i recently dove deep into the world of central african music. rumba, zouk, soukous congotronics and more. during my internet scowering i stumbled upon dr. sakis and my life changed. i'll let the vids and images speak for them selves...
so if your asking yourself at this point...
Dr Sakis whose real name is Nsakala Emmanuel is a musician from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). He is composer, singer, dancer and producer.
His interest in music started at the age of twelve. At sixteen, he created a musical comedy group which he called “Les Unis.” A Few years later he created the group “The Dynamic System.”
In 1985 he produced his first Album “Majenine,” followed by “Soukous Abidjan” in 1992
The album “Cyclone,” arrived in 1993.
Dr. Sakis’ music is a fusion of Congolese Soukous and Zouk. Zouk is a style of rhythmic music originating from the islands of Guadeloupe, Martinique, Haiti, Dominica. Zouk means “party” or “festival” in the local creole of French with English influences. In Africa, it is popular in Francophone(French-speaking) and Lusophone(Portuguese-speaking). In Europe Dr. Sakis’ music is particularly popular in France, and in North America, the Canadian province of Quebec.
Soukous (also known as Lingala or Congo, and previously as African Rumba) is a musical genre that originated in the two neighboring countries of Belgian Congo and French Congo during the 1930s and early 1940s, and which very popular throughout Africa. “Soukous” (said to be a derivative of 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 theLingala 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 dance style, was popular….later supplanted by a style calledNdombolo, also named after a dance style.
Antoine Kolosoy, also known as Papa Wendo, became the first star of African rumba, touring Europe and North America in the 1940s and 1950s with his regular band, Victoria Bakolo Miziki.
In the 1950s and 1960s, some artists who performed in the bands of Franco Luambo and Grand Kalle formed their own groups. Tabu Ley Rochereau and Dr. Nico Kasanda formed African Fiesta and transformed their music further by fusing 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.[6] 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 vocalistPapa Wemba, made them very popular. Pepe Kalle, a protégé of Grand Kalle, created the bandEmpire Bakuba together with Papy Tex, and they soon became Kinshasa's most popular youth band, equaled only by Zaiko Langa Langa.
As political conditions in Zaire, as Congo DRC was known then, deteriorated in the 1970s, some groups made their way to Tanzania andKenya. By the mid-seventies, several Congolese groups were playing soukous at Kenyan night clubs. The lively 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 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 their 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 songShauri Yako (meaning "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 1980s and 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 international pop.
Kanda Bongo Man, another Paris-based artist, pioneered fast, short tracks suitable for play on dance floors everywhere and popularly known as Kwassa kwassa after the dance moves popularized by his and other artists' music videos.
This music appealed to Africans and to new audiences as well. Artists like Diblo Dibala,Jeannot Bel Musumbu, Mbilia Bel, Yondo Sister, Tinderwet, 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 filled out bands for occasional tours.
Ndombolo
The fast soukous music currently dominating dance floors in central, eastern and western Africa is called soukous ndombolo, performed byDany Engobo, Awilo Longomba, Aurlus Mabele, Koffi Olomide and groups like Extra Musica and Wenge Musica among others.
The hip-swinging 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 the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2000, it became even more popular. In February, 2005 ndombolo music videos in the DR Congo were censored for indecency, and video clips by Koffi Olomide, JB M'Piana and Werrason were banned from the airwaves.
soukous extends well beyond cut and dry genre musicians.
MA BENZ, by NTM feat. lord kossity
that's a soukous guitar you here in this as well. just one note but it conjured the sound.
more kossity
that's the rumba/zouk/soukous beat.
the guitar work in soukous especially reminds me of post rock and math rock guitar lines.
Math rock is a rhythmically complex guitar-based style of experimental rock[1] that emerged in the 1980s. It is characterized by complex, atypical rhythmic structures (including irregular stopping and starting), angular melodies, and dissonant chords.
Math rock shares its place of origin in the late 80s underground music scene of the American Midwest. Some earlier bands have characteristics of both math rock and post-rock, using instruments for textures rather than melodies and riffs, featuring atypical rhythms and some dissonance. The genres soon diverged: math rock concentrated on angular melodies, atypicaltime signatures, start-stop rhythms, and dissonance, while staying closer to rock music in sound and instrumentation. Post-rock, on the other hand, concentrated on heavy use ofdynamics, creating soundscapes, and expanded the variety of instruments used, used a jazzier drumming style, and incorporated elements of shoegaze music.
