Afro Grooves ‘grooving’ at Emperors Palace
A music show featuring soukous musician Kanda Bongo Man and South Africa’s premier Afro-Pop artist Ntando takes place at Emperors Palace on March 27.
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Kanda Bongo Man became the singer for Orchestra Belle Mambo in 1973, developing a sound influenced by Tabu Ley.
His solo career only took off after moving to Paris in 1979, where his music started to incorporate elements of then-vibrant zouk music that originated in the French West Indies.
Kanda is known for the structural changes he implemented to soukous music.
The previous approach was to sing several verses and have one guitar solo at the end of the song.
Kanda Bongo Man revolutionized soukous by encouraging guitar solos after every verse and even sometimes at the beginning of the song.
His form of soukous gave birth to the kwassa kwassa dance rhythm where the hips move back and forth while the hands move to follow the hips.
The show takes place at the Theatre of Marcellus and starts at 8pm.