Congolese songbird Faya Tess releases rumba classics

Paris-based Congolese songstress Faya Tess, who rose to fame through the mentorship of Tabu Ley’s Afrisa International band, will today release a new offering of rumba classics.

The singer, who last year unveiled the reworkings of her late mentor Tabu Ley’s songs, is scheduled to unveil her fifth volume, a double CD of 18 tracks. The package also features cover versions of songs by veteran guitarist and former TPOK Jazz and Bana OK band leader Lutumba Simaro Massiya and mercurial singer Madilu System, both key contributors to the rumba revolution of the late 1980s.

Both musicians played alongside Franco in TPOK Jazz band.

Another Paris-based Congolese great, crooner Nyboma Mwandido, who has been working with Faya Tess, says it has been her ambition all along to honour the rumba greats by redoing their mega hits.

“She is still working on more songs by various rumba legends to be released later,” Muandido said.

Early this year, Faya Tess, while on a homecoming tour of Kinshasa, met with Simaro, the man popularly referred to as the poet because of his alluring compositions, and they agreed that she could release her cover versions of some of his songs.

Faya Tess, the then flamboyant singer, who joined Afrisa International in 1986 and left in 1992, is best remembered for her part in the song, Camarade.  She also did a remix of the hit song Nadina, which she sung jointly with Mbilia Bel, who had joined the group earlier.It was widely believed that Faya Tess’s entry into the band created an intense rivalry, culminating in Mbilia Bel leaving.