   #copyright

Soukous

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Musical genres, styles,
eras and events

                            Soukous/Lingala/Congo
   Stylistic origins:     Rumba, Caribbean & Afro-Cuban, Congolese music &
                          other African traditional music,
   Cultural origins:      late 1930s in The Congos (esp. Kinshasa and
                          Brazzaville)
   Typical instruments:   Guitar (esp. fingerstyle) - bass (esp. acoustic )
                          - drums - brass - vocals
   Mainstream popularity: Significant throughout Africa from the 1960s and
                          in the world music scene from the 1980s
                                  Subgenres
                           Kwassa kwassa, Ndombolo
                                Fusion genres
                       Benga, Tanzanian rumba, Makossa
                               Regional scenes
    Congolese sound (Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania), Fast-paced soukous (Paris)
                                Other topics
                              Soukous Musicians

   Soukous (also known as lingala or congo, and previously as African
   rumba) is a musical genre that originated in the two neighbouring
   countries of Congo during the 1930s and early 1940s, and which has
   gained popularity throughout Africa. "Soukous" (derived from the French
   word secouer, to shake) was originally the name of a dance popular in
   the Congos in the late 1960s, and danced to an African version of
   rumba. Although the genre was initially known as rumba (sometimes
   termed specifically as African rumba), the term Soukous has come to
   refer to African rumba and its subsequent developments.

   Soukous is called congo music in West Africa, and lingala in Kenya,
   Uganda and Tanzania - referring to the Lingala language of the region
   from where it originated. In the 1980s and early 1990s, a fast paced
   style of soukous known as kwassa kwassa – named after a popular dance,
   was popular. A style called ndombolo, also named after a dance, is
   currently popular.

Origins

   In the late 1930s and early 1940s, Congolese musicians fused Congolese
   & other African traditional music with Caribbean (especially
   Afro-Cuban) and South American sounds – rhythms that were not entirely
   foreign to the region, having been founded to varying degrees on
   musical traditions from the area. This music emerged in the cities of
   Leopoldville, as Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)
   was then called, and Brazzaville, then capital of the French Congo, now
   capital of the Republic of the Congo. Most of the musicians performed
   in Lingala language, but some also used Swahili, Tshiluba and Kikongo.

The big bands

   Antoine Kolosay, aka Papa Wendo, became the first star of African
   rumba, touring Europe and North America in the 1940s and 1950s with a
   group of seven musicians.

   By the 1950s, big bands had become the preferred format, using acoustic
   bass guitar, multiple electric guitars, conga drums, maracas, scraper,
   flute or clarinet, saxophones, and trumpet. The bands "Grand Kalle &
   l'African Jazz" (better known as African Jazz) led by Joseph Kabasele
   Tshamala ( Grand Kalle), and OK Jazz, later renamed TPOK Jazz (Tout
   Puissant Orchestre Kinshasa) led by Francois Luambo Makiadi became the
   leading bands. These bands were known as orchestras.

   In the 1950s and 1960s some artists who had been groomed in the bands
   of Franco Luambo and Grand Kalle formed their own bands. Tabu Ley
   Rochereau and Dr Nico Kasanda formed African Fiesta and transformed
   their music further by fusing elements of Congolese folk music with
   soul music, as well as Caribbean and Latin beats and instrumentation.
   They were joined by Papa Wemba and Sam Mangwana, and classics like
   Afrika Mokili Mobimba made them one of Africa's greatest bands,
   rivalled only by TP OK Jazz. Tabu Ley Rochereau and Dr Nico Kasanda are
   considered the pioneers of modern soukous.

1960s – 1970s

   While the influence of rumba became stronger in some bands, including
   Lipua-Lipua, Veve, TP OK Jazz and Bella Bella, younger Congolese
   musicians looked for ways to reduce the rumba influence and play a
   faster paced soukous, inspired by rock n roll. A group of students
   calling themselves Zaiko Langa Langa came together in 1969. The energy
   of their music, and the high-fashion sense of the singers and dancers,
   inspired by founding vocalist Papa Wemba, made them very popular. Pepe
   Kalle, a protégé of Grand Kalle, created the band Empire Bakuba
   together with Papy Tex, and they soon became Kinshasa's most popular
   youth band, equaled only by Zaiko Langa Langa.

