Staff Benda Bilili

Staff Benda Bilili is a band from the center of the Congolese capital Kinshasa, which emerged from a street musician project of physically disabled people who lived as polio victims with their self-made wheelchairs, partly as homeless, in the area of the zoo in Kinshasa. They stood in the center of a French documentary called " Benda Bilili! " ( Lingala for Open your consciousness! , Or make the hidden visible ). They managed to get a record deal and record an debut album, which they escaped homelessness and gained international notoriety.

The band was awarded the Artist Award for World Music World Music Expo ( WOMEX 2009) in Copenhagen on 1 November 2009, the world 's largest music fair for world, folk, roots, ethnic and traditional music.

In 2013, the band fell out with management and with each other and makes the time being no more gigs.

Style and texts

The music style of the band is heavily influenced by the Soukous, the so-called Congolese rumba, but also includes loans to funk, blues and reggae and reminds partly to Afro-Cuban music. The songs convey, despite serious topics, usually an optimistic message and are characterized by polyphonic singing. The main influences called bandleader Ricky Likabu known Congolese musicians like Franco & Ok Jazz, Tabu Ley and Docteur Nico; but also Western music and saw the Likabu in particular James Brown, when he appeared in 1974 on the occasion of the Rumble in the Jungle in Kinshasa. Their lyrics in Lingala, and partly French, often of poverty, exploitation and corruption act; they critically examine the fate of countless homeless and street children in the streets of Kinshasa. The song calls on polio example parents to vaccinate their children against polio, to send them to school and to take good care of them, whether disabled or not.

Band History

Creation and band composition

The band was formed in its current form in 2004 by two Poli Over Honored, the hawkers 'Papa' Ricky Likabu and his colleagues Coco Ngambali founded, who know each other since the 70s, and its view that real disability " only in the imagination " exists, wanted to convey through music. At the beginning of their acquaintance, the two played under the name of Staff Raka Raka for travelers on the ferry between Kinshasa and Brazzaville, as they operated a small goods trade between the two Congolese States in which they benefited from a special tax exemption for disabled by President Mobutu.

After both had played in bands with non-disabled musicians, but there were encountered prejudice and rejection, they decided to form a band specifically for disabled people. Donations for their busking were also a welcome extra income to the modest income that they could achieve by, sometimes illegal, cigarettes and alcohol trade, odd jobs and occasional courier activities. To Likabu and Ngambali formed over time a group of other polio victims, disabled veteran and street children, who, with some self-made musical instruments, participating in the project and support each other outside of the band activities.

Staff Benda Bilili usually occur on eight to ten musicians. The members suffer partly walking difficulties as a result of polio diseases; some of them are dependent on wheelchairs. It is built to the Congo, Trike -like wheelchairs that are made up of individual parts of old bicycles and mopeds. These are specially designed for use in road transport, the transport of goods and street trading, and are larger than conventional wheelchairs that are used by the band on tour. The drive is performed either by small motors or by hand pedal.

The band consists of a core group of four principal singers, some of which also play instruments. They include the 50-year founding members Likabu and Ngambali; The latter is also one of the guitarist and author of most of the songs of the band. On the other hand, belongs to the former street kid Roger Landu who plays a home-built, electrically amplified stringed lute, also a teenager to the band, who joined in 2004 as a twelve year old to the band and there was a new family. Its development is, in addition to the success story of the band, one of the central themes of the French documentary.

The documentary " Benda Bilili! "

