Baba Gaston: ‘Pop of Kenyan pop’

Nineteen eighty-nine was a significant year for African music. According to Gary Stewart in his book, Rumba on the River: A History of the Popular Music of the Two Congos, it was the year that a group of youngsters who had split from Zaiko Langa Langa calling themselves Choc Stars  reaped great success. Its members developed a sound of consistent quality that saw them crowned the best band in the then Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo) by the Kinshasa music writers.

It was also the year that saw Sam Mangwana record his Forever Album with Franco backed by the TP OK Jazz band. The album had four  songs including 'Toujours OK' (Always OK).

This was also the year that M’pongo Love returned home to Kinshasa after a four-year musical tour of Europe. She would bring with her a third child and a brand new album Partage (sharing) .

But probably the greatest highlight of it all was when Africa waved goodbye to two of its musical icons.

One was Franco Luambo — the barefooted boy who helped his mother get customers in the market by singing and playing his guitar and would later lead the TP OK Jazz, Africa’s most formidable band in the second half of the 20th century. He passed away on October 12, 1989.

The other was Baba Gaston, famously known as the father of Kenyan rumba music, who hang up his guitar and left for retirement.

In Kenya, Baba Gaston who died in 1997 is popular fo his all-time Christmas ballad, 'Kakolele Viva Christmas' with notable vocals by Kasongo Wa Kanema who would later join Super Mazembe. The song sold over 60,000 copies.

At the age of 20, Baba Gaston, who had already recorded his first hit 'Barua Kwa Mpenzi, Gaston' (Letter to my Lover, Gaston), formed his band which he called Orchestra Baba Nationale and teamed up with rumba greats Bwami Walumona and Kasongo wa Kanema, among others.

The band was based in Lubumbashi, the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, then known as Zaire.

RESIDENT BAND

Kinshasa at the time boasted some of the best recording studios and so Baba Gaston and his band often made trips to the capital to record music, but this would soon change according to music website Muzikifan.

Former band member Evani Kabila Kabanze says, “We were traveling to Kinshasa in 1971 for a recording session but the road was in a bad state so we opted to use the route through Kilemi that brought us  to the Tanzanian border. At the border we decided to enter Tanzania.”

Once in Tanzania they settled in the capital Dar es Salaam. Here they found life affordable and comfortable compared to Kinshasa and, more importantly, they had a strong fanbase seeing that they mostly sang in Kiswahili.

Muzikifan reports that they always travelled to Nairobi for recording sessions at PolyGram Records, an international label.

They did this for four years until 1975 when Gaston decided to move the band to Nairobi permanently. Apparently, they had acquired a bigger fanbase there — this was no surprise considering the fact that Congolese musicians had been making stop overs in Kenya since the 1950s.

Once in Kenya, Baba Gaston and his band remained prominent  for three decades, an act that saw him earn the title godfather of Kenyan rumba.

Rumba aficionado Jerome Ogola says Gaston began a movement that would later see almost all leading entertainment joints in Kenya have a Congolese resident band.

The music played by these diaspora  bands also slightly differed with what their counterparts in Kinshasa did and this can be partly credited to Gaston, whose Baba Nationale remains one of the biggest band to grace east Africa’s entertainment circles.

In 1976 faced his biggest test  when prominent band members quit in droves due mounting disgruntlement with his leadership style. Key band members who left included Bwami Walumona, Kasongo Wakanema, Evani Kabila Kabanze, Kalenga Nzaazi Vivi, Lutulu Kaniki Macky, and Twikale wa Twikale who went ahead to form Orchestra Les Mangelepa. Other bands that arose from the splits  are  Bwambe Bwambe, Pepelepe, and Viva Makale.

FATHER OF MANY

Former radio presenter turned  world music writer Alastair Johnston had this to say on Baba Gaston, “His success was a double-edged sword because he claimed to be the father of all Kenyan bands that grew from his group. However this suggests a high level of dissatisfaction among his employees who couldn’t wait to get out of his control and gain their own artistic freedom.’’

Baba Gaston also sang with the beautiful Nana Akumu wa Akudu who had earlier on sang with Orchestre Pepelepe band before joining Franco’s TP OK Jazz.

According to Stewart,  Franco invited Nana after his plans to get Jolie Detta back into the band hit rock bottom.

Others have long passed away.  John Ngereza who led Les wanyika, Bosho Kayembe and Lutulu Kaniki among others stand out, .

Baba Gaston’s hits include TP Englebert, Ilunga, Kaikai, among others.

His remains lie at the Langata cemetery in Nairobi.

Orchestra Les Mangelepa under the tutelage of Evani Kabila Kabanze is still going strong and so is Super Mazembe, the two scions of Baba Gaston’s school of music. They are still based in Nairobi.

Gaston has been quoted claiming that he played with more than 700 musicians. True or not, he occupies a special page in the annals of Kenyan music.