Congo Vibes
Music => Congolese Music => Topic started by: archos on January 06, 2018, 16:41
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the success of kalayi boeing and les anges adorables vol 1 and 2 will put wenge on another level in africa and will bring a lot of african and european contracts
in 1995 while the group is back from african tour,the 3 main administrators didier masela,werrason,jb mpiana will meet assistant of verckys kiamuangana,denewade at veve center and he will advise them to follow example of carribean group kassav and release individual albums then do group albums in between,and the idea seduces them especially jb mpiana and werrason who are starting to have bigger personal ambitions
In the meantime alain makaba who is settled in europe and who just came to africa sometimes decided to start recording his solo album as he says the group tours without him but he has to feed his family and he picks his favourite singers who are in europe at that moment kester,luciana,dindo yogo and co but misses out on some like pepe kalle who had returned to kin
and when his friends of wenge musica arrive in europe he will make a move seen as controversial by some of his friends,as he takes only jb mpiana,ekokota and titina but he will explain that he wanted something different from wenge which is why he took a minimal number
the recording process of pentagone will mark a new step in personal ambition of jb mpiana and werrason as both start planning solo projects with their private songwriters and werrason plans that when wenge musica is in kinshasa sometimes he would, as he is getting more contacts,tour on his own with a makeshift band of christian mabanga, the newly recruited seguin,ali mbonda and his friend ficarre(and later on ferre)
while recording pentagone,alain makaba will introduce to the group producer simon njonang lowe"sipe music"as thanks to his participation on various albums as guitarist and arranger he develops by what is by far the best network in the industry of music within the group
but this idea will be controversial in the group jb and werrason will be reluctant especially werrason who heard about him before and his habit of breaking bands he produces but makaba convinces them he can do good job for them so they have to give him a chance
unfortunately with the growing ambition of jb mpiana and werrason they will build around themselves staffs who will start feeding them with the idea that one has to officially appear as the supreme leader and coincidentally both will have two older artists who will act like godfathers to them,papa wemba and koffi olomide
papa wemba having good relationship with most members of the group but preferring jb who says he is his idol and koffi the same,decent relationship with most but closer to werra
jb mpiana will officially reveal to colleagues he wants to use denewade's idea has he has over 20 songs to pick from to release his solo album and after werrason being reluctant,jb threatens to record album without wenge if needed so they end up agreeing on it and after release of pentagone start working on it
but frustration and tension is starting to grow within the group first with the leaders who are eager to make strong individual statement but also with musicians who are growing up and have more responsabilities while they get very little money
while the group start recording feux de l'amour between studio bobongo and europe werrason will start planning on his album kibuisa mpimpa motivated by his "mentor" koffi(who will mention that name almost 5 years before release) and the other main members along with werra are also a bit frustated with the fact most of the gifts for mabanga are going to hotel rooms of jb and makaba mainly and werra tries to convince the group to record in the same time group album so that they also earn good money but didier masela convinces him to abandon that idea because they already made good money from the tour and they should let jb get his proper spotlight for his album
but frustrated with werra's idea to record simultaneously an album,jb gives to werra little space on album and drops the song he had planned in duet with werra(which he still never released afterwards)
the first big sign of the growing tension will be the fact jb and werra will have separate concerts in ivory coast with the group,at different dates and the concerts will also mark the way both camp will openly show rivalry is starting to grow
the pro werra's dressing in the traditional sapeur-like japanese clothes while the pro-jb's dress like hip hop artists
another event will fuel tension its the visit of papa wemba at aquaboulevard concert in france in which,aware of tensions in the groups,says something controversial "oyo kombo nango la musica,respect ya trop na ba petit freres,mibale te moko kaka,pres" and later on presents jb as "mukulumpa,mokonzi"(the chief in tshiluba and lingala)
papa wemba's words will lead later to him being accused of causing the split but in some interviews he will claim he just showed support to his petit jb and urged colleagues to accept letting him remain the leader and remaining together but that he was misunderstood
alain makaba arrives to kinshasa on jb's demand for the big concert at grand hotel to present album feux de l'amour and he will arrive with good money sent from simon destined to jb for his album
