; it just cut to the chase instead of starting with any keyboards.
I'm saying this because having familiarised myself with Al and Philippe's arrangement styles, I could tell who played on which song in which period. Furthermore, they also played keyboard on top of live drums on albums from that period and earlier (Al arranged Kibuisa Mpimpa but Djudjuchet played on the rumba parts; Philippe played keyboards on Solola Bien with Djudjuchet being the drummer and Maika Munan arranging the songs), but I didn't hear any of their usual sounds on Calmement. This was an all-Maison Mere song, right down to the Zenith intro. For all I know, this was probably the first song recorded for the album.
So I've been listening to Reddy Amisi's Etoile a lot recently, and the fact that I could recognise Maika Munan's muted guitar really got me thinking. Overtime, I've come to realise that there are musicians who more or less have a trademark playing style some of us have come to associate with them. I've already mentioned Maika Munan's muted rhythm guitar, which can be heard on most of the songs he arranged throughout the 90s, but there is Papy Kakol and his distinctive kra-kra-kra-kra partition (one example can be heard on Solola Bien, during the 'solola bien, ozosolola bien te' part), which resulted in other drummers using similar partitions.
Skip to 3:40 for Djudjuchet's approach to the Kakol snare fill. @Mfumu Vata I remember you named one other song with a similar partition, but I forgot what it was.
Another example is a bass lick regularly played by Jean-Louis Bikunda, which is particularly evident on the songs he played on after he left the Big Stars. For example:
At 4:26
Towards the end, during the last 15 seconds.
While he's not the only bassist to use that lick as demonstrated by the below example, I usually associate the lick with him whenever I find him credited on an album since it's so widespread in his work.
Tosha Fulakanda playing a similar lick at 4:57.
I should also mention Flamme Kapaya's fast-paced guitar playing (for example, his riff after the Nsele, ba maman Nseke cry on Alerte Generale) and Djudjuchet's intricate hi-hat playing. I'd also mention programmer-arrangers like Phillipe Guez and Al Nzimbi, but that's another post for another day. Any more examples of musicians adding their own touch or anything else you associate with a particular musician?
I am talking about the kutu zwa mine (forgive my spelling) cry from 3:23 that was popular throughout 98-99. I'm sure that it's a folkloric cry, but I've been recently wondering which language it was in.