Staff Benda Bilili
| Staff Benda Bilili | |
|---|---|
 Staff Benda Bilili in Stockholm, 2012 |
|
| General information | |
| Genre (s) | Soukous , world music |
| founding | 2004 |
| Founding members | |
| Leon "Ricky" Likabu | |
Vocals, guitar
|
Yakala "Coco" Ngambali |
| Current occupation | |
singing |
Leon "Ricky" Likabu |
Drums |
Cubain Kabeya |
Satongé lute , song |
Roger Landu |
singing |
Zadis Mbulu Nzungu |
| Paulin "Cavalier" Kiara-Maigi | |
singing |
Djunana thong-suele |
| Montana Kinunu Ntunu | |
| former members | |
Vocals, guitar |
Yakala "Coco" Ngambali |
Vocals, guitar |
Nsituvuidi "Théo" Nzonza |
percussion |
Makana "Randy" Kalambayi |
Staff Benda Bilili is a band from the center of the Congolese capital Kinshasa that emerged from a street musician project of physically handicapped people who lived as polio victims with their self-made wheelchairs, some as homeless, in the area of the zoo of Kinshasa. They were at the center of a French documentary called “Benda Bilili!” ( Lingála for Open Your Consciousness! Or Make The Hidden Visible! ). They managed to get a record deal and record a debut album, escaping homelessness and gaining international fame.
The band was on November 1, 2009 in Copenhagen the Artist Award for World Music of the World Music Expo awarded (WOMEX 2009), the world's largest music fair for world, folk - Roots , ethnic and traditional music.
In 2013 the band fell out with the management and among themselves and did not make any more appearances for the time being. Two of the founding members, Yakala "Coco" Ngambali and Nsituvuidi "Théo" Nzonza, are now working on the follow-up project, Mbongwana Star .
Style and texts
The band's musical style is heavily influenced by the soukous , the so-called Congolese rumba , but also borrows from funk , blues and reggae and is partly reminiscent of Afro-Cuban music. Despite serious issues, the songs usually convey an optimistic message and are characterized by polyphonic singing. Bandleader Ricky Likabu names well-known Congolese musicians such as Franco & Ok Jazz , Tabu Ley and Docteur Nico as main influences; but also Western music and in particular James Brown , whom Likabu saw when he performed at Rumble in the Jungle in Kinshasa in 1974 . Her texts in Lingála , and partly in French, often deal with poverty, exploitation and corruption; they take a critical look at the fate of the countless homeless and street children in the streets of Kinshasa. The song Polio, for example, asks parents to have their children vaccinated against polio, to send them to school and to take good care of them, whether disabled or not.
Band history
Foundation and band composition
The band was founded in its current form in 2004 by two polio lovers, the street vendor "Papa" Ricky Likabu and his colleague Coco Ngambali, who have known each other since the 1970s and their opinion that real disabilities "only exist in the imagination" wanted to convey through music. At the beginning of their acquaintance, the two played under the name Staff Raka Raka for travelers on the ferry between Kinshasa and Brazzaville , when they operated a small goods trade between the two Congolese states, where they benefited from a special tax exemption for the disabled by President Mobutu .
After both of them had played in bands with able-bodied musicians, but had encountered prejudice and rejection there, they decided to form a band specifically for disabled people. Donations for their street music were also a welcome addition to the modest income they could get from the partly illegal cigarette and alcohol trade, doing odd jobs and occasional courier jobs. Over time, a group of other polio victims, war invalids and street children formed around Likabu and Ngambali, who participated in the project with some self-made musical instruments and also supported each other outside of the band's activities.
Staff Benda Bilili usually perform with eight to ten musicians. Some of the members suffer from walking disabilities due to polio ; some of them are dependent on wheelchairs . These are trike- like wheelchairs built in the Congo , which are made up of individual parts from old bicycles and mopeds . Specifically designed for use on the road, moving goods, and street trading, these are larger than conventional wheelchairs used by the band on touring. It is driven either by small motors or by a hand pedal.
The band consists of a solid core of four main singers, some of whom also play instruments. They include the 50-year-old founding members Likabu and Ngambali; The latter is also one of the guitarists and the author of most of the band's songs. On the other hand, the former street kid Roger Landu, who plays a self-made, electrically amplified, single-stringed lute , also includes a teenager who joined the band in 2004 at the age of twelve and found a new family there. Alongside the band's success story, its development is one of the central themes of French documentary film.
The documentary "Benda Bilili!"
The band got more attention and the chance for a career in the music business through the interest and support of the French filmmakers Florent de la Tullaye and Renaud Barret, who first met the band in 2004 when they made a series of contributions about the numerous Street musicians Kinshasas turned. They first met the band when they were playing on the street in front of a restaurant in the government district of La Gombe , and over the next five years they accompanied the band again and again, became friends and initially only planned to get the band a record deal. They later decided to make a full documentary about the band. The members of Staff Benda Bilili saw their chance and went into the project with so much commitment and enthusiasm that the project finally succeeded, despite a few setbacks, and resulted in a music album and a film, which was the opening film of the festival in Cannes in May 2010 Quinzaine des Réalisateurs (Director's Fortnight) premiered and received good reviews. The English Times noted that it was basically not a documentary of the classical sense, since without the interest and commitment of the filmmakers the international success of the band would probably not have been possible and they would have influenced the fate of the musicians instead of just it to document, but on the other hand you grant the musicians their success due to their musical ability and their performance. The 85-minute film first documents how the accommodation of the polio victims and their families fell victim to a fire in 2005, the resulting homelessness and how the band found a new place to practice their music in the city zoo of Kinshasas. The further development of the band - from the subsequent recordings to the first European tour in 2009 and concert excerpts from their acclaimed appearance at the Eurockéennes festival in Belfort , France - will be accompanied by film.
