Today marks the 25th anniversary of the release of +1, the second and final album by the legendary Le Quatro Langa Langa collective. Brought together by Papa Wemba, the project aimed to revive the spirit of the Zaiko Langa Langa and ISIIFI Lokole era (1971-1975).




Background;

Back in the '80s and '90s, Wemba and his friends would sometimes have moments where they would invite each other to revive their classics of Isifi Lokole and Zaiko Langa Langa, sometimes even having reunion concerts in Kinshasa with Nyoka Longo, Lengi Lenga, Dindo Yogo, Ilo Pablo, and Meridjo. Apart from Gina Efonge’s album  Les Surdoués de Langa Langa, which he recorded with Manuaku and the original quartet, Mavuela, Gina, Wemba, and Evoloko, they never really made an official reunion album





Seeing how the Rolling Stones had reunion albums and concerts, and with his 50th year of life approaching, Papa Wemba was inspired to do something similar with his peers from Zaiko Langa Langa. His dream was to reunite the original AJUMAGI quartet (Antoine Evoloko, Jules Presley a.k.a. Papa Wemba, Mavuela Somo, and Gina Efonge), which at the time was also known as ISIFI, which become also the name of their band “Isifi Lokole” when they decided to leave Zaiko in 1974. The aim of the reunion was to revive the AJUMAGI/Cavacha-era (1971-1974).

However, there was one obstacle: the late Mavuela Somo, known as “Le Grand Catalogue,” had converted to Christianity and decided to abandon secular music. To replace him, they brought in Bozi, who had also been part of Zaiko. Bozi had originally replaced Gina Efonge in 1973 when Efonge became ill, and he was one of the co-founders of both Isifi Lokole and Yoka Lokole in 1975, when he, Wemba, and Mavuela chose to abadon Evoloko. The difference, however, was that compared to 1974, Bozi had by then become a major name. He was regarded as one of the biggest bandleaders of the 3th generation.

After presenting the idea to Gina Efonge, Evoloko, and Bozi, they all agreed and eventually signed a contract with Jean-Pierre Saah to record the reunion album Grand Job, under the artistic direction of Sec Bidens. They named their band Le Quatro de Langa Langa. Around the same time, they also made an appearance at Papa Wemba’s 49th year celebration.

Unfortunately, Grand Job was not a major success, with critics and the public saying it had been recorded to fast. Despite performing at Papa Wemba’s first Zénith concert in 1999 and another show at the Élysée Montmartre in December of the same year, no full tour followed, partly due to the busy schedules of both Papa Wemba and Bozi.


+1 Project;
In response to the criticism, they decided to record a new album and take their time with the process, temporarily setting aside their individual projects. They also brought in Pepe Felly Manuaku, a founding member of Zaiko Langa Langa who had been with the group from its creation in 1969 until his departure in 1980. Pepe Felly is credited as the guitarist who shaped the sebene style as we know it today, and, alongside drummer Meridjo, as one of the key architects of the Cavacha style, which is today known as Ndombolo. His involvement was the reason why they named the album +1, with Papa Wemba stating in various interviews that Manuaku had been the missing piece of the puzzle. Before starting the project, they renewed their contract with JPS Production by signing a deal for three albums.

However, before heading into the recording process, several issues came to light. Among them, it was discovered that the SARL (limited liability company) had been registered in Cameroon without their knowledge, while all the members were actually based in Paris. After resolving these issues, Gina Efonge was appointed as the “president” of Le Quatro. Nevertheless, he would publicly criticize Jean-Pierre Saah in the press.

As with the previous album, which featured singer-atalaku Lady Miyembe of Anti-Choc, members of Anti-Choc also took part in +1, including guitarist Polystar Coréen, Theo Mbala and Lokombe. In an interview, Polystar revealed that Gina Efonge initially intimidated him in the studio by challenging him with the words: “Can you really play next to Pepe Felly Manuaku?” However, the fear quickly faded after recording, and Polystar would later describe the experience as one of the greatest of his musical career.There were also some difficulties. Atalaku Theo Mbala revealed that he experienced vocal problems during the recording sessions. He believed  that he was the target of spiritual attacks linked to Anti-Choc. This eventually caused him to return to Kinshasa earlier than planned. The vocal strain is noticeable in Gina Efonge’s song Elengui, where his voice lacks its usual clarity.

Members of Gina Efonge’s Libanko New Look also contributed, providing animation vocals on the songs Champs Élysée Cord au Coup and Déchéance.


The reception;
Like Grand Job, +1 wasn’t a great success. The album was overshadowed by the huge popularity of Longue Histoire and TH, who were released in the same month. At the same time, the artists themselves were more focused on their individual projects. Bozi Boziana returned to Kinshasa to promote Film Ebaluki, which was released towards the end of 1999, and Papa Wemba was focused on his European tour with Nouvelle Écriture.


