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The rise and fall of Nzongo’Soul
Singer owes his comeback to "Musicosophie"
Paris
04/09/2009 -
When asked to explain the genesis of his new album, Nzongo'Soul simply replies, "When you've spent ten years of your life pondering and discussing deep things, it's going to leave a mark on you in some way." Speaking in soft, modulated tones interrupted by the occasional pause for thought, Nzongo looks back on the lasting legacy of the "music and philosophy" nights he organised at La Jungle for almost a decade.
Sitting in the tiny bar in central Paris with a fedora hat pulled nattily across his dreads, the singer gazes into the giant mirror across from our table and recounts how being forced to face his reflection there every Wednesday night became "a powerful symbol for me." On one of his new songs, Géométrie, Nzongo'Soul - who describes himself as a "musicosopher" - sings about how "You come to understand that the Other is nothing more than you back to front." During his dark night of the soul, Nzongo claims that La Jungle was a "vital lifeline" for him, enabling him to keep the flame of music alive within whilst participating in active philosophical debate with his audience.
"I think what I needed more than anything else at that point," he says, "was to be surrounded by other people, not just sitting at home alone locked into the 'failed artist' syndrome… I was so down at that time. I felt as though I'd screwed up every project I'd ever started in my life. I was in the middle of a spiritual desert with all this angst gnawing away inside."
In fact, Nzongo was struggling to come to terms with a radical change of status in the music world, having fallen from the status of national chart-topper to bar stand-up. He admits that one of the lowest points came when one of his compatriots walked into La Jungle one night and said, "Man, I saw you playing all the big stadiums in your day and here you are performing in some hole-in-the-wall bar. Why don't you call it a day?"
Winning RFI's "Découvertes" award
When he won RFI's "Discoveries" award back in 1984, Nzongo'Soul was at the height of his fame in the Congo, performing with the Walla Players. The group, who got together in Brazzaville in 1977 when Nzongo had just turned twenty, went on to win another prestigious award soon afterwards, officially becoming "the Best Afro-soul band in Central Africa. "Instead of playing the Congolese rumba we all grew up with and loved," Nzongo says "we tried to do something a bit different in our music. We listened to Bozambo and Fela a lot and we wanted to take things in that direction, giving our sound a bit of an Afro-beat feel without abandoning our roots. Our sound was pretty rock, you know, with a lot of guitar feedback and keyboards."
Meanwhile, back home the singer's family regularly listened to Kongo folk and Mozart. His father, the only one from a family of agricultural workers to pursue an education (and obtain a diploma in civil engineering) was sympathetic to his son embarking on a musical career. Nzongo went on to launch his career performing with the Orchestre Djilamuley, then honed his vocal talent with the Walla Players. The singer, who was an awkward teen and admits having gone into music to "get girls to smile at me" ended up cresting on a wave of success. "I was high on being young and thought I was pretty sharp on the uptake. Basically, I believed my looks would take me wherever I wanted to go. I ended up being a bit of a big fish in a small pond!"
Considering that he was already a big enough star back home, Nzongo saw no reason to enter RFI's "Discoveries" contest. It was only after repeated insistence from the cultural attaché at the French Embassy in Brazzaville that he finally gave in and recorded his entry in thirty minutes flat. Crowned the overall winner in 1984, Nzongo used his prize money to relocate to Paris where he enrolled at the Sorbonne to do a doctorate in the "history of ideas." "That did me a lot of good on an intellectual level," he says, "because my education in Brazzaville didn't go too well at all. Unfortunately, when I was studying back home I was better known than my teachers and they didn't take that too well. I'd barely open my mouth to speak and I'd get shot down in flames!"
Noir et blanc tops the French charts
Nzongo did not attend the hallowed lecture halls of the Sorbonne quite as regularly as he expected because shortly after moving to Paris he met the famous French singer-songwriter Bernard Lavilliers. The pair struck up a friendship and Lavilliers took Nzongo under his wing, offering his Congolese protégé the chance to duet with him on his single Noir et Blanc. The song proved to be a veritable launchpad for Nzongo's career, becoming one of the biggest French hits of 1987.
Nzongo went on to perform a series of concerts and made a number of solo albums for leading record labels. But success was not forthcoming. "Basically, my albums didn't sell," he says, "The record labels tried to keep the fact that they were flops quiet, but I could see I was heading for a fall. At the same time there was absolutely nothing I could do about it." Nzongo remembers feeling so despondent that he thought about returning to the Congo but civil war broke out at that point and made any trip home impossible.
Nzongo was convinced that he could do something for his compatriots and went straight into the studio to make a fund-raising album (Tribalité créatrice). This proved to be another flop, however, leading the singer to lose his last remaining finances. This was the moment Nzongo vowed he would never make another record again so long as he lived. For the next decade or so, he threw himself into organising his "musicosophie" nights and worked as a voice coach. But the desire to test his voice again crept back, fuelled by the curiosity of his son who wanted to know about his father's past. Nzongo realised that over the years he had been gradually building up a repertoire and creating a team. And now he has finally officialised his comeback with Musicosophie, the light at the end of his personal tunnel.
Imeni
Bertrand Lavaine
