THE SOUL GUY

By Guy Howarth
 

AIE A MWANA – MARIE THERESE - ( + Ballad à Rio)

Michel first met Steve Banda Kalenga who was then a singer in Zaïre in the city of Lubumbashi in 1973. Steve was singing in a small night club and He believed he had a very nice voice and gave him his home address in Belgium. He then heard nothing from him for a further 2 years and then one day out of the blue came a phone call form a man who said “I am Steve Banda Kalenga and I am in Brussels” when Michel met Steve he at first did not recognise him as after all it had been two years since he had first met him  and it had only been for a short time, so Steve reminded  him of when they had first met and that he came from Zaïre and now lived in Spain where he had a band with some fellow African friends from Angola,  and then he realised who he was and that he had met him two years previously but until then had not thought any more about him. Steve then handed Him a tape to listen to with some songs that he and the band had done, Michel on hearing the tapes then offered to produce the band in Belgium and they agreed. He then dispatched a driver to Spain with a van to pick them all up and all their equipment, but also ended up paying all their debts off that they had accumulated in Spain as well, and all their instruments were being held by the music shop that they could not afford to pay! Michel immediately signed a contract with the band as their “impresario” and started organising the promotion of the band. He then had to come up with suitable name for them, and that came from his the unlikely source of his own mother who found the name Black Blood. She became  like the “godmother”of the band. They relied on Michel to take care of everything for them, including food, accommodation, instruments, clothes, medical care, etc and even hiring a rehearsal studio for them. At that time Michel was a still young airline pilot flying as a first officer/co-pilot.

Here is  the band line up and the musicians names

Ringo (Bass) The Keyboard Player, Steve Banda Kalenga from Zaïre (He was the singer but didn't play any instruments, just maracas) Keto (Drums/percussion) Carlos Sarayeva (Vocals and guitar)  And sadly Michel has forgotten the name of the keyboard player for which he apologises to him as was a very talented musician and a very nice guy too. They were all from Angola except Steve Banda Kalenga who was from Zaïre.

Michel was totally convinced that producing an African band with songs made in African languages could have some success as that that type of band and music did not really exist at that time. No one would really took him serious though, but then he had a breakthrough and signed contracts with various different night clubs so that he could perfect the bands sound and style and quickly noticed that the band had a lot of success. They were all very good musicians with an incredible rhythm Michel said. And because of the night clubs contracts and his co-pilot salary he could afford most of the expenses that went with running the band.

Michel himself was born in the Congo ( The ex Belgian Congo ) and he lived their for 17 years, mainly in Lubumbashi a region of Katanga.

  Ralph Benatar was a friend of his in Congo who went on to became a professional musician in Belgium working mainly in recording studios. So one day Michel happened to call him and he came to see the band in a night club. Ralph was accompanied by a producer named Jean Kluger who  believed in the idea of the band and he and Michel decided to do a first song for the band to release. So Michel then that wrote Marie Therese, the other song being A.I.E (A Mwana) which was an adaptation he made from an original song made by Daniel Vangarde under the Japanese name of A.I.E A OA. The record was released in 1975 and the first record sleeve releases were just done in two colours red and white to keep manufacturing expenses the of the record low, then later a full colour versions of the sleeve was released. Sadly Michel himself does' not have one of the full colour versions as he gave them away to friends at the time of their release. The Marie Therese song was meant to be the side A of the 7” single but it quickly became the side B for the radio stations as

A.I.E( A Mwana)  really took off.

And after few months, it got to No1 in the charts in Belgium and France, but Marie Therese was on the flip side by now having to take a back seat. The record was sold everywhere in the world and Michel had very good financial returns from all over Europe, and also gained success in the USA, Japan, Africa, and many other countries. The song was also covered many times by different bands most notably here in the UK by Bananarama in 1981, and also by a band called “La Compagnie Creole in France who were quite popular over in there home country and they released quite a few albums too. There is also a 12”remix of the A.I.E (A Mwana) that came out in 1976.
Having had good success with both songs Michel then decided to quit   working with band, has he had enough of working with the band as tensions had grown mainly because of the bands singer Steve, he had become difficult to manage and had also developed quite a big ego by this time which caused many tensions to grow between them all, as he saw himself as the head of the group whilst the other members were quite humble and reserved.  Michel got on very well with them and it is a shame that this had to happen with Steve . Carlos Sarayeva who sings the great high notes on A.I.E (A Mwana) and the other Angolan musician never seem to cause any problems for Michel, they liked to send most of their money to their home to there families and just get on with their music. After the break-up some of members of the band went back to Spain and the others back to Angola, they did not really want to work with Steve again because of all the tensions and problems that had been caused within the band by that time.