The planned series of concerts with Le Quatro never took place, partly due to tensions during the recording sessions. This was also evident in the music videos, as they eventually began recording separately, Gina Efonge, for example, filmed his clips alone, without Wemba, Evoloko, or Bozi and vice-versa.

In August 2000, a festival took place at Stade Charléty, featuring several Congolese artists such as Papa Wemba, King Kester Emeneya, General Defao, AGB Quartier Latin (of Savanet Depitcho and JF Ifonge) and others. Evoloko and Gina Efonge were also scheduled to perform with their bands. However, instead of appearing at the start of the festival as planned, the concert organizers changed the running order and placed them right after Wemba’s set.
After Wemba’s performance, much of the audience began to leave, leading to Gina and Evoloko’s performance getting canceled. This resulted in a heated argument between Gina and the concert promoter. Some sources claim Wemba being behind it, allegedly plotting with the promoter to “set up” Gina as a form of revenge, about their conflicts within Le Quatro.

The highlight of the event, however, was King Kester Emeneya’s surprise appearance on stage during Wemba’s set, where they performed a few Viva La Musica classics together and also the song Kimpiatu. This created renewed interest in the duo album project between Wemba and Emeneya of the early 1990s that never came. The project was even given a title, Disque d’Or. Both guys were contacted by Jean Pierre Saah to sign a contract, but King Kester Emeneya and Papa Wemba saw the amount of 200.000 franc francais  as to low, which made the project not taking place as planned in 2001. But in 2002, a footage surfaced of the two dining together in a restaurant, which made excitement grow among Viva and Victoria fans. Papa Wemba also talking about it in some interview that the project being one of the most awaited by Viva-fans, but it faded away once the Wake-Up concerts at Zenith got announced out of nowhere, to getting cancelled on the end.  Not long afterward, Papa Wemba was arrested for the ngulu-affair and the project being forgotten. Just before his arrestation, Wemba occasionally fire shots at Gina, saying things like: “Some people weren’t even there at the start of Zaiko; only Jossart and I were,” Being a clear reference to Gina, who joined Zaiko Langa Langa in 1971, two years after its formation.

It’s a shame that, in response to Le Quatro, that Nyoka Longo never made an album with Bimi Ombale, Likinga, and Lengi Lenga to revive the old glory of Zaiko (1974–1981) and the later Tokangi Robinet and Zekete Zekete era (1981–1984). The 4 (Nyoka-Bimi-Lengos-Likinga) had also their own nickname, but I forgot it.



But the grudge from the Famille Dei split was probably still there. This is also evident in the fact that Nyoka Longo refused to allow Lengi Lenga to rejoin Zaiko until his passing in 1998. Bimi Ombale wouldn’t have been part of it anyway, as he had converted to Christianity in 1993. But he could be replaced by Dindo Yogo. Is it true that Likinga didn’t like Nyoka Longo and vice versa?

Great work by you Mfumu Mvuta. Thank you so much for these unknown details. This leads to my questions that I have?
1) Does it seem that Viva La Musica members like Reddy Amisi, Stino Mubi, Glora Bulukutu, Cele Le Roi, Timo Lolo, etc got upset that Papa Wemba was focusing on his Zaiko reunions with likes of Gina Efonge, Evoloko Jocker and Bozi Boziana?
2) What role did Papa Wemba play into getting Pepe Felly back to the music scene?
3) Which side was Evoloko part in the Zaiko Familia Dei and Zaiko Nkolo Mboka side?
4) What role did Papa Wemba play behind the Zaiko split if he did?
5) When did Mavuela Somo become a Christian artist?
6) What was the origins of the conflict between Gina Efonge and Papa Wemba?
7) About the project of Kester Emeneya and Papa Wemba, do you know which musicians were supposed to be involved in this project?

Viva la Musica members weren’t upset about Le Quatro at the time, because Papa Wemba had already been performing with them in concerts in the past. It wasn’t as if he was putting his career with Viva la Musica aside like he did with Nouvelle Écriture or Molokai.

However, many were upset when Papa Wemba brought Nouvelle Écriture to Europe for a tour. The first concert planned for Nouvelle Écriture was supposed to be a fara-fara between Viva la Musica and Nouvelle Écriture. But the members of Viva la Musica refused to share the stage with Nouvelle Écriture. As a result, Papa Wemba decided to turn it into a Viva la Musica concert instead, simply inviting Bendoson, Pompom Miyake, the dancers, and Meiway as guests. This made the concert promoter, furious who lost a lot of money due to people not showing up anymore because of the changes. The situation escalated into a confrontation between him and Papa Wemba after the concert with Papa Wemba ending up by headbutted the promoter. Months laterthere was a lawsuit. The concert promoter won and Wemba was ordered to pay him damages.

