Orchestra Super Mazembe
Mazemba @ 45rpm Vol. 1
The Lingala word "Mazembe" can be tranlated as 'movers of earth', and. literally interpreted, images of bulldozers have adorned most Orchestra Super Mazembe's album covers ever since the band first arrived in Kenya from Zaire in 1975. However, the story of this group lies not in its albums but in its singles. As compiler Doug Paterson notes, 'in Kenya in 1980, the average music fan might not have found it too difficult to come up with ten shillings for a single, but it would have been much harder to find the 55 shillings necassry for an album. This, then, is an introduction to the story: a selection of singles from the late 1970s into the 1980s, most of which have appeared in albums and none on CD before now. It's the story of one of most succesful East African bands of the time - a sprawling, prolific, dynamic unit that toured up and dawn the country and recorded hit after hit so that today they are stikk remembered with pleasure and afflection!