at the concert,the whole world will finally see openly how serious the conflict is getting with adolphe and werrason singing about conflict in their impro in mon ami coboss and jb will counter them by letting blaise bula do the dirty job with quite agressive lyrics and papa wemba will use opportunity to try to clear out what is being said about him and will ask them to stick together and love each other but will say another thing which will have double interpretation,some will say he is hinting that the camp of werra will be lost after split,but himself will claim he talked about fans because he did not believe there was fans who liked jb but hated werra or vice versa but rather fans were fans of wenge4X4
after that,another controversial contract will arrive from kenya and in the meantime on spiritual level jb and werra do not collaborate anymore for the group success
the jb camp who negotiated the contract go to kenya without adolphe werra and masela but they end up joining them there but and tension will reach yet another level when while werrason as the financial director of the group waits for the money from producers he never sees that money and for the very first time all the wenge musica members on that tour get paid proper money 500 dollars from that concert,and 500 from the feux de l'amour money
alain makaba who had always being against the system of sharing the money between the main men at expense of the group and who already saved the group from split in 1991 for that reason by sacrificing own money to calm upset members is the man behind that move
for him that is how the group shoud have always been ruled but also in that period of strong tension it appears as a very smart tactic to get musicians "on the ir side" even more as they complain about werrason always blocking money the group will perform in kinshasa one last time but the mess became too big as they were not talking to each other anymore
simon thinking purely as a producer does his absolute best to convince jb and co that even if the group splits with his money they will keep the musicians happy and later he comes with another plan, convincing administrators to get rid of werrason unpopular for his gestion of money and in the heat of that strong tension jb and co agree while masela who was neither really pro werra or pro jb stands for werra and defends him at all costs
authorities will try to sort out conflict as it would represent a great symbol for them to win over population with the departure of mobutu and arrival of kabila senior but instead it will worsen big time the relationships
in fact,after reunions authorities will ask for them all to pray together before next talks and its at that mo ment that werrason loses it still pissed about the way jb and co tricked his authority and he furiously walks towards jb shouting that he will beat him
in the meantime monsieur simon had given jb blaise makaba idea and money to prepare plan b in case of split and has made sure to get visas for the whole group from jb to seguin zamuangana ferre so jb reacts to werrason's threat by giving to blaise a head sign to say plan B is on more than ever
and musicians move to blaise bula's house to rehearse new songs
and while they are determined more than ever to follow plan b based on werra's reaction and monsieur simon's intensive brainwashing for his own profit,it was decided by those holding the peace talks that no rehearsal would be organized until next talks but jb and co were bold especially with bataclan in their hands and alain makaba who then had a bercy pre-offer,they went to rehearse
ali mbonda,ferre,christian mabanga all approached jb's camp but will be denied access not because they are not talented or because they hated them but because they did not fully commit to that camp so there was doubts over whether they are sent to spy
and during those rehearsals since they were now fired up as split was clear,blaise bula who saw in the split a golden opportunity to go higher up in hierarchy took upon himself to really be at forefront of all dirty missions and said if werrason didier masela and adolphe want to rejoin them they'll have to do tests
later on the camp of werra will say if jb mpiana and co do not show up then they are fired from wenge 4X4 since two of the three remain founders were on that side so for them it would not be a split but jb and his rebels fired from the group(hence why maison mere will start as wenge musica 4X4)
here splitted one of the most iconic groups of congolese and african music,16 years after the start
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for those who wonder,here is what was the hierarchy of wenge 4X4
administrator-founder,didier masela ndudi
administrator-financial director noel ngiama makanda
administrator-artistic director alain makaba kayele
administrator-president jean bedel mpiana tshituka
vice president adolphe lodi ebondja
chef d'orchestre blaise bula monga(marie paul being formerly vice chef d orchestre)
secretary charles kisolokele sewolo
vice-secretary elliott mondobe maluka
manager jacky mikondo "kija brown"
spokesmen roger ngandu bikila and in last months blanchard mavuzi
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Producer or not, Wenge Musical system was about to collapse anyway, when money are there and friendship is there too is very easy to let your worst emotion get the best of you.
