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at the Harare International Festival of the Arts scheduled for April 26 until May 1, 2011.
Kanza thrilled Hifa audiences in 2006 during the La Voix edition and now he’s back for the “Engagement Party” whose opening act will be titled “The Treasure.”
According to his biography on the website, the Paris-based singer and multi-talented musician started life as Pascal Lokua Kanza in 1958 in Bukavu in the then Zaire and moved in 1964 to the pleasant suburbs of Kinshasa where the family lived until his father, a ship’s captain, died.
“They soon had to shift to a deprived area of the city and young Pascal left school to work to feed the family. Studying part time, working odd jobs and singing in churches, life was hard but music was his solace.
“Steeped in it day and night he discovered a wide variety of artists and styles through radio, television, in clubs, in the street and at concerts. His decision to become a singer followed a Miriam Makeba’s concert – her friend Ray Lema gave him his first guitar.”
As a teenager he played in various rhumba bands, developed an interest in the traditional music of his country, and eventually entered the Kinshasa Conservatoire of Music.
“Always ready to listen to every musical genre that came his way, he played an astonishing range of instruments, from guitar and mandolin, to bass, flute, piano, electric keyboard, sanza and percussion.
“His developing talent was clearly recognised in 1980 when at 22 he was invited to join the band of diva Abeti Masikini, superstar of Zaire.
“Abeti’s fame had spread well beyond Zaire’s borders, and he learnt much through this excellent experience, travelling widely across Africa, gaining great exposure every step of the way.”
He participated in the Libreville Pan-African Festival in Gabon in 1980 and in 1981, moved to Abidjan, Ivory Coast, working first as a guitarist, then singer, an excellent learning period, before following his true ambition to work in France, where he moved in 1984.
“Enrolling in the famous CIM, the school for jazz and modern music, by the early nineties his song-writing talent began to emerge. In 1992, his biggest break came when he appeared in the first half of an Angélique Kidjo concert.
“He attracted rave reviews though still relatively unknown, and soon his name was on French lips everywhere and he recorded his first album, Lokua Kanza. Released in 1993, it was tremendously successful, fully revealing his talents as composer and songwriter.
In 1994, Youssou N’Dour asked him to sing on an album and then in concert with him in New York.
“He has shared the stage with Geoffrey Oryema and many other Africa greats, and his latest album Nkolo demonstrates a vocal purity that make it his own masterpiece and a landmark album globally.
“Enchanting and magical, you’ll whistle these tracks from the minute you hear them, from the haunting refrain with brilliant guitar, steamy rhythms straight from Brazil, or ‘On veut du soleil’ (We Want Some Sun).
“This is a hymn to the joys of life sung in French, showing his roots in his adopted country where his success is unstoppable.
“His voice dominates the ensemble, sometimes thrown into relief or highlighted by angel choirs, bells, a whistle, drums, a child’s voice.”
He sings in Lingala, Portuguese and French, a perfect cross-cultural mix, a blend of beautiful melodies and atmospheres fusing several continents and creating aesthetics that defy categorisation.
Kanza gives concerts all over the globe, and composes for other big stars including Sara Tavares who has graced Hifa’s stage.
With an encyclopaedic knowledge of contemporary music of all kinds, he splits his time between Paris, Rio de Janeiro and home continent, Africa.
Of Nkolo he says he’s never felt his voice so close to the music he could hear in his head, as when composing for this album, adding with a smile, “I wanted to plant a sort of baobab.”