In the mid-1990s, Democratic Republic of Congo musician Tabu Ley released the album Muzina. The album’s title song like many of Tabu’s compositions became a hit in Kenya and it soon would take a funny twist.
Tabu LeyKenya in the 1990s was experiencing an economic crunch and as companies retrenched, bars and nightclubs sent the then popular Bands away. A band usually has several members and the clubs were unable to pay.
Trust Kenyans to make lemonade from lemon and a few brave souls grabbed the opportunity. A lone man would come into a pub armed with a guitar and a husky voice.
They adulterated popular songs, most times to a lewd note so as to attract attention and within no time the one-man guitar, or the Mugiithi phenomenon became the craze on the Kenyan entertainment scene.
Young and old Tabu Ley’s song Muzina, became “Muchina” a Gikuyu male name and even as the Mugiithi craze died, Muchina version is hummed by the young and old. But this is not the only visible tie that Tabu Ley has bequeathed Kenya. In 1985, when Kenyans relied only on the state-led radio station KBC for their entertainment, the government banned all foreign music.
Tabu Ley quickly composed the song Twende Nairobi, sung by Mbilia Bel and which praised the then president Daniel arap Moi. The ban was immediately lifted. And now, Tabu Ley is dead.
He died yesterday at a Belgium hospital where he had been undergoing treatment for a stroke he suffered in 2008. Tabu Ley has left a legacy of about 2000 popular songs and 250 albums, and having inspired and created other music legends including Mbilia Bel whom he also later married.
Tabu Ley is also credited with pioneering Soukous genre by fusing Congolese folk music with Cuban, Caribbean and the Latin American rumba, to an international appeal.
Nation’s birthday
Born in 1940, Tabu Ley Rochereau started his music career in 1954 as a member of the African Jazz of the Joseph “Grand Kalle” Kabasele.
Grand Kalle would go ahead to compose Independence cha cha, celebrating Congo’s independence. Tabu Ley sung the song during the independence celebrations in 1960, giving him instant fame on his nation’s birthday.
According to his biography by the music site, My Space, Tabu Ley remained with the African Jazz since 1963 when he left to join hands with Dr Nico Kasanda and they formed the African Fiesta. They split two years later and Tabu Ley formed the African Fiesta National also known as African Fiesta Flash.
Popular musicians Papa Wemba and Sam Mangwana were part of the African Fiesta National that went ahead to become one of the most famous and successful African band in the continent’s history, selling millions of copies of their works. The songs they composed then, like Africa Mokili Marimba remain classics.
But Tabu Ley was not yet done. In the early 1970s, he formed another band Orchestre Afrisa International. He recorded tracks like Sorozo, Aon Aon and Kaful Mayay, continuing to command fame around Africa. Afrisa International’s popularity was mentioned alongside Franco Luambo’s TPOK Jazz.
He would factor in Mbilia Bel, the first female musician to take Soukous to great acclaim in the 1980s. Bel helped attract more fans to Afrisa but she would leave to pursue a solo career in 1988 and Afrisa started losing its grip on fans. In the early 1990s, Tabu Ley moved and settled in California in the US.
During this time, he composed tracks tailored for the international audience and for the first time he sang in English. Nomination to House It is then he released the popular Muzina album, Exil Ley, Babeti Soukous and Africa Worldwide.
He would return to Congo in 1997 following the departure of Mobutu Sese Seko where the new President Laurent Kabila appointed him to the Cabinet as a minister. He was later nominated to Parliament.
In his lifetime, Tabu Ley was revered by the ordinary and the mighty and he received the honorary title of the Knight of Senegal and was also named the Officer of the Order of the republic of Chad. In death, his legacy will live on; in the Soukous genre he created and in his priceless compositions.
By Kiundu Waweru, The Standard