Due to the Nouvelle Écriture tour in 1998, there was a long period of inactivity for the Viva la Musica members, which frustrated them. Papa Wemba tried to calm them down by organizing some joint concerts with both groups, but the frustration remained. Eventually, a group of about 12 musicians decided to leave Viva la Musica. The news was confirmed by Stino’s wife, who was on a trip to Kinshasa at the time.



From 14:21 min the video, Amazon and Papa Wemba share their thoughts about the musicians' departure, saying they weren’t fully aware of what had happened, only that Stino and Gloria had left.However, all the musicians returned shortly afterwards, probably due to the contract of Zenith.

Papa Wemba had a child with Pepe Felly’s sister, which created a personal connection between the two. After 1990, Pepe Felly Manuaku disappeared from the Congolese music scene after deciding to remain in Europe, following a tour with Grand Zaiko Wawa. He was often mocked for being the first bandleader to “run away” in Europe. He even abadoned music for a moment. For these reasons, Papa Wemba decided to invite him to participate on the Pole Position album, where he played lead guitar on a few tracks. Because for Wemba, such talented guitarist couldn't stop with music like that.




Evoloko didn’t take sides in the conflict between Famille Dei and Nkolo Mboka, as he had his own band, Langa Langa Stars. If I remember correctly, that band also disbanded around the same time. Evoloko had abandoned the group in Kinshasa following some internal conflicts, after which he settled in Europe and recorded the album Mbongue, after lying to his bandmembers that they would tour soon in Europe, but leaving them behind and their director selling their passeports and multiple people being arrested abroad with their passeports, after trying to get in with drugs. Formers bandmembers like Shora Mukoka, Dick Roi and Coco Anana all talked about it in their interviews with Mbuta Likasu.

Papa Wemba had nothing to do with the split of Zaiko. The tensions simply escalated during preparations for the 18th anniversary event in Nsele, when Wemba said to late Bimi Ombale that he had to play drums, as he originally started in Zaiko as a drummer. Bimi saw this as an insult, and the atmosphere in Zaiko was already tense following their return from a European tour. During that tour, all the band members were unhappy with how Ngossana’s offer to build homes or a private compound for each member got rejected, something they felt would reflect their fame, instead of continuing to rent.



During the concert at the Salle des Congrès in the Palais du Peuple, Papa Wemba created some polemique by asking the late Saak Saakul, who had brought a trophy, whether the prize was for "their Zaiko" or for the Zaiko of “mamé mamé,” a reference to the atalaku's and Zaiko's generation from 1982. Some band members didn’t take this as a joke and saw it as a direct attack.

Because of Zaiko splitting  five months later after the 18th anniversary, some people started pointing fingers at Wemba, although he had nothing to do with it. However, those who were supporting Nkolo Mboka said that it was due to Ngossana and huge part of the public also believing it, since that in the same period Mbilia Bel left Tabu Ley,  became Ngossana's 3th wife and Tabu Ley attacking him in the song Embouroumouke and accusing him openly for splitting him Zaiko




I don’t know exactly when Mavuela Somo became a Christian artist, but it must have been sometime in the mid-1990s. Like Joly Mubiala, his conversion was reportedly influenced by his wife. I’m not sure if it was the same wife he had when used to live in Gabon (!979-1990), but that wife was said to be related to President Omar Bongo. In Gabon, Mavuela was something like Congo’s cultural ambassador, he would assist Congolese artists when they came to perform and help them resolve if they had problems over there.



In Congo, people had already forget about him since 1977, after the fara-fara of Viva la Musica against Yoka Lokole, where they made the historical mistake to perform Wemba's song Maman Wali, wanting to humilate Wemba but  the public booed them instead and later them also being blacklisted due to the song Bana Kin, which recorded the previous year and was seen by the MPR-regime as an attack to Mobutu and MPR-officials.   


Mavuela released an album with Papa Wemba in 1990, though many people aren’t aware of it. He also recorded a song with Pepe Kallé, but I don’t know from which album it’s from.

Artists from the Isifi- Langa Langa family are often like that, one day they’re in conflict, and the next day they’re best friends again. I remember Gina Efonge doing an interview with Ado Yuhe back in 2013 or 2014, where he praised all the Zaiko members from 1970–1974 for having studied. But when he was asked about Wemba, he called him a “football coach”.Later in the interview, he mocked Wemba’s singing voice and Zaiko’s songs by imitating him, while praising himself for having brought rumba into Zaiko when he joined in 1971.



No musician had been contacted yet because there no contract signed yet. There not alot meetings between Wemba and Emeneya, since that they re-started beefing in 2000. The last meeting between Wemba and Emeneya in 2002 had ended in Emeneya being mad after Wemba revealing something to him that made him extremely angry. I’m not sure if that happened in their previous meeting or the most last, but afterward, Emeneya  told to his staff that the album would never happen.