“You may not know it, but Congolese culture surrounds us,” Kiazi Malonga says. “Almost half of the enslaved people in the States, Brazil, the Caribbean, Cuba and the Americas came from the Congo. The rhythms they brought with them infuse all popular music.”
Malonga is the son of Malonga Casquelourd, founder of Fua Dia Congo, the Oakland-based dance-and-drum group that introduced Congolese music and culture to the Bay Area in 1977. When Casquelourd died in a car crash 21 years ago, Malonga took over.
“I started mimicking drummers when I was young, and rehearsed and refined my technique as I grew up,” Malonga says. “I come from a musical family, so music has always been a part of my life. My mom was dancing in Fua Dia Congo when she was pregnant with me.”
By the age of 16, Malonga was lead drummer in Fua Dia Congo, playing ngoma, the Congolese drum that’s the forebearer of today’s conga. He also traveled to the Congo with his family every year, building friendships with traditional and contemporary musicians and singers. He investigated the musical and social history of the region and built a network of friends, mentors and artists. Those relationships helped him shape the music on Zu Dia Ngoma (Voice of the Drum) and Tembo Kia Ngoma (Vibration of the Drum).
“I’m planning to release a series of albums using the rhythms and melodies, both traditional and contemporary, of the Congo,” Malonga says. “I want to introduce people to the sounds of Congo. By combining traditional and contemporary styles, I create a sound that’s more digestible to the untrained ear, helping develop an appetite for this music.”
Multi-instrumentalist Justin Phipps helped produce Zu Dia Ngoma and Tembo Kia Ngoma. “He’s one of the principals at Redtone Records, a label that wants to revive and amplify roots music, so we’re a good fit,” Malonga says. “It’s a pleasure to be in the studio with him.”
Produced three years ago, Tembo Kia Ngoma is mostly instrumental, with Malonga multi-tracking various Congolese drums, as well as mpungui, an antelope horn, and kisansi, a thumb piano. Phipps added guitar, bass and miscellaneous percussion effects. The tracks include “Lomami,” played as a soukous—a popular Congolese guitar-driven pop style—and “Ntali Jazz,” a second-line-meets-Afrobeat jam featuring the horn section of San Francisco’s Jazz Mafia. It ends with “Mbongui,” a rare recording from Malonga’s VHS collection, a live performance of Fua Dia Congo, with a large choir featuring the voice of Malonga Casquelourd.
Zu Dia Ngoma leans toward tradition. Put together during the pandemic shutdown, it blends vocal tracks recorded in the Congo with guitar, bass, keyboard and drum tracks. Malonga and Phipps produced it at the Redtone Studio.
“I went to Brazzaville early on,” Malonga says. “I have ties with singers and musicians I’ve developed over the years. I sought out older artists, familiar with the traditional sounds I wanted to explore, and authentic traditional vocalists with mass appeal, who could execute my vision in the most accurate way. We recorded some tracks there, and I brought them back home to finish at Redtone.”
As the pandemic continued, Malonga sent tracks back and forth to the Congo, refining the arrangements and adding his multi-tracked parts, played on various drums including ngoma; petengue, a more obscure drum; and di tumba, a drum from the Luba tribe.
“On the song ‘Keba’, the rhythm is essombi, usually used in preparation for war,” Malonga says. “I used it to express the hypocrisy of everyday life, sabotaging your neighbor to get ahead. I used ceremonial rhythms fused with modern dance vibes, and let the composition flow from there.”
Other notable tracks include “Pelisa Kongo,” which opens with a hook played on a balafon, a gourd-resonated xylophone, and guitar. The call-and-response vocals between a lead vocalist and choir describe the challenges of bringing clean electric power to Sub-Saharan African nations. “Tsi Mbwani Ĝa Mbongui” opens with male voices, drumming and percussion. It describes the coming mbongui, a social gathering to celebrate community, that features singing, dancing, cooking and feasting.
Malonga’s drumming and a Congolese choir advising musicians to lean back into traditional sounds before they vanish drive “Tala Kwé Wa Tuka,” an invocation of traditional music.
Both albums were released online, with no plans to make CDs or LPs. “With digital platforms, you can reach people all across the world with one tap of a button,” Malonga says. “It’s cheaper to get out there, but it’s harder to make a living. The streaming payouts are miniscule and inequitable. This is an issue, even for many Grammy-winning artists. The tech industry just says, ‘Whatever.’”
Malonga will play music from both albums with a small band on Wed, Sept. 4, at 5pm, at BART’s Balboa Park Station; and with Fua Dia Congo on Sun, Sept. 8, at 1pm at the World Arts West Dance Festival, Presidio Tunnel Tops/East Meadow, 210 Lincoln Blvd., San Francisco. Follow Malonga and listen to music from the albums at linktr.ee/KiaziMalonga.
