Faya Tess breathes fresh life to rhumba classics

Congolese songbird Faya Tess, who recently visited Kenya, has been soaring to great musical heights with the release of her latest album titled Black Panther.

The new album is part of the efforts by the Paris-based singer to keep her music flag flying high, having done cover versions of some of the popular songs by great Congolese musicians, and some of her own compositions.

According to her manager, Mr Andre Tetu, the songs are already available as internet downloads.

The singer, who made her debut in the mid-80s with Tabu Ley’s Afrisa International Band, has in recent years cut a niche for herself by releasing reworkings of some songs by great Congolese rhumba musicians, ranging from Grand Kalle, Bantou Le Capitale, Franco Luambo, Festival Maquisard to her mentor Tabu ley Rocheareau, with whom she did some alluring duets.

Tess has also done cover versions of songs by Madilu System and former long-serving TPOK vice-president Lutumba Simaro Massiya.

HIV AWARENESS

The singer has teamed up with fellow Congolese stars, including guitarist Caen Madoka and crooners Nyboma Mwandido and Wuta Mayi. The music is available in at least six volumes.

During last month’s tour of Nairobi, she performed with the others during Labour Day celebrations at Uhuru Park in Nairobi at the invitation of Cotu Secretary-General Francis Atwoli.

Besides doing music in Paris, Tess is also in the forefront in fighting the spread of sexually transmitted diseases among youth and middle-aged immigrants from Africa and the Caribbean living in Europe.

Speaking to Saturday Nation, she said she spends her extra time travelling in cities in Europe in a campaign to create HIV awareness. “As a mother of two, I know the challenges youth go through,” she said.

HIT SONG

This is the spirit that has inspired most of her compositions in the recent past.

Unlike her forerunner, Mbilia Bel, who has preferred to remain back home in DR Congo, Tess and Beyou Ceil, who at one time performed together in Afrisa International, are based in Europe.

Beyou switched to gospel music just like Jolie Detta, who was formerly with Franco Luambo’s TPOK Jazz Band and is now doing gospel music in Luanda, the Angolan capital.

Tess’s 10-year stint with Afrisa, beginning 1986, was marked with ups and downs.

Her debut song in the band was “Camarade”. In 1988, she took part in singing the hit “Nadina” alongside Mbilia Bel. This was after she abandoned her engineering course to pursue music.

The 53-year-old is from the Musonge community in eastern Congo.

CAREER GROWTH

She was in Afrisa during a period of intense rivalry, especially with Mbilia Bel and other female singers. Then, Tabu Ley was involved in more performances outside Congo.

Mbilia Bel would later go solo and record with other musicians.

For Tess, things were even more promising when she produced “Moto Akokufa” with Afrisa in 1989.

Just to affirm her closeness to the band, she released other albums, including Allo Paris (1991), Sam Tora (1993) and Kebo Beat.

She has fond memories of 2000, as this was when she started her own productions. This included the award-winning album Keba.

“I realised it was best to start doing my own productions,” she said.

COVER VERSIONS

Her rich discography includes releases such as “Libala ya temps plein" ( 2009) and “Desoleee” (2014) . It was also in 2014, a year after Tabu Ley’s death, that Tess began doing cover versions of some of his all-time classics such as “Mongali” and “Christina’, featuring ace solo guitarist Caen Madoka.

“Madoka, Nyboma and Wuta have played a leading role in most of the cover versions,” she said.

The songs have been released under the Au temps des Classiques, giving rhumba fans a fresh opportunity to listen to cover versions of classics such as Simaro’s “Faute ya Commercant” and Madilu’s “Colonisation”.