Pablo Lubadika Porthos 1952 - 2010

The name Pablo Lubadika Porthos should be familiar to anyone with a couple of Paris-produced soukous album in their collection. His session guitar has animated some of the best Zairean dance albums of the mid-eighties (notably solo albums from Pamelo Mounka, Master Mwana Congo and Assi Kapela) and it is his unmistakeable playing style which helped to forge that Paris soukous sound.

The man was more than a good free-lance professional. He was also a singer-composer, whose skills were sharpened by playing with Kinshasa bands like Kin Bantous, Lovy du Zaire, Groupe Celi Bitshu and Orchestra Kara in the 70s, before going on to work with Sam Mangwana and his African All Stars on their recording of the classic ‘Georgette Eckins, followed by regular work with the Quatre Etoiles.

He then concentrated on a career as a session musician, helping a number of fellow musicians to record their solo albums – including Pamelo Mounka, Master Mwana Congo and Asi Kapelo. But Pablo was not content to persue a successful session career and maintained his distinctive personal guitar style with his first solo album entitled Ma Coco.

The album did very well in the African discotheques of Paris and drew the attention of Chris Blackwell, owner of Island Records, the label with the lock on Jamaican reggae. Island’s executives, with an eye to expanding their label’s reach, struck a deal with Pablo’s producer Richard Dick, to license some of his African music productions. Their first release was a 12-inch single of Pablo’s Bo Mbanda (rivalry), one of the hottest tracks from his first solo album Ma Coco. Congolese and Zaïrean musicians and their fans were ecstatic. After nearly a quarter-century reign as the king of African pop, Congo music would get the worldwide exposure that only major labels could provide. And not just any label, but the label of Bob Marley, Jimmy Cliff and Toots and the Maytals. As 1981 wound to a close, Island released Madeleine a second 12-inch single from Ma Coco, and two album compilations of Richard Dicks’s artists, entitled Sound d’Afrique I & II. It was his contributions to these excellent compilations which made him a household name to a new market of international music lovers.

  

♫ 1981 Bo mbanda

Ma Coco was followed by several more outstanding solo albums and in 1985 Pablo released his first British LP on the Globestyle label. It made Pablo in the mid 80’s the leading exponent of contemporary Soukous. Unfortunately, Pablo could not hold this role for a long time and a period of silence followed. In 1993 he came back with his first (and only) CD Okominiokolo for the London based Sterns Music label. With the help of several old fellows such as Wuta Mayi, Lea Lignanzi, Diblo Dibala and Dally Kimoko among others, Pablo managed to revive his old success one more time, but after that his career was over. Since the mid 90's nothing has been heard from Pablo, until the message of his death reached us in 2010. Looking back, however, he will always be remembered as a great musician and ambassador of Congolese music.

♫ 1982 Idie

♫ 1983 Y’a plus confiance

♫ 1984 Pense a moi

♫ 1993 Mado

Sources:

Ronnie Grahams – Stern’s guide to contemporary African music – 1988.

Gary Stewart – Rumba on the river: a history of the popular music of the two Congo’s – 2000.

Liner notes Okominiokolo – 1993.

Discography



Chief Stephen Osita Osadebe: 1936 - 2007

♫ Osadebe’s ‘Hypertention’ medley

[Baby one pound no balance – Osondi Owendi – Onu kwulonjo – Obiajulu – Makojo]

Stephen Osita Osadebe born in Atani, was one of Nigerian leading Highlife musicians. Osadebe’s musical gift first blossomed during high school, which he attended in Onitsha, the major Nigerian commercial center near Atani. He later traveled to Lagos, and, with trumpeter Zeal Oniya as his mentor, quickly worked his way through the then Nigerian capital city’s circuit of nightclubs and dance halls.

In 1958, Chief Stephen released his first record to great acclaim and broad acceptance. It contained two songs, one of which was Adamma, his famous tribute to a beautiful lady. Since that time, Osadebe has written over 500 songs, more than half of which have been released and circulated worldwide. Once established, Chief Stephen took his musical career to anaother level in two major ways: The first was  in incorporating satirical social commentary in his compositions. The second was in extending the duration of each song to accommodate the dance floor jolly mood of his audience. Whereas the early constraints of recording technology limited records to 3 and later 6 minutes in length, from the early 70’s on Osadebe’s recordings consitently pushed the 20+ limits of vinyl records.

The 1967 outbreak of hostilities between Nigeria and one of her regions (the later self-named Biafra), led to an enormous loss in prominence for Highlife in Nigeria, especially in Lagos, which was not only the political capital, but also the cultural and social epicenter of the country. The mass exodus of the Easterners to Biafra left a huge cavern in the musical landscape, which was soon filles by styles such as Juju, and later Afrobeat. Both during and after the war, Chief Stephen kept his performance schedule active, in spite of the hardship of those years.  It was in the mid-seventies that his musical career reached its zenith. His release Osadebe ’75 brought him much success. Several hits followed in rapid succession. However, behind the gloss of acclaim, times were turbulent. Osadebe’s band went through several major split-ups, and a negative bias crept into the artistry of his lyrics, compromising the overall integrity of his music.

Despite these hard times, by the late 1970s Chief Stephen had established his reputation as Highlife leader and in 1981 he received a gold disc for the 1981 LP Onu kwulonjo. He also released a series of albums dedicated to various social clubs which flourish among the Ibo. One of these albums, People’s Club special sold in excess of 40.000 copies. By the mid-1980s, Osadebe reached the peak of his polularity with the album Osondi Owendi (One man’s meat is another man’s poison). Osondi Owendi (surpassed in sales only by Nico Mbarga’s Sweet Mother) sold so many copies (750.000) that Polygram awarded Chief Stephen the first and only Platinum record to be received by any Nigerian artist.  The album firmly entrenched him in the forefront of innovation in Highlife. His bold musical experiments incorporating new instrumentation and stylistic elements from a wide range of musical genre paid off admirably.

Through the years, Chief Stephan’s music has evolved a characteristic flow: jazzy horns and strong wah-wah guitar strokes, atop bold, frenetic native instrumentation. Among many other musicle titles, he is known as “The Doctor of Hypertension,” for his ability to bring a dancing crowd to an energy-infused, delightful frenzy. His rich baritone voice, itself a major instrument, is a defining element of his music that has maintained an incredible consistency through the years. When Osadebe turned 50 in 1986, he consciously began to make room for his son Obiajulu, by lightening his pefromance schedule. But his album output, however, continued to be high, with often two and sometimes even three or four records a year.

In 1994 Chief Stephen crossed the Atlantic Ocean for his first North American tour of some 50 cities. It was during this trip that he recorded his first and only international album entitled Kedu America (How are you America). Wih the release of this record in 1996, the Xenophile label introduced Chief Stephen’s music successfully to a wider, international audience. The Kedu album turned out to be one of the last new recordings by the Chief. The album was followed by a string of compilation CD's with earlier recordings during the late 1990's and the first years of the new milennium. Of all these complilations Sound time released in 2001 by the US based label IndigeDisc is worth mentioning, because of the informative booklet and the quality of the remastered selection of tracks. From 2000, Chief Stephen gradually withdrew from the music to devote himself to his family life. Osadebe died in St. Mary's Hospital Waterbury, Connecticut on 11 May 2007 after suffering from severe respiratory difficulties.


1994: Live in the Equator Club Philadelphia USA

References:

Ronnie Graham: Stern’s guide to contemporary African music. 1988 Zwan Publications.

Andy Frankel: liner notes Kedu America 1996

Chuzzy Udenwa: liner notes Sound time 2001

DISCOGRAPHY (10- and 12 inch vinyl albums)