Kwassa Kwassa

Kanda Bongo Man is one of the many musicians to be influenced by the soukous of Tabu Ley, but early on in his career he introduced some stylistic changes that took soukous into a new era. Living in Paris he was surrounded by Francophone musicians from different parts of the world, and was especially influenced by the fast carnival style of zouk from the West Indies. He also introduced longer guitar solos peppered throughout his tracks, as opposed to the older style of soukous where they were usually reserved for the end of a song. Which isn’t surprising considering he counted one of Congo’s best guitarists as his bandmate. You can hear Dibo Dibala’s nimble guitar work across Kwassa Kwassa, Kanda Bongo Man’s 1989 album named after the dance he helped popularize in his music and videos.