From music for Mommy to L'OK Jazz group.

Born in 1939 in the village of Sona-Bata, 80 kilometres from Kinshasa, François Luambo, who no one had yet for seen would practically become a myth under the name of Franco, started playing music more to be useful than to pass the time or for simple pleasure. Without a father, he wanted to help his mother, a doughnut seller. So, he sang next to her in the street, banging on cans, strumming a makeshift guitar. The passers-by stopped, listened and went away with doughnuts. One day someone noticed that the kid managed quite well. This is how he got his first group experience. Integrated into the group Birkunda, he played at family parties and wakes. Things became clearer with Ebongo Isenge who managed Watama, an orchestra made up of the young people from the "Far West" neighbourhood. Ebongo recorded for the Greek Papadimitriou who was the owner of Loningisa productions. When he presented his protégé to him things were set for the future "Maître Franco". 

In 1953, the budding star recorded his first song with an electric guitar given to him by Papadimitriou himself. The state of grace for this young future hero at Loningisa productions wouldn't last. In 1954, they cancelled his contract for lack of discipline. Franco found himself a new employer, Omer Kashama, owner of one of the fashionable dance-bars, the OK Bar (still called Chez Cassien), who put forth the idea to put a group together with his friends. No sooner suggested than it was done. In June 1956, OK Jazz saw daylight. "OK" like Orchestra Kinois and like Omer Kashama. "Jazz" in reference to the Black American music which was fashionable in Europe and in Africa among the colonists(in the Congo, many groups took the name jazz for their name-see for example African Jazz created in 1953 by Joseph Kabaselé with Doctor Nico on guitar).

If at the beginning OK Jazz played a bit of jazz to please the Europeans living in the Belgian colony, quickly it turned towards Latin music which was really popular. Rumba and Cha-Cha-Cha were the joy of dancers at this time in the bars of Léopoldville (which would be renamed Kinshasa in 1966) and Brazzaville. Taking Hawaiian guitar sounds introduced by Zacharie Elenga, alias Jimmy, and in the wake of Zaire's guitarist Tino Barosa, Franco created pachangué which was a mix between patchanga and meringué. Then he progressively quickened the rumba all the while enriching the elements of the land. He thus invented the style that would be his trademark and still has people dancing in Africa and its diaspora today. In OK Jazz's songs, love is the leitmotif from the beginning.

Batallions of women went crazy for the band, nicknamed "The Young Girls' Orchestra" until 1960. After Congolese independence, the circle of fans widened.

Numerous partyers crossed the river to come to Brazza or Kin where the nights had the reputation of being more lively. Once having digested the let-down after having seen their great rival African Jazz leave for Brussels to participate in the round table on the independence of the Belgian Congo, OK Jazz puffed out their chest after their triumphant tour in the country and in Brazza then for their turn to leave for Europe where they recorded on the Surboum African Jazz label. We didn't have to wait for the first hits ("Amida Asukisi Molata", "Chérie Zozo"...) and Franco's reputation, now called "the guitar wizard", grew a bit more each day. In 1963, OK Jazz turned professional by forming a company. Everything would have been going for the best if the debts hadn't been piling up a little too much. In 1965, the year when they released one of their historic songs ("Ngai Marie n'zoto"), the officers of the courts seized some of their equipment to pay the creditors. Would Franco throw in the towel?

OK Jazz is dead, long live Très Puissant OK Jazz

The answer came one night at the Vis-à-Vis, the most popular dance bar in Matonge, the famous district of Kin where the party never stopped. Franco introduced his new group, the TP OK Jazz (Très Puissant OK Jazz) (Très Puissant = very powerful), with whom he would launch a new rhythm with a rumba base called the bouché. To hear the TP OK Jazz at this time all you had to do was go to Kasavutu, where it was considered good to show that you had money or that you acted like you did. Franco strung together some new hits: "Jalousie à bas", "Polo le chipeur", and "Misèle". The arrival of Sam Mangwana and Mpudi Youlou after the departure of Vicky Longomba would be followed by an evolution in musical style. Franco developed the "sébéné" a long guitar discourse after the first couplet. It would very quickly be the formula adapted by all of the groups, an effective way of allowing the lead guitarist to show his virtuosity in improvisation.

In 1975, the singer Ndombe Opetun joined the winning team, systematically named the best orchestra from Zaire for the year. If success was present, the road was not without pitfalls and dark clouds. A tour in Cameroon which lost money would put them in bad financial shape, then in 1978 Franco found himself in prison after a minister felt attacked by the lyrics of two songs "Hélène" and "Jackie." Hand on the heart he swore that there was no double meaning in what he wrote. Presidential grace freed him after one month. In 1980; he received the title of "Grand Master of modern Zairois music" which he shared with Pepe Kalle.

In 1982 Franco was on the way to Belgium with the strong intention of getting into new things. Already at the origin of Likembé productions(founded in 1969) and the Popular productions which pressed the records for TP OK Jazz in 1983 he created the label Choc Choc, recorded and album then started off on a tour across Europe and the United States. In 1984, back to the homeland. Field Marshall Mobutu called him back feeling that for the presidential campaign Franco could be a good foil for him. Forgotten were the minor criticisms, the past misunderstandings... . Now back in favour, the musician recorded an album praising "Tata M", which was widely distributed throughout Kinshasa. Franco was back in business at home.

At his headquarters, a building that he had built with a club, bar/restaurant, a musical weekly (Yé), he managed the activities of TP OK Jazz and presided over the Union of Zairois Musicians(UMUZA). He opened a recreational complex, recorded several albums on which he displayed his talents as a chronicler of daily life and slipped useful messages into the songs, for example, "Mario" (1985) where he makes fun of the gigolos and "Attention Na Sida" (1987) about AIDS in which he points his finger at the attitude of the United States and Europe who, according to him, blame Africa for this plague. During a European tour, while his state of health was declining(despite affirmations to the contrary by the artist, the rumour was that Franco was a victim of this illness that he had laughed at not so long ago in his country, called "the imaginary syndrome to discourage lovers"), he recorded an album with Sam Mangwana in 1989. This would be his last work of musical brilliance. He died several months later. More than one million people attended his funeral in Kinshasa.

September 2004