Orchestre kiam biography of michael lewis

Today's post covers some old ground - classic orchestras from the stable of wunderkind Kiamwuangana Mateta, aka "Verckys," the musician and producer who blew up the Congo music scene back in the s.

Orchestre Kiam discography and songs: Music profile for Orchestre g: michael lewis.

A lot of this music has been posted in other venues, in fact a couple songs were featured here previously at Likembe. As was often the case at the time, at least for Nigerian releases of Congo music, most of these tracks are not complete, featuring only one side of the 45 versions. If you're interested, I've provided a link at the end of this post so you can download the complete versions.

Do yourself a favor by going to his site, downloading and reading it and also downloading an almost-complete collection of their recordings. In Matt's telling, the musicians who became Kiam were "poached" by Verckys in from Papa Noel 's Orchestre Bamboula when he brought them into the studio for a recording session! He christened the group after his own first name, and under his supervision they recorded a series of hits that made them a sensation in Kinshasa and throughout Africa.

Success, and Verckys's stifling sponsorship, brought dissension, and in a group of band members decamped to form Orchestre Baya-Baya, named after one of the group's early hits. With a new lineup, and with most of the defectors returning to the band after a while, Kiam acheived even greater heights, releasing in "Kamiki," their biggest hit ever, and a pan-African smash.

Orchestre Kiam played a popular rhythm/dance called cavacha, which was a pre-soukous genre allegedly invented in by singer Eveloko Jocker in imitation of the dancing Missing: michael lewis.

By Orchestre Kiam had been dissolved, but alumni have played important roles in the Congo music scene to this day. Orchestre Kiam - Baya Baya Pt. This group divided in turn in , a number of musicians leaving to form Orchestre Fuka Fuka and Nyboma reorganizing the remnant. Nyboma then broke with Verckys and set off on a journey across Africa and eventually to Paris, in the meantime recording the classic LP Double Double , which received international distribution.

He's well-known both as a solo artist and as a member of Les Quatre Etoiles, the Congolese super-group. Posted by John B.