NWA with Ice Cube, Lil Wayne with Hot Boyz is always like that when friends and money go togheter.
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Merci mingi po na insight and clarification
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Thanks archos
The way I see it the split wasn't werra's fault he was just used as the scapegoat I think the blame was more on jb's side, if alain was against the money being shared among the main guys then he should have stayed in kin with the group instead of just being all over the place in Europe, well kharma is a bitch for all of the guys that went to bcbg especially Blaise cause he was the one that was fuelling it and turning cold and he became the first one out of everyone from both sides to be kicked out followed by makaba, kusangila, Burkina Faso, aimelia and so on
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Thanks a lot Archos, I appreciate that.
I always thought that Feux de L'Amour concert at GHK in December 97 was the last they did together.
Is it true that Baby Ndombe bring the name "Maison Mère" ? Because like you said we can see at the beginning it was still called Wenge Musica BCBG 4X4. I think Werra decided to keep that name because it was a whole new band it makes more sense.
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for those who wonder,here is what was the hierarchy of wenge 4X4
administrator-founder,didier masela ndudi
administrator-financial director noel ngiama makanda
administrator-artistic director alain makaba kayele
administrator-president jean bedel mpiana tshituka
vice president adolphe lodi ebondja
chef d'orchestre blaise bula monga(marie paul being formerly vice chef d orchestre)
secretary charles kisolokele sewolo
vice-secretary elliott mondobe maluka
manager jacky mikondo "kija brown"
spokesmen roger ngandu bikila and in last months blanchard mavuzi
Melesi mingi Maitre Archos.
But why is it that only Didier Masela is called founder? Wasn't Werrason also founder together with Didier Masela?
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werra is the third founder,to explain there was celio stars from 78 or so to 81 which had aime buanga,masela,werra
masela and buanga are cousins and were quarter neighbors of werra and that celio stars was purely fun it was the equivalent of street groups then all three remained when switch was made from celio stars to wenge with the arrivals of alain makaba,jb and co
masela kept the administrator founder tag because aime was gone to europe and because he did not have a specific role outside of that while werra was financial director
in celio stars werra was drummer on makeshift drums and later in the transition to wenge went to rhythm guitar then singer on masela's advice,masela and buanga were singers in celio stars then bassists in wenge
they define the founders of wenge in two categories
the original crop coming from celio stars which i mentioned above then,the founders of the soon to be professional wenge in which werra becomes second co founder instead of third,jb takes the third spot and makaba the fourth
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Thanks I get it now.
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Thank you so much Grand Pretre @Archos.
I think the idea of bringing out an administrator's album between a group album was a good idea. This would have allowed them to have more money, more success and bring us, the music lovers, more music.
Werrason was aware of the success JB could achieve with his first solo album "Feux de l'amour". Papa Wemba defends himself for having caused the split, but that's exactly what he did, he was aware of the tensions due to the leadership between JB and Werra and the fact that Koffi supports Werra made a sort of duel "JB and Wemba "against" Werrason and Koffi ". JB took the big head by being named president of the group.
JB and Wenge BCBG really wanted to hurt Werrason at all costs, he was aware of how Werra was suffering from this separation but they did not try to fix the situation.
Today the trend has changed, Werrason is the most popular artist in the Congo with Fally and JB is practically worth nothing and all those who followed JB have no success and are virtually no longer part of the musical landscape
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Practically worth nothing is bloooooody strong as a statement(i guess a bit of werrasonism here looool ),the biggest thing we always complain about with him is time for albums and marketing issues,other than that i dont think many artists would remain discussed had they had the "chill and below his best" second part of solo career jb has had
as for the werra jb thing i think their egos took the better out of them and by the time nsone started to apologize for that angry reaction jb was already on tour and determined, but the good thing is both secretly agreed they'd become the richest of clan wenge and would play the game in public until they just so on that field split was positive for both
outside of wenge i noticed most splits and situations like that happen in guy's early 30's i guess they still lack some maturity at that time so there is a lot of things they do and regret after
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@Archos
Can you write about "les annees vache maigre" 2002-2009 of JB Mpiana. How the 5 year ban came, his divorce with Amida, his trip to Kananga in 2003, the orginal Anti-Terro 2002 plan,Alain Mpela departure, the Fikin 2005 drama, etc. until
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@Archos
Can you write about "les annees vache maigre" 2002-2009 of JB Mpiana. How the 5 year ban came, his divorce with Amida, his trip to Kananga in 2003, the orginal Anti-Terro 2002 plan,Alain Mpela departure, the Fikin 2005 drama, etc. until
Sakabe, sakabe sulutani alela...
