L'African Jazz

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

L'African Jazz · African Jazz, officially Le Grand Kallé et l'African Jazz, was one of the most influential Congolese rumba bands of the twentieth century. Joseph Athanase Tshamala Kabasele, known as Le Grand Kallé, founded the group in 1953 in Léopoldville, present-day Kinshasa. The band played an important role in modern Congolese popular music, at the end of the colonial era and in the first years after independence. The word jazz here had little to do with American music: in Belgian Congo it stood for elegance and modernity, and many other African bands adopted it.

Music and breakthrough

The group combined traditional Central African instruments, such as the Tetela tam-tam, the ngongi and the lokole, with Western guitars, brass and percussion. In this way a worldly form of Congolese rumba came into being, the sound of city life in the 1950s and 1960s. Early hits were Parafifi and Nzela mosika, in which the guitarist Nico Kasanda stood out. Later members included Vicky Longomba and Tabu Ley Rochereau.

Influence

In 1960 African Jazz went to the Belgian-Congolese Round Table Conference in Brussels, where Kabasele had to put together an orchestra for the delegation. Indépendance Cha Cha, recorded there, became an African independence anthem. The band then toured Belgium, the Netherlands and France. From 1963 important members, including Tabu Ley Rochereau and Nico Kasanda, left to start African Fiesta, and the original line-up fell apart.

Listening