Empompo Loway

Empompo "Deyesse" Loway, was a soukous recording artist, composer and saxophonist, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). He was a member of the soukous band TPOK Jazz, led by Franco Luambo, which dominated the Congolese music scene from the 1950s through the 1980s.[1]

Career

He helped Congolese singer M'Pongo Love early in her career by arranging her music and recruiting a wealthy patron to fund her work.[2] He split up with M'Pongo in the mid-1980 and focused on developing another young Congolese singer, Vonga Ndayimba, known professionally as Vonga Aye and a backing band for her known as Elo Music.[3] Early in 1981 he recorded a number of songs in Benin with guitarist Dr Nico Kasanda.[4] When Nico left Tabu Ley's Orchestre Afrisa International in the middle of 1981, Empompo asked Nico to collaborate on some of his projects.[3] Empompo together with Vonga Aye, Nico and 3 other musicians from Elo Music spent a month in Paris recording at the end of 1981.[3] According to Empompo, they recorded enough material for six albums, but only two were released, both under Vonga Aye's name.[3]

In 1983, in Kinshasa, Empompo and his friend from TPOK Jazz, Sam Mangwana, together with singer Ndombe Opertun, who had recently left TPOK Jazz, formed the band Tiers Monde Coopération. The band was reformed a few years later as Tiers Monde Révolution.[5]

He died on January 21, 1990.[6] Ken Braun, head of Sterns Music's in the U.S.,[7] described Empompo Loway together with Modero Mekanisi as "the best Congolese saxophonists of the [20th] century".[8]

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See also

Notes
  1. Michel Boyibanda Was A Member of TPOK Jazz In The 1970s Archived February 26, 2014, at the Wayback Machine
  2. "M'Pongo Love". Rumba on the River. Gary Stewart. 2011. Archived from the original on 2012-04-08.
  3. Stewart, p. 295
  4. Stewart, p. 294
  5. Stewart, p. 280
  6. Stewart, p. 370
  7. "Out of Africa, Passionately Packaged". The New York Times. 18 May 2008.
  8. Ken Braun. "Tabu Ley Rochereau". World Music. National Geographic. Archived from the original on 2011-01-03.

References
  • Gary Stewart (2000). Rumba on the River: A History of the Popular Music of the Two Congos. Verso. ISBN 978-1859843680.
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