Quatre Etoiles - 6 Tubes (1987)

Add Syran Mbenza to the personnel in the last post, et voila! Quatres Etoiles, the fantastic all-star band that proved to be the gold standard for soukous through the 1980s and early 1990s. Besides the other Four Stars, Bopol, Wuta Mayi and Nyboma, this album has awesome lead guitar from Dally Kimoko on two Nyboma-penned cuts, "Omba" and "Samba."

While Quatre Etoiles recorded in the increasingly technology-drenched Parisian environment, their soukous retained the feel of classic Congolese rumba. How could it be otherwise, since these grand veterans had diverse, influential participation in many of Congo's seminal bands?

Two great sources for information on Quatre Etoiles and many other bands are Frank Bessem's Musiques d'Afriques and Gary Stewart's web version of his excellent Rumba on the River. Global Groove has a good copy of Quatre Etoiles' 1985 recording, Dance, so I will not need to post mine.

My copy of this record comes from a Zimbabwe pressing, and the album sleeve is pretty basic. I found the original cover on the net and posted both of them, for your amusement. Luckily the sound quality is nearly perfect for this very fine album.

Enjoy!