Congo Funk! The Making of Part 4 - Interview with Celi Bitshou

SUBSCRIBE TO ANALOG AFRICA´s CHANNEL - http://bit.ly/2riUuLL VISIT ANALOG AFRICA - https://analogafrica.bandcamp.com/ LIKE ANALOG AFRICA - https://www.facebook.com/AnalogAfrica FOLLOW ANALOG AFRICA - https://www.instagram.com/analogafricarecords/ NEWS ABOUT ANALOG AFRICA - https://linktr.ee/analogafrica FOR LICENSING AND ENQUIERES PLEASE CONTACT : info@analogafrica.com Video production: https://www.instagram.com/edd.jj/ Design Patterns: https://www.instagram.com/gligli_studio/ Images by https://www.instagram.com/luadasaguas/ & https://www.instagram.com/afreekaya_27/ While we were in Kinshasa we organised a meeting with Celi Bitshou and Mpassi Diane (niece of Bikouta Biks, composer of Congo Funk’s closing song). Both crossed the Congo River from Brazzaville to Kinshasa on a speed boat for a two days trip. It was much easier that way instead of getting visas for us to cross. We finally welcomed them in our house near Kimpwanza roundabout and shared a meal together. Meeting Celi Bitshou was a very nice moment because he is one of the few living legend we met during the trip. Sadly when working with music from the 60s-70s-80s, time plays against us. So when we get to meet a living musician and composer, the joy of directly rewarding him with our acknowledgement is even greater. After introductions and the presentation of the project we started making the interview. Because Celi Bitshou who is 80 years old was still in good shape, he told us many crunchy anecdotes about his musical career. We selected some cuts for this video, with the background song "Tembe Na Tembe Ya Nini" composed by Tube Machine as Bitshou was nicknamed by Verckys back in the days, for his ability to drop a hit after another. Celi Bitshou is one of the greatest bass player Congolese Rumba has ever known. He played in numerous bands such as Orphée Jazz, Cobantou, O.K. Jazz, Bantous de la Capitale, Cercul Jazz and Orchestre Vévé just to name a few. As time past, he ended up creating his own orchestra to avoid the greedy producers who constantly took advantage of him.