 
I don't like music videos on principal, but I do appreciate good documentary footage of bands in concert. Clips of Otis Spann with Muddy Waters and Willie Dixon are important talismans to me. Americans kids got to see the Beatles on Ed Sullivan, while in Britain we got Wilson Pickett and Otis Redding on Ready Steady Go! (I think we got the better deal.) The Stukas were one of the classic youth bands of the new wave who grew up on rock and soul in the sixties. During the 1970s they appeared frequently on the state-run television station La Voix du Zaire. The authorities saw the advantage of keeping the youth off the streets during the summer holidays so Lita and the Stuka Boys often had hours of broadcast to themselves. They looked weird but were essentially benign, expressing their difference through music rather than politics or crime. Vincent Luttman, who compiled this Lita Bembo CD for RetroAfric, showed me a clip of one of their performances. There was a minimal set and stripped-down band of bass, drums and lead guitar, plus Lita wrestling with the mike & impersonating James Brown. At one point the guitarist Samunga started doing a Hendrix: playing the guitar behind his head & picking out leads with his teeth. When the camera tracked back Lita was absent, but then suddenly he appeared stage right, lugging a giant crucifix! I have never seen anything like it. Here was this singer reenacting the bleeding Passion of Christ on daytime TV while a cooking band riffed out some blistering soukous! In one move Bembo had outdone the Godfather of Soul, James Brown, and even the posturing Jim Morison. The band's jagged attack matched their name, and they had tons of hits and created many dances in the 70s but sadly their recordings are very ephemeral and the sound is pretty thrashed on some of these rediscovered tracks. It reminds me of the early days of Papa Wemba with his bands Isife Lokole/ Yoka Lokole, another of the touchstones of the early soukous sound. Samunga died tragically young of hepatitis at the height of their fame. Bongo Wende took over the guitar before moving on to Viva la Musica. Further connections can be seen in the rhythm section. Although 50 musicians passed through the Stukas, we know Awilo Longombo played drums for a spell and the great bassist Nguma Lokito also swelled the ranks. Awilo also joined Viva La Musica before going solo and is now arguably one of the biggest stars in all Africa. Despite the sound limitations on a couple of tracks compounded by heavy reverb & echo on the vocals, there is incredible energy as things build to unprecedented levels of intensity. I wished this could have been longer, or a double disc, but here it is, and it is essential. This compilation finds three of the Stukas' best singles, "Toto Seta," "Presidents," and "Odeyo," from the mid 70s, and gives us both sides. The other three tracks are also extended to 8 minutes, without the fade in the middle. It's a big slice of the cake, with chocolate icing and blazing candles. Yum. - Alastair Johnston
|
Gaby Lita
Bembo & Stukas Du Zaire