Category: African

Edouard Masengo was born in 1933 in the village of Kafubu in the Katanga province in the southern Copperbelt region of Congo – so named for the many mining camps in the region. He started playing guitar when he was eleven.

He formed a group called JECOKE – The Young Comedians of Katanga – who first sang at the Regina Hotel in Léopoldville. One of their signature tunes was a cover of “Paper Doll”, the hit song made famous in the U.S. by the Mills Brothers. Masengo ultimately ended up in Nairobi, Kenya, where he recorded extensively with Gallotone Records and partnered with advertising agencies to promote Coca-Cola as a kind of celebrity spokesperson.

Along with his cousin, Jean Bosco Mwenda, Masengo became a dominant force in the African music scene in the 1950s and early 1960s. Both were known as progenitors of the wildly popular Katanga guitar style that also went on to greatly influence the music of Kenya and Tanzania.

The Fiesta label was a Fonior / Decca France sublabel that began in 1947 specializing in North African artists. In 1950 their focus shifted to West Africa and Congo and I believe this record was released at some point in the early 1950s.

Released as Fiesta 402.

Credits:
Edouard Masengo – guitar, vocals
Unknown artists – saxophone, bass, glass bottle

The flip side of this record, “Bibiy Ako” can be found at:
https://youtu.be/Wc-dEbHzuv4

Sources:
“Revisiting the Katanga Guitar Style(s) and Some Other Early African Guitar Idioms” by David Racanelli, Black Music Research Journal, Vol 36, No. 1. Spring 2016.

Amazing interview with Edouard Masengo:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOtwTNBy1o8

George Mukabi was a guitarist from western Kenya credited with inventing the sukuti guitar style – a syncopated fingerstyle technique that combines rhythm and lead parts in a way that rhythmically imitates the sound of sukuti drums used in traditional Luhya music. His music was often accompanied by a glass bottle (or two) and sometimes by Jack Malenya, a second vocalist who harmonized in a higher register.

“Happiness with Guitar” seems an apt translation for this beautiful tune – but the lyrics discuss an apparent kidnapping of three girls and a subsequent death. The chorus somewhat ironically suggests “If you want to look for happiness – go and make friends with any guitarist” [translation from liner notes of Mississippi Records release noted below]

This record is not in the best shape but I was quite thrilled to get a copy.

Released as AGS 149 on the African Gramophone Stores (AGS) label.

To hear more of Mukabi’s work, check out Mississippi Records’s excellent release “Furaha Wenye Gita” produced by Cyrus Moussavi:
https://mississippirecords.bandcamp.com/album/furaha-wenye-gita

George Mukabi was a guitarist from western Kenya credited with inventing the Sukuti – or Omutibo – guitar style – a syncopated fingerstyle technique that combines rhythm and lead parts in a way that rhythmically imitates the sound of sukuti drums used in traditional Luhya music. His music was often accompanied by a glass bottle (or two) and sometimes by Jack Malenya, a second vocalist who harmonized in a higher register.

This seemingly wistful tune is instead a full-throated celebration of mothers – reminding men that their mothers carried them in her womb for nine months and gave birth to them.

This record is not in the best shape but I was quite thrilled to get a copy.

Released as AGS 149 on the African Gramophone Stores label.

To hear more of Mukabi’s work, check out Mississippi Records’s excellent release “Furaha Wenye Gita” produced by Cyrus Moussavi:
https://mississippirecords.bandcamp.com/album/furaha-wenye-gita