After the band's split when Black Blood were needed to perform for a TV appearance for the record A.I.E (A mwana ) they had to have a have a recorded soundtrack of the original recording and it would then be lip-synced, because no one could scream the lead of the song like Carlos could and without the other musicians Ringo, Keto and the keyboard player they also needed new musicians that had to be hired to front the band for these TV appearances leaving only Steve Banda Kalenga of the original line up left with them. Steve then had to find more musicians after  that to keep working with him and Jean Kluger and Ralph Benatar  to make an album with. The album called “Chicano” and was released later in 1975 Steve wrote the words to most of the new songs in Swahili apart from of course the two original tracks by Michel A.I.E (A mwana) and Marie These that had been added to the album. The title track of the album “Chicano” was  also released as a 7”single but this was now of course with the new line of the band and it included on the album.

They then later  released the album “Amanda” from which they then released a 12”single 45rpm in 1977 which was the title track called “Amanda” and on the flip side was a track called ”Rastiferian”

Michel stayed in his aviation career as an airline pilot for the next 20 years before finally reaching the status of Captain, he then quit the aviation business and worked as a journalist for large magazines and news papers.

He also had some success as an author and wrote two books that were published in Belgium, and has recently been offered the opportunity to make a thriller by an American film producer, but at this present time that project has not yet to got off the ground but hopefully it will.

His most recent journey into the music world has recently seen him write a French language song  called “Ballade à Rio” which was produced by Lou Deprijk in Belgium. He won a press contest in Knokke Le Zoute for a festival of French songs and gained it some good press reviews in the news papers, but unfortunately the song didn’t work well commercially, which is a shame as Michel believes it to be a good song. The girl who sings the song has a beautiful voice and he believes, but was unfortunately was a totally unknown artist, which sadly did not help the song succeed commercially. Hopefully we may be able to hear in the future on my Youtube channel iGuy101 at some time.

For the moment Michel is taking a break from the music business, but is always on the look out for an artist for his next big hit song. He now lives in the sunny south of France were he works in the real estate field

Here are the lyrics of A.I.E (A mwana) and Marie Therese  translated by Michel for us all into English

Translations:

A.I.E A (mwana) doesn't mean anything, It just sounds good!

The story of the song is about a man walking with his wife trough the African country.

All the way he sings to announce that he is arriving in the hopes he will be well accepted.

I am going to try to translate the words in English for you but it is not easy even though I speak Swahili fluently but I may have made mistakes in the Swahili spelling.

So here we go.

AIE A MWANA, mi na kwenda kwetu : AIE A MWANA I am going away (to other place)

Pa moja na bibi na batoto wote: With my wife and all my children

AIE A MWANA sassa iko bushiku: Aie a mwana, now the sun is going down (it’s getting dark or it is the sunset)

Tu na tchoka mingui, tu ta lala na ye: We are very tired, we are going to sleep with them

Baba mama alafiki, (bakieni muzuri) batoto yote yetu, (bakieni muzuri), tu na panda we, akisanti sana : Dads, mams, friends, (be all well), all your children, (be all well), we all love you, thank you very much..

And again repeating the same all the way.

These are not deep words but they go well with the rhythm..!

MARIE THERESE:

Marie Therese is a French name often used in Congo by the Africans.
Here is the translation:

Marie Therese uko na sukari kabissa : Marie Therese you are so sweet

Aia sikia: hey, listen

Bibi yango ana zala mutoto: My wife just give birth a child (What else could she give…but it is the way they say it in Swahili)

Ana zala mutoto mwanamuke: She gave birth a child girl

Siku moja ata kuja musuri : One day she will become pretty

Siku moja ata owa uperi: One day she will get married

Bibi yango (oh Marie Therese) Bibi yango (Oh Marie Therese) mi na panda (Oh Marie Therese) mi na kufa (Oh Marie Therese): My wife (oh Marie Therese) I love her (Oh Marie Therese) – I am tired (other sense in Swahili, like I am completely down or died)

Sikia butamu…mi na kufa…: Feel it good – I am dead…etc.