Congo Vibes
Music => Congolese Music => Topic started by: mvulusi96 on May 18, 2016, 18:17
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOIIMbnssGQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=025myFVnKCE
recorded during 1983(Bukavu-Dawa), 1984 during his 8-months stay in Europe and his return in Kinshasa the same year. It was for him difficult period because after his huge succes period 1977-82(Wemba voted 5 times in a row the best star and Viva the best band), 12 musicians left him to found Victoria Eleison which would dominate Zaire the next 5 years. Wemba recruited guys like Lidjo Kwempa, Reddy, Luciana, Miloson, Gauthier Mukoka, Richacha... But they were not really competent to get that huge succes of the past back. The songs Eliana, Ceci Cela, Bukavu Dawa, Rendre a Cesar, Libonza, Nana Efiye, Petite Gina, Dipanda, Muzingile, Proclamation, Miss Besange, Champs Elysee, Destin Ya Moto, Alangando, Ambochila, Esclave and Mfonoyami marcked this time. This documentary was broadcasted in 1985 on the Belgium television. Papa Wemba was in this era motivated to make an international carreer as artist and dediced to settle his band in 1987 in France, which was interpreted by Kinois as escape for Victoria's succes.
There are three concerts of Papa Wemba shown at the end of the documentary on the second video. One from 1977(which was Viva's first tv-concert), the other from 1980 after their tour in Europe and the last from 1981 before the creation of Langa Langa Stars.
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Verckys Kiamuangana was one of the least liked figures in a music at that time because of his arrogance. However, that arrogance stems from the fact that he was the most reknown producer - producing 2/3 of Zaire groups at the time and importing the latest music technology from Belgium. Even then we see the rift between Wemba and Vercky because of their differing musical philosophies.
Young Wemba in 1983 already had 14 (legitimate) children; a bit hard to comprehend. :D
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How did Verckys lost his market to Sonodisc, Kaluila, Ets Ndiaye, Mayala, etc. ?
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(http://s32.postimg.org/qriur5z7p/image.jpg) (http://postimage.org/)
At that point in 1983-84, Verckys was producing the hottest new band - Victoria Eleison, Anti-Choc and Langa Langa Stars, along with numerous other bands at his 24 track studio. However, there was little he could do to stop the explosion of bootleg cassettes starting in late 1985, which quickly destroyed the record industry throughout Africa. Matonge went from being the center of music production, shops, concerts, and clubs to being the center of bootleg cassette sales. Vinyls were considered a luxury and cassettes were the economical solution.
https://youtu.be/nbMxCpcgJiI
The majority of significant artists Verckys had worked with moved to Europe (until 1984 the only Kin based artists who went to Europe regularly were Tabu Ley, Franco & OK Jazz, Wemba, and a few others). In Paris and Belgium, studios were state-of-the-art, shops there weren't selling bootlegs, and the huge diaspora fanbase became important for album sales and concerts.
Verckys was also a cut-throat businessman - if he didn't like what he heard at an audition he'd demoralize the group and kick them out. He collected a considerable amount of royalty from his artists. Some bands were still on the streets despite being on the hit parades.
He insisted on keeping his base in Kinshasa to produce uncoming talets, as Zaire's economy collapsed gravely. He went from being Zaire's wealthiest music mogul (some will say Franco), to leaving production and being elected president of the Congolese Musician's Union in 1988. He then shifted to the newspaper business in the 90's.
Sonodisc, Mayala, N'daiye, Somina and many other labels took over in the late 80's- early 90's because they offered artists multi-year/album inclusive contracts, which gave the artists money up front, studio time at proprietary and/or state-of-art studios with top sound engineers, distribution services, and regular royalty payments. Koffi for example signed a huge deal with Sonodisc in 1990 - a label he remained loyal to until things went south for the company in the mid-2000. Presently, he still gets substantial royalty for works released through the label.
The royalties for the Verckys produced albums now appearing on digital media are going to Verckys himself, not the members of the different bands.
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kester was right to call him "wazola nzimbu" lol :D :D :D
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Verckys,the shylock...
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I've watched this documentary countless times over the years, but I just noticed Koffi in the studio in part 1 at (29:17) right next to the sound engineer helping Wemba and viva members interpret a song he presumably composed. This is just before he recorded his first album Ngounda and was still a ghostwriter of sorts.