Funeral arrangements for Congolese guitarist Rigo Star underway
Rigobert ‘Rigo Star’ Bamundele. He was a multi-talented Congolese Rumba and Soukous musician.
Arrangements for the funeral of Congolese musician Rigo Star, who died in France last week, continue to be made by his colleagues and family members, with a tentative agreement to fly his body back to Kinshasa for burial later this month.
Speaking to the Saturday Nation earlier this week, Paris-based crooner Nyboma Mwandido said they were awaiting the next step after receiving a funeral programme from Kinshasa.
"We will be able to know when the body will be flown back home, we are also arranging a funeral service in Paris for our fallen colleague," Nyboma said.
According to Nyboma, his body is still in a morgue in north-western France.
The multi-talented Rigo Star (Rigobert Bamundele) had recently stopped performing music due to ill health. He had been battling the effects of a mild stroke, among other ailments, according to some of his colleagues.
Perhaps one of the unsung heroes of Soukous and rhumba music among European-based Congolese musicians, Rigo Star settled in France in the mid-1980s. This was after performing with the legendary Papa Wemba's Viva la Musica band. Both he and Wemba had a brief stint with Tabu Ley's Afrisa International, where they recorded a few songs before returning to Viva La Musica.
According to singer Wawili Bonane, who was a member of Afrisa International at the time, Rigo Star and Wemba's brief stint was an inspiration in terms of artistic interaction.
In Paris, he arranged and played guitar for some of his colleagues like Koffi Olomide, Madilu System, Kanda Bongomam, the Kekele Group, Shimita El Diego and Mbilia Bel.
As for Shimita, he recalled that it was Rigo Star who arranged and played all the guitars on most of his earlier songs like Ämidjo and Mbale in Paris.
In 1989 in particular, Rigo Star was at the forefront of working with Mbilia Bel when she produced her first solo album, Phenomene, soon after leaving Tabu Ley's Afrisa International. The album included Manzil Manzil, a folkloric rendition of the Congolese Yanzi tribe. In addition to Mbilia Bel, they produced other songs such as Ironie and Desole. Kenyan fans will remember how the duo (Mbilia Bel and Rigo Star) toured Nairobi in the early 1990s. Other songs they produced together are Zipa-Zipa, Duku Duku and Awa Pendi.
Also praising Rigo Star are London-based guitarist Fiston Lusambo and New York-based producer Lubangi Muniania of Tabilulu Productions.
