Wenge Musica new release set to hit music stores

By Charles Otieno

Wenge Musica founder member NoÎl Ngiama Makanda aka Werrason has released a new album, Simply The Best (Temps Present). The el presidente of Wenge Musica Maison Mere will launch the album on December 13. In this album, Werra is back with a brand new sound. He is set to headline show next weekend, at Zenith, Paris, France. Fans will be treated to new sound and dance styles sprinkled with old hits from the maestro. He will also feature great dance acts and many surprises.

Born on a Christmas day in the heart of Africa, in Kikwit, a tiny village of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Werra started singing at the age of 12. He sang in the famous choir of the protestant church of Cebezo in Kinshasa. At a tender age Werra became a martial arts champion and was nicknamed ‘Tarzan, King of the forest’ which later became ‘King of the forest’.

At the beginning of the 1980’s, Kinshasa was vibrating to the sound of music. Thousands of music bands were competing between themselves. Artistes were considered as gods and Kinshasa was profiling itself as the mythical capital of African Music.

It is in such a context that Werrason formed the Wenge Musica 4X4 BCBG alongside Didier Masela, JB Mpiana, Tutu Caluji, Alain Makaba and Alain Mpela among others.

But Wenge suffered the first split after the success of their debut album, Mulolo. Marie Paul formed Wenge Aile Paris (Paris Wing) and another member formed Wenge Kumbela. But Werrason and JB Mpiana led group released other hit albums, Pentagon and Kalayi Boeing. The band rapidly became the reference in the world of African music.

In 1997, leadership tussle between Werra and JB forced the group to split with JB taking almost all the musicians apart from Adolphe Dominguez and Didier Masela.

Tours

He soldiered on and formed a new band Wenge Music Maison Mere after recruiting new talent. He later released Force d’Intervention Rapide after JB Mpiana released Titanic — depicting that Werra had sunk like the great ship.

Force d’Intervention Rapide was a triumph and led to an international tour throughout Europe, Africa, the USA and Canada. He soon followed it in 1999 with a chartbuster album, Solola Bien (Communicate well) that was rewarded in France with a Golden Record. The album was taunting JB Mpiana who replied with another hit, Tojours Humble (Always humble) to kill off the beef.

But all was not well as Werra’s band suffered another split with Adolphe forming Wenge Tonya Tonya. Werra went on and released Kibuisa Mpimpa (Operation Dragon) in 2001where he adopted authentic approach of the African music through which he shares the culture of his ancestors with the rest of the world. During the same year, he also won two Kora Awards for Best African Musician and Best Central African Musician. In 2003 Werra released A la queue leu leu followed by Sous sol and TÈmoignage.