Joseph Kabasele

Joseph Kabasele helped to spark the rise of modern Zairean music.The founder and leader of African Jazz, a band that introduced guitarist Dr. Nico, vocalist Tabu Ley Rocherau and saxophonist Manu DiBango, Kabasele has been called, "Le Gran Kalle" and "the father of rumba". In an interview, shortly after Kabasele's death in 1983, influential Zairean musician Franco Luambo Makiadi said, "(Kabasele) was the founder of Zairean music and, although we were in competition, he made many things possible for me." One of the few Zairean musicians to be educated to the secondary level, Ka...