Le Grand Kallé & L'African Jazz

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

Le Grand Kallé & L'African Jazz · Le Grand Kallé et l'African Jazz was one of the most influential Congolese rumba bands of the twentieth century. Joseph Kabasele, better known as Le Grand Kallé, founded the group in 1953 in Léopoldville, present-day Kinshasa. The band did not play jazz. In Belgian Congo the word jazz stood for elegance and liveliness, and that stuck to the name. The group combined traditional Congolese instruments, such as drums, with Western instruments and was known for its Congolese rumba.

Music and breakthrough

The first successes came in November 1953 with recordings such as Parafifi, Nzela mosika and African Jazz. The guitarist Nico Kasanda played an important part in these. In the 1950s the group faced competition from OK Jazz, the band of Franco Luambo among others. In January 1960 African Jazz travelled to Brussels, where the Belgian-Congolese Round Table Conference on independence took place. It was the first Congolese band to perform there. Indépendance Cha Cha dates from that same year.

Influence

From 1963 important members left the group, including Tabu Ley Rochereau and Nico Kasanda, who founded African Fiesta. In this way the original line-up fell apart. Even so, African Jazz determined how modern Congolese pop music sounded in the late colonial years and the first years after independence.

Listening

• 
  Indépendance Cha Cha · Le Grand Kallé & L'African Jazz, 1960
  Apple Music ↗

See also

• Congolese rumba and soukous