Greater attention and the chance to pursue a career in the music business got the band by the interest and support of the French filmmakers Florent de la Tullaye and Renaud Barret, the first made ​​in 2004 with the band acquaintance, as they many a series of articles about the Kinshasa street musicians turned. They met for the first time on the band, as they played on the road in front of a restaurant in the government district of La Gombe, and accompanied the band in the next five years over and over again, became friends and initially took before only the band to gain a record contract. Later they decided to produce a complete documentary about the band. The members of Staff Benda Bilili grasped their chance and went with so much commitment and enthusiasm in the project that the project eventually, despite some setbacks, managed and led to a music album and a film in May 2010 in Cannes as the opening film of the festival Directors' Fortnight ( Director's Fortnight ) premiered and got good reviews. Although the British Times noted that it was basically no documentary classic sense, because without the interest and commitment of the filmmakers probably would not have been possible by the international success of the band and they would thus influences the fate of musicians, rather than only to document, but on the other hand do not begrudge you the musicians, because of their musicianship and their occurrence, their success. The 85 -minute film documents first, as the accommodation of polio victims and their families in 2005, one was destroyed by fire, the resulting homelessness and how the band in the city zoo in Kinshasa found a new place to practice their music pieces from it. The further development of the band - from the following recordings up to the first European tour in 2009 and concert excerpts from her acclaimed performance at the Eurockéennes festival in Belfort France - is accompanied on film.

Election Song 2006

Staff Benda Bilili first gained national prominence in the run-up to the first free elections since 1965 in the Democratic Republic of Congo in July 2006. Their song Allons voter ( Let's go choose us ), which called for a vote, evolved, mainly through the massive distribution through the UN radio station, Radio Okapi, a nationwide hit and is said to have contributed to the relatively high turnout of 70%. With the help of the UN peacekeeping mission in Congo, MONUC, also a music video was produced. As a result, there was a dispute over the question whether it is traded on the popular song a commissioned work for MONUC or whether the UN body had done only "technical assistance" in the recording. The musicians who had received only 50 U.S. dollars per person, sued the MONUC bonuses in the amount of $ 100,000, a sum that was only meant, according to the band, to force the UN organization to the negotiating table. MONUC, however, denied to have expressly instructed the musicians and refused further payments. Lack of success eventually abandoned the band to further litigation and focused on the recording of their debut album.

Debut album

Financial constraints of the French film -maker, the fire of the dormitory and the generally dangerous and complex situation in the Congolese capital, for example, led to several arrests of short film makers, caused significant delays in the production of their debut album. However, proved in these situations, the influence and good networking of people with disabilities in Kinshasa in an organization called the Plate Forme as a protection for the filmmakers. Très Très Fort The debut album finally appeared in early 2009 at the Belgian world music label Crammed Discs. The recordings took place in 2007 instead of every studio, but in the daily meeting place for the band members, the site of the highly dilapidated zoo in Kinshasa, they may enter as disabled in vain. Under the open sky, the eleven songs were recorded with a dozen microphones on a laptop. The natural background noise of the zoo were doing consciously accepted. The overdubbing was however later in a living room. The band was doing guided by the experienced Belgian music producer Vincent Kenis, who has worked with well-known Congolese musicians such as the Grammy -nominated Konono N º 1, the Kasai Allstars or Papa Wemba, but also with Björk, Bebel Gilberto and the Original Kocani Orkestar. The album received mostly great reviews in the sequence.

Kenis introduced in 2008, also makes contact to the Africa Express project, whose stay in the Congo he organized. This was founded in 2005 by various British artists project, with the objective to establish greater attention to Africa and a better contact with African musicians, was traveling to for an exchange with the Congolese music scene, including with co-founder Damon Albarn, K'naan, Amadou Amadou & Mariam of Bagayoko and Robert Del Naja of Massive Attack. For joint performances with these artists in Kinshasa Staff Benda Bilili made ​​much impression that Del Naja her song Je T'aime as the opening track of " Africa Express presents ... " sampler of 2009 proposed on the otherwise well-known artists such as Femi Kuti, Bassekou Kouyaté and Tinariwen are represented.

Due to the success of the debut album and the resulting international concerts, it was possible for the band members, with their families to move into new accommodation in Kinshasa, to improve their lives and to pay school fees for their children.

International appearances

After first appearances in France, England and other European countries in 2009, and wider coverage, such as by CNN, BBC, Reuters and the ARD issues of the day, followed in the summer of 2010 a new Europe, North America and Japan tour with over 50 performances, including at the festivals of Glastonbury and Roskilde, the WOMAD, the Montreal Jazz Festival and the Festival the Musicas do Mundo in Sines.

Discography

• Très Très Fort (2009, Crammed Discs )
• Bouger Les Monde (2012, Crammed Discs )