DRC: disappearance of Lokassa Ya Mbongo, the guitar maestro
Congolese (DRC) guitarist artist Lokassa Ya Mbongo, has passed away. © flickr.com
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Congolese rumba in mourning. The record company Syllart announced, Thursday, March 16, 2023, the disappearance of Lokassa Ya Mbongo, occurred the day before. This guitar virtuoso accompanied the great singers of Congo before leading his solo career and producing many records, especially in Paris. Ill, treated in the United States, Lokassa ya Mbongo was 77 years old.
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Marie-José is the title of a song that became a hit, composed by Lokassa Ya Mbongo and sung for nearly 20 years by his friend El Maestro Ballou Canta. "I'm devastated because we've been around the world for almost 15 years," he says.
Lokassa Ya Mbongo, born Denis Lokassa Kasiya in Kinshasa in 1946, discovered the guitar and its gift at the age of 14. And he invented a sound thanks to a little secret. "By tampering with his guitar a little, instead of D, he had put an E string, and that gave this sound that was its own," explains Ballou Canta.
A great void
This particular sound can be heard on the records of the greatest Congolese rumba such as Tabu Ley Rochereau and Sam Mangwana, as well as those of the group set up by Lokassa Ya Mbongo and Ballou Canta, Soukous Star.
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He is someone who has really marked Congolese rumba, because today, there are no guitarists who play like him. It leaves a big void," says Ballou Canta.
The imprint is so large that in the maquis of Kinshasa as in those of Paris, the songs of Lokassa Ya Mbongo have not finished resonating.
► Also listen: Congolese rumba, from its origins to its inscription on the Intangible Heritage of Humanity
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