   Other greats of this period include Koffi Olomide, Tshala Muana and
   Wenge Musica. Soukous now spread across Africa, and became an influence
   on virtually all the styles of modern African popular music, including
   highlife, palm-wine music, taarab and makossa.

East Africa

   As political conditions in Zaire, as Congo DRC was known then,
   deteriorated in the 1970s, some groups made their way to Tanzania and
   Kenya. By the mid-seventies, several Congolese groups were playing
   soukous at Kenyan night clubs. The fast paced cavacha, a dance craze
   that swept East and Central Africa during the seventies, was
   popularized through recordings of bands such as Zaiko Langa Langa and
   Orchestra Shama Shama, influencing Kenyan musicians. This fast paced
   rhythm, played on the snare drum or hi-hat, quickly became a hallmark
   of the Congolese sound in Nairobi and is frequently used by many of the
   regional bands. Several of Nairobi's renowned Swahili rumba bands
   formed around Tanzanian groups like Simba Wanyika and its offshoots,
   Les Wanyika and Super Wanyika Stars.

   In the late 1970s, Virgin records got involved in a couple of projects
   in Nairobi that produced two acclaimed LPs from the Tanzanian-Congolese
   group, Orchestra Makassy and the Kenya-based band, Super Mazembe. One
   of the tracks from this album was the Swahili song Shauri Yako (it's
   your problem), which became a hit in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. About
   this same time, the Nairobi based Congolese vocalist Samba Mapangala
   and his band Orchestra Virunga, released the LP Malako, which became
   one of the pioneering releases of the newly emerging world music scene
   in Europe. The musical style of the East Africa based Congolese bands
   gradually incorporated new elements, including Kenyan benga music, and
   spawned what is sometimes called the "swahili sound" or "congolese
   sound".

The Paris scene

   In the 1980s soukous became popular in London and Paris. A few more
   musicians left Kinshasa to work around central and east Africa, before
   settling in either the UK or France. The basic line-up for a Soukous
   band included three or four guitars, bass guitar, drums, brass, vocals,
   and some of them having over 20 musicians, lyrics were often in Lingala
   and occasionally in French. In the late 1980s and 1990s, Parisian
   studios were used by many soukous stars, and the music became heavily
   reliant on synthesizers and other electronic instruments. Some artists
   continued to record for the Congolese market, but others abandoned the
   demands of the Kinshasa public and set out to pursue new audiences.
   Some, like Paris-based Papa Wemba maintained two bands, Viva la Musica
   for soukous, and a group including French session players for his
   international pop.

   Kanda Bongo Man, another Paris-based artist, pioneered fast-paced,
   short dance tracks suitable for play on dance floors everywhere, and
   popularily known as Kwassa kwassa after the dance moves popularized by
   his and other artist's music videos. This music appealed to Africans
   and to new audiences as well. Groups like Diblo Dibala, Mbilia Bel,
   Yondo Sister, Loketo, Rigo Star, Madilu System, Soukous Stars and
   veterans like Pepe Kalle and Koffi Olomide followed suit. Soon Paris
   became home to talented studio musicians who recorded for the African
   and Caribbean markets, and filling out bands for occasional tours.

Ndombolo

   The fast paced soukous music currently dominating dance floors in
   central, eastern and western Africa is called soukous ndombolo,
   performed by Awilo Longomba, Aurlus Mabele, Koffi Olomide and others.

   The hip-swinging, booty-shaking dance to the fast pace of soukous
   ndombolo has come under criticism amid charges that it is obscene.
   There have been attempts to ban it in Mali, Cameroon and Kenya. After
   an attempt to ban it from state radio and television in DR Congo in
   2000, it became even more popular. In On February, 2005 ndombolo music
   videos in DR Congo were censored for indecency, and video clips by
   Koffi Olomide, JB M'Piana and Werrason were banned from the airwaves.
   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soukous"
   This reference article is mainly selected from the English Wikipedia
   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
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