If you follow me on Twitter, you know I’m a fan of avant-garde Ugandan labels Nyege Nyege Tapes and Hakuna Kalala. And now and then I’ve written in the Reader about current African artists, among them Nihiloxica, Kirani Ayat, and Muthoni Drummer Queen. But I’ve long listened to older sounds from the continent—soukous, juju, mbalax, highlife, mbaqanga, apala, benga, fuji—and I don’t often have a timely reason to post about them in Chicago.
This fascinating lattice of notes and rhythms is what got me into soukous in the first place, so I’m frequently annoyed by vocal-forward productions like “Ngui-Ngon.” Here, though, I don’t mind, because the singing is so good.
The front men of Tiers Monde Cooperation came to it from gigs with the giants of Congolese music. Mangwana, who’s still alive at 76, debuted professionally in 1963 with African Fiesta, a band led by singer and composer Tabu Ley Rochereau, a pioneer of modern soukous and one of the most influential African musicians of the 20th century. In 1972 he joined TPOK Jazz, the long-running group of guitarist, singer, and songwriter Franco Luambo Makiadi, who was perhaps Rochereau’s only peer. By the time Mangwana formed Tiers Monde Cooperation, he’d been a solo act for a few years and become popular outside Africa.
