Orchestre kiam biography

Verckys Kiamuangana Mateta

DR Congolese musician (1944–2023)

In this Congolese name, the surname is Kiamuangana and the post-surname is Mateta.

Verckys Kiamuangana Mateta

Kiamuangana in 2021

Birth nameGeorges Kiamuangana Mateta
Also known as
  • Verckys
  • Vévé
  • l'homme aux poumons d'acier (the man with the iron lungs)
  • Wazola Nzimbu
Born(1944-05-19)19 May 1944
Kisantu, Belgian Congo
Died13 October 2022(2022-10-13) (aged 78)
Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo
GenresCongolese rumba
Occupations
  • Saxophonist
  • songwriter
  • bandleader
  • record producer
  • record executive
InstrumentSaxophone
Years active1960s–1980s
LabelsEditions Vévé International
Formerly of
  • Los Cantina
  • Jazz Africain
  • Jamel National
  • Congo Jazz
  • Oui Fifi
  • Conga Succès
  • OK Jazz
  • Orchestre Vévé

Musical artist

Georges Kiamuangana Mateta (19 May 1944 – 13 October 2022), known professionally as Verckys, was a Congolese saxophonist, composer, producer, bandleader, and record executive.[1][2] A significa

Afropop Worldwide

This is the first post in a new monthly Afropop blog series called RESPECT. The series is designed to feature the work of internationally under-appreciated African and Afro-diasporic artists from the distant- and not-so-distant past. These are artists who may have slipped through the cracks in your eardrums, and we would like to fix that. We will attempt to shed a bit of historical and editorial light on—or at least pay some special attention to—these artists, for no other reason than because their music is so immensely awesome. Feel free to send suggestions of your favorite under-appreciated artists to info@afropop.orgfor our consideration. Enjoy!

Orchestre Kiam got all the important elements right, the details that allow pop music to shift from being merely a pleasant experience to a transcendentally joyful and life-affirming event. The few available recordings of this short-lived Congolese group, mostly poor digital transfers from ‘45s, are just beginning to appear on African music blogs[1] and, of course, Youtube. Despite the audio quali

Orchestre Kiam, the kings of the Cavacha. An Oral History.

My obessession with the Orchestre Kiam started with Kamiki.  It was the mi-composé guitar break, 5 minutes and 40 seconds into the song (on the B-side of the single), that drove me to distraction.  This break synthesized much of what I love most in Congolese music, the likembe melodies I first heard on the Ocora compilation Musiques Urbaines a Kinshasa and the 'machine ya kauka'rhythm that powered early Zaiko Langa Langa hits.

Kamikientered my life in 1996 in Dakar, Senegal.  Over the following twenty odd years I found a lot more of their recordings and met a good number of fellow Kiam fanatics.  The enjoyment of digging deeper into their catalogue was for many years accompanied by a persistent frustation with how little I knew about the band, it's members, or the basic outline of the group's history.

A picture of the first lineup of the Orchestre Kiam featuring Bakolo Keta on the left in the cap and Franck Muzola Ngunga behind the microphone.  Look how young Franck Muzola Ngunga was,

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