Wuta Mayi - Passage obligé

Опубликовано 25 июля 2019, 10:00

2nd SINGLE FROM A NEW ALBUM BY ONE OF THE LAST SURVIVING MEMBERS OF THE GOLDEN YEARS OF CONGOLESE MUSIC - ONE OF THE GREATEST THAT AFRICA HAS YET PRODUCED. In August this year, Gaspard Wuta Mayi will celebrate his 70th year on this planet, more than 50 of which have been spent as a professional musician. Born in Kinshasa, the Congo's capital and crucible for so much successful and popular African music in the last half-century, Wuta Mayi was soon in the company of others of like mind, not least guitarists Bopol Mansiamina and Papa Noel whose band, Orchestra Bamboula, he joined and who in 1969 represented the Democratic Republic of Congo at the 1st Pan-African Festival of Culture in Algiers. This was only the first of the many, many bands that have included Wuta Mayi as vocalist, and whose members read like a roll-call of all the great and good in Congolese music. To add just a few to Bopol and Papa Noel from these early days we have, in no particular order, Empompo Loway, Bavon Marie-Marie, Dr. Nico, Dalienst and Josky Kiambukuta, and it was Josky who in 1974 at Franco Luambo's bidding, pulled Wuta Mayi into perhaps the greatest band of the period, Franco & le T.P.O.K. Jazz. Wuta Mayi stayed with Franco until the early 1980s, when in Paris with guitarists Syran Mbenza and Bopol Mansiamina, and fellow vocalist Nyboma, they formed the Quatre Etoiles for Ivorian producer David Outtara in 1982. Legitimately described as a 'super-group' they were soon recording for Ibrahima Sylla and rode the crest of the Soukous wave throughout the 1980s and into the 90s. In 1995 all four members of the Quatre Etoiles performed on Mose Fan Fan's album 'Hello Hello' for Sterns Africa, and this relationship was cemented in the new millenium as Sterns released a series Syllart-produced albums by the group Kékélé, which included Wuta Mayi as a key and founding member. Kékélé toured extensively in North America, and its brand of 'un-plugged' Congolese music, looking simultaneously to the past and the future, has played a important role in bringing this most vital music to the attention of a wider public. Now in 2019 Sterns are honoured to help bring to the digital market Wuta Mayi's latest offering, 'Le face cachée'. Released on his own label and full to the brim with the resonant melodies, gorgeous harmonies and warm effortless rumba rhythms that, taken all together, sound so easy yet can only be accomplished after years of experience. Fifty years in the business and still going strong – Wuta Mayi we salute you!