Monday, May 14, 2007

ABETI MASIKINI REINE DE LA RUMBA CONGOLAISE






In the year 1956 Abeti Masikini was born in Kisangani, Congo (DRC). For the first 9 years of her life her father gave her organ lessons. She would later sing with the Church of Kilomoto and at family festivals. Her drive for singing came from her admiration for French vocalist Edith Piaf. Abeti wins a talent show, singing interpretations of songs by Piaf, and her other idols Miriam Makeba and Mireille Matheiu. Her victory makes her known through out Kinshasa. She becomes known as "the Nightengale of Zaire".

In 1971 she meets Togolese Producer, Gerard Akueson. Akueson Sets up studio time to work with Bella Bellow, a Togolese artist that he was producing for.
She very quickly becomes a personality in the African music scene with her "soukous parfume'"(scented soukous) which would be described as Rumba impregnated of Congolese folklore. In 1972 she is invited by Bruno Coquatrix to perform at his venue, L'Olympia.

Read the history between Gerard Akueson and Abeti Masikini in this Preview of 'Rumba on the River: A History of Popular Music of Two Congos' (by Gary Stewart) from Amazon.com: Abeti & Gerard







Le Tigress, as she was dubbed, performed at Carnagie Hall in front of 3000 people, 400 of which were ambassadors of the U.N. in 1974 thanks to the notoriety of her album 'Bibile' and the coaxing of Gerald Akueson. In 1988 she performs at The Zenith in Paris and then embarks on a world tour, which finds her in China at the time of the Tien An Men Square protests, in 1989. In 1991 Abeti's life comes to an end in Paris, France. It is rumored that she passed away due to AIDS. Abeti's ability to evoke the traditional folklore of her native Kisangani through soukous and charismatically win the hearts of so many people worldwide through her performances has earned her place in the constellation of Congolese stars. R.I.P. Tantine...

I will leave you with two songs from Abeti Masikini. These two examples show how avant guard Abeti was as an artist. Her experimentation with Soul on Gogo and her perfect interpretation of kompas/zouk over digitized sounds on Je Suis Fache show her exceptional talent as interpretor of lyrics through song. She sings in her native dialect on Gogo. On Je Suis Fache she switches back and forth between French and her native tongue (pardon me as I do not know the name of the language). Listen for yourself here.



Gogo

Je Suis Fache



information for today's entry from:
www.lehall.com
www.amazon.com

PEACE

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

J'ai toujours aimé le titre "Gogo"...

b3A7n1k said...

Thanks for posting this music on your blog. I've listened to a lot of African music since the 1980s and am currently reading Rumba On The River so it's nice to discover your site.

For Wiki said...

Bonjour, je peux utiliser la 1ère image aberti pour Wikipedia

Anonymous said...

there are mistakes here!!!!

1. Abeti died in Paris on September 28th 1994,after a long battle with cancer;Uteru's cancer.

2. We need to be very careful with our information.Especially when we try to talk about our big legends.

3. I donot know if you have done some real research on the artist, before you celebrated your scriptures on the Blogger.

4. Dear friend, this woman did represented well our African music around the world; she designed her own kind of music and interpreted that perferct.
I have a lot of respect for her.
She one time asked to be called "Tantine" that means Aunty in English. she after her death became one of the African's contintinent real legends beside Makeba and Bella Bellow (a unique vocal and undisputable beauty)

Anonymous said...

Hello,

This is a inquiry for the webmaster/admin here at www.africambiance.org.

May I use some of the information from this blog post above if I provide a backlink back to this site?

Thanks,
Jules

Anonymous said...

Hello,

I have a message for the webmaster/admin here at www.africambiance.org.

May I use some of the information from this post above if I give a link back to your website?

Thanks,
James

Anonymous said...

Thanks for sharing the link, but unfortunately it seems to be down... Does anybody have a mirror or another source? Please answer to my message if you do!

I would appreciate if someone here at www.africambiance.org could post it.

Thanks,
Alex

Anonymous said...

Greetings,

This is a inquiry for the webmaster/admin here at www.blogger.com.

Can I use part of the information from your blog post right above if I provide a backlink back to this website?

Thanks,
Mark

Anonymous said...

Thanks for sharing the link, but argg it seems to be offline... Does anybody have a mirror or another source? Please reply to my post if you do!

I would appreciate if someone here at www.africambiance.org could post it.

Thanks,
Harry

Anonymous said...

Her father was murdered in 1961 by Albert Kalonji. I don't understand how her father Jean-Pierre Finant could have thaught her for 9 years. Or was it her mother who taught her?