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Click on the album cover to listen to all sample tracks
Bozi Boziana
Born in 1952 under the name of Mbenzu Bokili, Bozi Boziana has been nicknamed the « Grandfather of Congolese music” since he broke through in the early Seventies. He followed in the footsteps of Reddy Amisi and inspired the likes of Koffi Olomide with his velvet voice and soukous compositions. Boziana was one of the stars of the mythical Zaïko Langa Langa band, before co-founding Yoka Lokolé with his friend Papa Wemba. In 1986, he formed his own group Antichoc. The singer entered the pantheon of Congolese music with songs like “Mandolina”, “Reine de Sabah” and “Tchala”. In 2007, Boziana proved his durability with his album L’Heure de Vérité.
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Bozi Boziana’s evergreen voice has graced the Congolese music scene for over three decades without losing any of its opulent texture. Known as a wanderer who graced some of Congo’s most outstanding bands, he returns to the fore of the international scene with an album that gives new perspectives to his soukous. The songs are more acoustic, softer, and they provide the ideal platform for Boziana’s tremolos and range. At 55, the Kinshasa singer proves he is able to breathe new life into a genre that has been stagnating as of late.
Intelligently, Boziana combines a brace of his classics with some of his latest compositions. These include household favourites in Congo and beyond, such as “Tshala” and “La Reine de Sabah” (a homage to his wife which was the country’s best-selling single in 1988). For years, the dance-floors in Africa heaved to these bewitching rhythms led by the spiralling guitars of Olivier Tshimanga and Boziana’s warm vocals. Yet the composer reveals his total ease with slower, more intimate exchanges in his latest songs like “Suka Wapi”, “Que l’Amour” and the beautiful closing tune “Sé Yo”.
This last composition has carefully structured lyrics around its principle theme of love. Boziana uses soft and poetic imagery to denounce the abuses of a capitalist structure that has run amok in cash-strapped Congo Kinshasa. His lyrics reflect his reputation as one of the country’s most articulate artists – and one can only regret that the songs are not translated for the non-Lingala fans of this singular musician (and they are numerous). Less well-known than his peers Papa Wemba and Pepe Kalle, Boziana has perhaps been made to pay the price for his discretion and a tendency to float like a butterfly from one group to another.
Yet, another of his traits has been the promotion of women vocalists who went on to make a name for themselves. Joly Detta, Scola Miel and Mukangi Déesse have performed duos with Boziana - as part of his Anti-Choc band - that opened up doors to promising careers. In this latest release, he allies himself with another exciting new voice, that of Blaisesse Ayembé. Her accompaniment in songs like “Ghetto” reveals a true talent that is likely to flourish in the coming years.
But it is Boziana’s perennial voice that provokes most admiration. It belies the years and once again breathes new life into Congo’s soukous scene. This unpretentious album, with its kitsch cover and enigmatic title, could be a detonator for something connoisseurs have been saying for years: that this singer deserves the same accolades as his better-known peers, the Wemba’s and Kanza’s who have been trumpeted in western circles for years.
December 2007.
Daniel Brown |
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