Ah nga na botama na Congo...
Man that album had energy and man Cellulaire was fire at the time R.I.P.
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@Archos
Can you write about "les annees vache maigre" 2002-2009 of JB Mpiana. How the 5 year ban came, his divorce with Amida, his trip to Kananga in 2003, the orginal Anti-Terro 2002 plan,Alain Mpela departure, the Fikin 2005 drama, etc. until
Yes i had planned it already with the title "the controversial second part of career of jb mpiana" because i noticed because i noticed opinion is torn between those who do not care about his life and who just notice the big changes or know everything and use it to mock him that he has fallen and those who understand how his life affected his career big time
in that post i think i will reveal some serious events including collapses just before concerts and things like that
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Hey archos this is also a big ask whenever you have the time can you also write about the early stages of maison mere and bcbg all the way till how blaise, makaba, masela, Adolph were forced out and how and when jb and werra respectively got those ideas from
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yes i will do it no problem
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yes i will do it no problem
Thanks ndeko
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Here is an interview with Adolphe from 98/99 confirming pretty much most of what you said archos ironically it was uploaded last week :D :D ;D
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=eoJa7o4uT88
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if i am not mistaken it had been posted earlier,the concert of jb with ferre and tata as guests did not go well at all to....let me say like arsene wenger euhhh welll euhhh...so it lead to them posting archive of them both attacking jb and jb's camp also started to counter
sometimes our musicians are soooooo childish my word
by the way tata is a big comedian lol he never had any problem with jb he did not stay with bcbg partly because he wanted that number 2 spot blaise was automatically getting
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if i am not mistaken it had been posted earlier,the concert of jb with ferre and tata as guests did not go well at all to....let me say like arsene wenger euhhh welll euhhh...so it lead to them posting archive of them both attacking jb and jb's camp also started to counter
sometimes our musicians are soooooo childish my word
by the way tata is a big comedian lol he never had any problem with jb he did not stay with bcbg partly because he wanted that number 2 spot blaise was automatically getting
Why didn't it go well What happened?
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it pissed the absolute hell out of many maison mere fans admins and possibly nsone himself but he will never ever talk he lets the guys do dirty job
and you know how is it when maison mere is into conflict loooooooool you'll get attacks left right and center
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I just watched Mbuta Likasu's interview with Frank Stemay and co. And he said that one of the reasons of JB's fall out with Blaise Bula was that he wanted to record his solo album Ponderation 8. But was that already planned before to the trip to Europe, that Blaise Bula would have his own solo album after Titanic ? In the same interview Mbuta said that Roga Roga told him that Didier Masela fought with Werrason in Jean Pierre Sarah's office when they wanted to sign the contracts.
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it pissed the absolute hell out of many maison mere fans admins and possibly nsone himself but he will never ever talk he lets the guys do dirty job
and you know how is it when maison mere is into conflict loooooooool you'll get attacks left right and center
Oh right yeah that we all know I thought you meant something happened between jb Adolphe and ferre
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I just watched Mbuta Likasu's interview with Frank Stemay and co. And he said that one of the reasons of JB's fall out with Blaise Bula was that he wanted to record his solo album Ponderation 8. But was that already planned before to the trip to Europe, that Blaise Bula would have his own solo album after Titanic ? In the same interview Mbuta said that Roga Roga told him that Didier Masela fought with Werrason in Jean Pierre Sarah's office when they wanted to sign the contracts.
