Details

Track Listing 1. Hertiage Ya Luambo 2. Beyou Motema 3. Liyanzi Ekoti Ngai Na Motema (Mouzi) 4. Mbanda Nasali Nini? (Madeleine) 5. Matinda 6. Infidelite Mado 7. Salima 8. Rumba Odemba 9. Liwa Ya Franco 10. Cherie Bondowe 11. Zozo Visi 12. Tour a Tour
| Details | | Distributor: | Distribution Select | | Recording Type: | Studio | | Recording Mode: | Stereo | | SPAR Code: | n/a |
Album Notes Liner Note Author: Cc Smith. Recording information: Mastersun Studio, Gentilly, Fance; Thierry Gallion Studio, Porte De Versailles, France. Guitarist Syren Mbenza leads a group of popular African musicians in a tribute to the late Afropop pioneer/guitar virtuoso Franco. IMMORTAL FRANCO brings together the well-respected Congolese guitarist Syran Mbenza with former members of OK Jazz, including vocalist Wuta Mai and saxophonist Jimmy Mvondo, for a superb tribute to the masterful African guitar innovator Franco Luambo Makiadi, the Afropop giant who singelhandedly introduced the new styles of African music to the world at large in the '50s, '60s, and '70s, well before King Sunny Ade and Fela. OK Jazz was Franco's original group so it is indeed fitting that Franco contemporaries such as Mai and Mvondo are on hand for these energetic reprisals of some of the musical icon's greatest hits, some of them well-known and some less familiar even to fans of contemporary Afro-beat. Mbenza, former leader of the Afro-Parisian groups Quatre Etoiles and Kekele, is more than up to the task either way--what impresses about the disc on first hearing is how graceful and flowing it all is. This is no inert superstar session but a vital piece of contemporary Afropop in its own right.
|