Choice song 2006
Staff Benda Bilili achieved first national notoriety in the run-up to the first free elections since 1965 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in July 2006. Her song Allons voter ( Let's go to vote), which called for people to vote, developed, mainly due to the massive spread through the UN radio station Radio Okapi , a nationwide hit and is said to have contributed significantly to the comparatively high voter turnout of 70%. A music video was also produced with the help of the UN peacekeeping mission in the Congo, MONUC . As a result, a legal dispute arose over the question of whether the popular song was commissioned by MONUC or whether the UN organization merely provided "technical support" for the recording. The musicians, who had received just $ 50 per person, sued MONUC for royalties of $ 100,000, a sum that, according to the band, was only intended to force the UN organization to the negotiating table. However, MONUC denied having expressly commissioned the musicians and refused to make any further payments. In the absence of any prospects of success, the band finally decided not to go to court and concentrated on recording their debut album.
Debut album
Financial bottlenecks for the French filmmakers, the fire in the dormitory and the generally dangerous and confusing situation in the Congolese capital, which for example led to several short imprisonments of the filmmakers, caused considerable delays in the production of the debut album. However, in these situations the influence and good networking of the disabled in Kinshasa in an organization called Plateforme proved to be a protection for the filmmakers. The debut album Très Très Fort was finally released in early 2009 on the Belgian world music label Crammed Discs . In 2007 the recordings did not take place in a studio, but at the daily meeting point of the band members, the area of the dilapidated zoological garden of Kinshasa, which they are allowed to enter for free as disabled people. The eleven songs were recorded in the open air with a dozen microphones on a laptop . The natural background noises of the zoo were consciously accepted. However, the overdubbing was later done in a living room. The band was led by the experienced Belgian music producer Vincent Kenis , who has already worked with well-known Congolese musicians such as the Grammy- nominated Konono Nº1 , the Kasaï Allstars and Papa Wemba , but also with Björk , Bebel Gilberto and the original Kocani Orkestar . As a result, the album received mostly very good reviews.
In 2008, Kenis also made contact with the Africa Express project, whose stay in the Congo he organized. This project, which was founded in 2005 by various British artists with the aim of establishing greater awareness of Africa and better contact with African musicians, came back then for an exchange with the Congolese music scene. a. with co-initiators Damon Albarn , K'naan , Amadou Bagayoko from Amadou & Mariam and Robert Del Naja from Massive Attack . During joint appearances with these artists in Kinshasa, Staff Benda Bilili made so much impression that Del Naja suggested her song Je T'aime as the opening track of the "Africa Express presents ..." sampler from 2009, on which otherwise well-known artists such as Femi Kuti , Bassekou Kouyaté and Tinariwen are represented.
The success of the debut album and the resulting international concerts made it possible for the band members to move into new accommodations with their families in Kinshasa, to improve their living conditions and to pay school fees for their children.
International appearances
After first appearances in France, England and other European countries in 2009 and extensive reporting, e.g. B. by CNN , BBC , Reuters and the ARD - Tagesthemen , followed in the summer of 2010 a renewed Europe, North America and Japan tour with over 50 appearances, u. a. at the Glastonbury and Roskilde festivals , WOMAD , the Montreal Jazz Festival and the Festival das Musicas do Mundo in Sines .
Discography
- Très Très Fort (2009, Crammed Discs)
- Bouger Les Monde (2012, Crammed Discs)
Web links
- Staff Benda Bilili on Myspace
- Staff Benda Bilili in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Staff Benda Bilili at laut.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ IMDb entry for the film "Benda Bilili!"
- ↑ a b Reason for awarding the WOMEX prize to the band in 2009 ( memento of the original from August 1, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Andy Morgan: Staff Benda Bilili: where did it all go so wrong? , The Guardian , Feb.15, 2013
- ↑ Roman Tschiedl: The band Mbongwana Star at the Danube Festival , Radio Ö1 Leporello , May 3, 2016
- ↑ Staff Benda Bilili - The masters of survival, the sound of the ghetto ( December 8, 2010 memento in the Internet Archive ), The Independent , February 13, 2009
- ↑ Africa shines at Cannes as Chad film scoops jury prize ( Memento from December 8, 2010 in the Internet Archive ), The Independent, May 24, 2010
- ↑ Jay Weissberg: Review: 'Benda Bilili!' ( Memento of the original from May 21, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Variety , May 13, 2010
- ↑ Arnaud Zajtman: Disabled Congo singers to sue UN , BBC News, May 2, 2007
- ↑ a b Neil Curry: Congo paraplegic band rocks around the world , CNN report from Cannes, interview with director and bandleader, May 27, 2010 (video, English)
- ↑ From Kinshasa to Cannes ( Memento from May 29, 2010 in the Internet Archive ), interview with Renaud Barret, 2010
- ↑ Review of the debut album Très Très Fort by Chris Nickson in the All Music Guide
- ^ Johnny Lais: An example of African street music at its finest , BBC Review, 2009
- ^ Africa Express: Music from the heart of the Congo , The Independent, February 29, 2008
