The Voice: Tabu Ley Rochereau and "Mokolo Nakokufa"

The late Tabu Ley Rochereau brings us our random tune for today, called Mokolo Nakokufa. A legendary African musician from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rochereau had one of the two most influential bands in Africa, the Orchestre Afrisa International which he formed in 1970 after fronting an earlier band, African Fiesta, which was also hugely successful. He was also responsible for providing the jump start to the careers of many well-known African musicians, such as Papa Wemba and Sam Mangwana. He pioneered African soukous (rumba), and made it international by incorporating Cuban, Latin American and Caribbean rumba styles with Congolese traditional music as well his own. He purportedly wrote over 3,000 songs, and made 250 albums in the course of his career, and he has been known both as the Elvis of African music and as the Frank Sinatra of African music. Rochereau was also involved in politics. Initially a supporter of the Mobutu regime in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo), he eventually had to go into exile in 1988 and he spent time abroad in Paris and the United States. His music was banned at times as well. However, after Mobutu was deposed, he returned and joined the government of Laurent Kabila and then Joseph Kabila. Rochereau is reportedly responsible for fathering over 100 children with different women, including the French rapper Youssoupha. He passed away in 2013 and was given an official mourning by the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo. You can find Mokolo Nakokufa on many albums; we got it on the compilation album Tabu Ley Rochereau: The Voice of Lightness (2007)

Listen to songs like this and more on the KUNM Global Music Show every Monday night from 10 pm - 1 am Mountain Standard Time. Live streaming, program information and the two-week digital archive can be found at http://www.kunm.org.

Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tabu_Ley_Rochereau