Zaiko Langa Langa - History

History

The band was formed in 1969 with the provisional name "Orchestra Zaiko". The original lineup was composed of Papa Wemba, Mavuela Somo, Evoloko Lay Lay, Teddy Sukami, Oncle Bapius, Zamuangana le meilleur and Manuaku Waku (also known as Pépé Fely) and N'Yoka Longo. The band also had a pop section, which was playing before the soukous section, with Bimi Ombale, Mbuta Matima and Mashakado Mbuta. Moanda, Mongombe, Marcelin, Waku, Longo and Bita were all from a former band called Bel Guide National. They were mostly students coming from upper-class families of Kinshasa.

The sound of Zaiko Langa Langa was revolutionary with respect to the soukous tradition. They adopted a more up tempo beat, abandoned wind instruments and emphasized snare drums and lead electric guitars (and eventually also synthesizers). The percussion rhythms were adapted from traditional Congolese music and the sebene became more prominent. Their vocal lines made a large use of the call and response schemes. Their frenetic stage shows featured a frontline of four singers.

Because of these innovations, they are sometimes referred to as the founders of the "third school" of soukous, while they "rebel" attitude, which resembled that of the hippie movement, earned them the sobriquet of "Zaire's Rolling Stones".

Zaiko quickly became one of the most popular groups of Zaire, and had a large fan base among Kinshasa's juvenile. In the 1970s, Zaiko's singers Evoloko "Lay Lay" Joker, Papa Wemba, Gina Efonge, Mavuela Somo, Nyoka Longo and Bimi Ombale popularized a dance known as cavacha, also spelled "kavasha, that was a decade-lasting craze in most East Africa.

In 1974, Zaiko Langa Langa were amongst the Zairean bands to be invited to play in Zaire '74, a huge musical event celebrating the Rumble in the Jungle.

In the mid 1970s the band lost some of its most important members. Papa Wemba, Bozi Boziana, Mavuela Somo and Evoloko left in 1974 to create Isifi Lokole; the same year, Papa Wemba, Bozi Boziana and Mavuela abandoned Evoloko after a conflict of leadership in the groupe between Evoloko and Papa Wemba to form Yoka Lokole in 1976. In 1980, guitarist Manuaka Waku also founded his own group, Grand Zaiko Wa Wa. After a brief period of inactivity, the band returned in 1975, and in the following years maintained a prominent position in the soukous scenes, while competing with its own spin-offs such as Isifi Melodia, Yoka Lokole and later on in 1977 Viva La Musica of Papa Wemba after he left Yoka Lokole after another conflict of leadership between him and Mavuela Somo. The outcome of the personnel changes in the band was the establishment of N'Yoka Longo as the new leader, and new entries such as Lengi Lenga, Bakunde Ilo Pablo and Likinga. Zaiko Langa Langa's production of the latter 1970s are particularly sophisticated both in terms of melody and orchestration, and the coreography of the live performance was also richer than it was in the early years. In 1975 too saw the establishment of the longest serving front singers of Zaiko in Nyoka Longo, Bimi Ombale, Lengi Lenga and Likinga Redo who will become for fourteen years the face of Zaiko and impose Zaiko as the ultimate heavy weight of youth music in Zaire. The success of the band was so huge and unprecedented in Zairian music history that all the presonnel that have left the band were queuing to return. In 1977, Bozi Boziana rejoined the group, followed by Mashakado Mbuta and Evoloko in 1980.

Despite new internal quarrels and personnel changes with the departure of Evoloko, Bozi and Djo Mali in 1981 to form Langa Langa Stars, Zaiko Langa Langa were successful throughout the 1980s. The band was touring Europe and Africa regularly and was the first Zairian band to visit Japan. At the end of the decade at the height of their glory and having establish themselves as legends in Zaire, the band experienced another major split, between the two leaders of the group Nyoka Longo and Bimi Ombale. The band was divided in two with every musician choosing his camp between the two leaders who were part of Zaiko since it creation. With Meridjo, Bapius, Matima, Zamuangana who were part of Zaiko from it creation staying with Nyoka Longo followed by Dindo Yogo and the band was called then Zaiko Langa Langa Nkolo Mboka, and was considered as the original Zaiko, to differentiate it from the band of Bimi Ombale which was called Zaiko Langa Langa Familia Dei and had Lengi Lenga, Ilo Pablo, JP Buse, Yenga Yenga Junior and the rest of the musicians that came in the 1980s. Later on, N'Yoka Longo's group reacquired the original name "Zaiko Langa Langa", which has maintained until today. N'Yoka Longo is still the leader of the group.