They fought in the office woow. It seems like the relationship between Werrason and Didier Masela were very tense in Maison Mere.
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@Archos
Can you write about "les annees vache maigre" 2002-2009 of JB Mpiana. How the 5 year ban came, his divorce with Amida, his trip to Kananga in 2003, the orginal Anti-Terro 2002 plan,Alain Mpela departure, the Fikin 2005 drama, etc. until
Sakabe, sakabe sulutani alela...
Ah nga na botama na Congo...
Man that album had energy and man Cellulaire was fire at the time R.I.P.
-the first big mistake jb mpiana did,happens from 1999 to the mid 2000's as he refuses being a candidate to several awards(particularly kora)
he gives all his focus on kinshasa and the clan wenge rivalry but seriously neflects his image at international level,whereas albums liue titanic,th or even internet are well appreciated abroad
-still about his international career, he is contacted by several west african producers for a remix album of feux de l'amour with shorter songs and all those restrictions of "world music" and guaranteed good promotion
he starts recording it with a producer from benin but then his staff(damien dimonekene,bruno matadi and co) tell him to ask crazy money from the producer and also have as a condition thathe would bring to america the whole group including every reserve singer so the producer abandons
- in 2001 after releasing internet,he is proposed by david monsoh working in a second solo album (which ends up being named chemin de fer) featuring some african starsaswell as a complete african tour and a much organized staff with spokesmen,managers,fashion designers... ,but refuses that proposition because of his staff which does not accept "losing" jb to other managers and who convince jb that he would be forced to dump his congolese career which was not the case but who made jb refuse
-one year later, he is announced in palais des congrès,one of the biggest and prestigious halls of paris,posters spread in paris streets,intensive promotion made in drc and france as he is set to become the first ever congolese artist to perform there,but once again the bad influence of his staff strikes,as two weeks before that concert they influence him to ask for 6 times the amount they agreed with producer and at the end of the day producer abandons because its too much money
-in the same year he is approached by producer jps,(as he is in serious conflict with his own producer simon) with the promise of winning kora awards and the possibility once again of recording solo albums and several advantages who could have boosted his popularity abroad but he prefers waiting until the end of his contract with simon instead of ceasing contract and signing with jps
also the fact,his rival werrason is there makes him refuse whereas jps saw in it possibilty of killing competition with other producers by having the two biggest stars under his wings
-in 2005 while serving his europe ban he is proposed through angolan friends,contracts for southern america for festivals but he fears taking the gamble because he des not want to play in front of extremely small crowds as he is unsrure there are enough congolese/african people there
-three years later same situation,this time in japan
i-in 2011 a big african event is planned at stade de france in paris and jb mpiana is the first congolese artist contacted but he thinks the project is not serious because the guy who contacted him was congolese and he was skeptical with congolese producers as he had many problems with some of them,but does not understand that guy is actually only a member of a whole organization
he then refuses that contract and prefers signing a contract for angola,werrason,fally ipupa and jessy matador who are contacted later accept
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lol dany thats my jb mpiana and the art of missing golden opportunity post right?
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Haha yes it is I thought it was relevant to the topic...sorry I didn't reference you, next time I'll pay more attention to the authors of certain articles in this forum..I truly appreciate your journals on Congolese music..#I respect journalist integrity
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lol dont worry bro i did not take it personal i just wondered because it reminded me of my thread
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@Archos
Can you write about "les annees vache maigre" 2002-2009 of JB Mpiana. How the 5 year ban came, his divorce with Amida, his trip to Kananga in 2003, the orginal Anti-Terro 2002 plan,Alain Mpela departure, the Fikin 2005 drama, etc. until
Yes i had planned it already with the title "the controversial second part of career of jb mpiana" because i noticed because i noticed opinion is torn between those who do not care about his life and who just notice the big changes or know everything and use it to mock him that he has fallen and those who understand how his life affected his career big time
in that post i think i will reveal some serious events including collapses just before concerts and things like that
Are you still working on it Archos ? By the way thanks for sharing "coulisses" of congolese music.