RIKKI ILILONGA - Zambia

ZAMBIA MUSIC PARLOUR | ZMPL 10 | 1975

All Instruments & Vocals: Rikki Ililonga

Recorded at Sapra Studio (Nairobi, Kenya)
Sound Engineer: Detef Degener
Produced by Rikki Ililonga
Photography: George Kaemba
Art & Graphics: A+S Graphics
Cover Design: Choko M’hango
Published by Sepiso Record
Equipment: Peter Girado (Nairobi, Kenya)
Manufactured & Distributed by Music Parlour Limited

Tracklisting:
A1. The Hole
A2. Shebeen Queen
A3. Zambia
A4. Hot Fingers
A5. Musamuseke
B1. The Nature Of Man
B2. Sansa Kuwa
B3. Stop Dreaming Mr. D.
B4. The Queen Blues
B5. Se-Keel-Me-Kweek

Liner Notes:

Rikki Ililonga started playing the guitar at the age of 18. Has played with almost every band in Zambia. Travelled extesively in Africa and abroad in search of musical knowledge. Founder member of Musi-O-Tunya who are know based in Nairobi – Kenya. In this, his first album, Rikki composed and arranged all the numbers. He switches from electric guitar to acoustic and slide guitars, bass, drums, congas and harmonicas with ease. He played all the instruments and does all the vocals himself. If you want to listen to African sound with a difference, this is the one. The sound of Rikki Ililonga of Zambia. – Choko M’hango

I would like to thank the following people for giving me encouragement and confidence thru’out the years of my musical career. Thanks to Ernest Mando for helping me see thru mice’elf. To Mannasseh Phiri and Charles Mando for tolerating my filthy habits and bad manners. And loving thanks to Sandi, who lived through it all to become my best friend, lover and wife – May the spirits bless her fanny. My special thanks to Brother Njenga and Charlie Sekano for blowing their horns along. Not to forget Bonnie Wanda, George Monte and Jimi Mawi. Lastly, I’d like to thanks George Kaemba to whom this ambum is dedicated with love and respect, for living thru’ the noise and joysticks without complaining. And thanks to U, whoever U’re, for reading this B.S. – Rikki

iTunes Music:

There’s a little more polish to this stuff (and a lot of acoustic guitar-based singer/songwriter stuff), as opposed to the wildass in-studio jams of the Musi-O-Tunya album, but Ililonga doesn’t restrain himself that much — he takes one of his scorching guitar solos through the entirety of “Sansa Kuwa,” and the funk groove of “The Hole” is unstoppable. Ililonga’s English-language lyrics are frequently dark, dealing with depression and social problems in Zambia, as opposed to the party anthems many other African groups were recording at the time, and his voice is weirdly compelling, more reminiscent of Damo Suzuki than peers like Fela or Sir Victor Uwaifo.