After he was coldly murdered in 1972 at the age of 31, the immense artist Franklin Boukaka was very unjustly forgotten. He pioneered popular music...

After he was coldly murdered in 1972 at the age of 31, the immense artist Franklin Boukaka was very unjustly forgotten. He pioneered popular music in the Congo as the high priest of the rumba, and during the sixties the talents of this great singer/political activist made him a shooting star that lit up the skies in Brazzaville. Frémeaux & Associés is proud to present this first official reissue of his work in a retrospective produced by Claude Blanchard Ngokudi of 2 Rives Productions (Tabu Ley Rochereau, Les Bantous de la Capitale, Zao…). From the album that was his testament – produced by Manu Dibango – to his beginnings with the group Cercul-Jazz, this retrospective brings Franklin Boukaka back to the forefront: one of the greatest musicians to come from the Congo, and the great voice of Pan-Africanism and decolonization. Augustin BONDOUX / Patrick FRÉMEAUX