In Memoriam : Bavon Luambo Siongo

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@Abba
@Lionheart
@Delsa
@TrumanCapote

Bavon Luambo Siongo AKA Bavon Marie Marie was the younger brother of “The Colossus of Congo” , “Le Grand Maitre” Franco Luambo Luanzo Makiadi of TPOK Jazz.
He was born: on 27 May 1944 in Kinshasa DRC and died on 5 August 1970 at the age of 26 years.

In his short life, he became, at least in Kinshasa, a well-known guitar player and band leader in the second half of the 1960s.
Often compared with Franco, his way of guitar playing sounded very much like his older brother, but he played in a different style , slightly more funky and up-tempo.
He was popular and an idol among a younger public compared to his brother.
His flamboyant way of life, and his excessive skin bleaching was part of his life style.

Bavon Marie Marie had played in a few bands, among them Cubana Jazz together with singer Bumba Massa and Orchestre Jamel, before he joined Le Negro Success where he became the lead guitarist.

“Maseke Ya Meme” - Bavon Marie Marie & Negro Success.
Vocals : Youlou Mabiala and Franco Luambo Luanzo Makiadi.
:sparkles:

:sparkles:

Negro Success had been formed in 1960 by Vicky Longomba , himself a former member of Franco’s OK Jazz. Other members were Leon Bholen Bombolo and singer Hubert Djeskin , both from OK Jazz , Sax player Andre Menga , Rhythm guitarist Jean Dinos , singer Gaspard “Gaspy” Luwowo , bassist Alphonse 'Le Brun" Epayo and drummer Sammy Kiadaka.

After Vicky Longomba made up with Franco and went back to OK Jazz , Leon Bholen became the leader of Negro Success and together with Bavon Marie Marie they were idols of the late 1960s.

Over the years , besides Bavon Marie Marie , saxophonist Empompo Loway , vocalist Zozo Amba and second saxophonist Moro Maurice had joined the band in !964.

At the end of the 1960’s , Tshimanga Kalala Assosa , who would later move on to Tanzania to join L’Ochestre Maquis Original and a young Canta Danos Nyboma Muandido were also part of Negro Success for a short period until the untimely death of Bavon Marie Marie on 5 August 1970 in a tragic car accident .

It started with a dispute with Franco whom Bavon accused of having slept with his girlfriend , Marie-José Simplicie AKA Lucy.

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Bavon Marie Marie , Marie-José Simplicie and Franco Luambo Makiadi.

During the dispute, Lucy left by taxi and Bavon pursued the taxi with his car and stopped them , took Lucy in his car and drove away at high speed.
In the process of overlooking a parked Army truck on the roadside , Bavon died immediately , and Lucy lost both her legs.
There were also allegations of Alcohol Abuse and Witchcraft .

Immediately , Franco was filled with so much grief with the loss of his brother that he even retired temporarily from music.
Franco would sing a few years later about his grief in the song “Kinsiona” .

“Kinsiona” - Franco Luambo Lwanzo Makiadi & TPOK Jazz.

R.I.P. Bavon Luambo Siongo +++ :sob: :sob: :pray: :sparkles:

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Wow. Thanks man. I know the first song, Maseke ya meme (it’s a gem; always loved the nostalgic saxophone of Tp OK jazz) from ancient memories of mornings when KBC radio salaam programmes were a novelty…
Till now, I never knew what the song was called, or who had sung it. First time I’m coming across the name Bavon Luambo Siongo, (dead too soon!) but I know Bumba Massa, and The Grande Master of course–everyone knows Franco.

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A Musically Gifted Family …
Pity how a Woman caused so much grief …!! :smiling_face_with_tear:

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…And Adam grumbled, “The woman you gave me gave me the fruit, and I ate…”
(Paraphrased from somewhere in Genesis, of The Bible):joy:, and the witchcraft lives on

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C’est La Vie … :grin: :sparkles:

“Lucie Tozongana” - Bavon Marie Marie

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He seemed to have wanted this Marie girl with something akin to madness, from the fiery Hollywood-style scene of his motor chase after the querrel with Franco, before the accident. Yaani he chased them like thieves, and dramatically retrieved her back to himself. Now that’s some passionate dude (A.K.A condemned simp in KT)!
She seems to have been part of him in double doses. I wonder whether she influenced the nickname Bavon Marie Marie. C’est la vie, indeed.
ION, years later, Lokassa ya Mbongo sang a song called Marie José, her exact name. No idea if it has anything to do with Marie José Simplicie, and I couldn’t get its English lyrics. I hope someday someone will translate the French. No harm in enjoying it though.

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Nice history

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Can you blame the toy that brothers fight for?

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You, you have never been madly in love, there’s nothing as intoxicating , achana na drugs. Its not simping its the rythmn of life. Its only sad for me that I only had this exhilarating experience once in my life in my late teens. What I wouldnt give to be crazy about someone like that again.

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WOMAN - The Universal Scapegoat

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it’s crazy that he was so bleached that the 60s black and white cameras could pick up on it! :green_emoji: :green_emoji:

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Gandhi (2022_01_12 09_34_18 UTC)
Gandhi (2022_01_12 09_34_18 UTC)780×488 36.2 KB

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Being madly in love isn’t much different from being mad or high on some drug. It leads you to suspend reason, and that’s dangerous. See Bavo’s story? He got careless just after getting her back, that’s how he ran smack into the army truck. He should otherwise never have been on the road driving in that blinding rage. I would expect they were arguing bitterly while he drove. Hasira ni hasara–kasirika barabarani na utafanya makosa.
As for women being eternal scapegoats, si kweli. Men know that nothing messes up a man’s life more than lust for a woman, esp. one who gives him a hard time. So they’ve caused many a man’s downfall. I’m sure Atony completely lost it when he first saw Cleopatra, anx he thought it was love. Let me fish around for the eyewitness account, and you tell me that isn’t madness and witchcraft, or something magically sweet, but just as sinister.

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Ok, tumesoma ya Bavon Marie Marie. Tragic. @rexxsimba ,allow me to put this here for Truwoman to understand. Hekaya ya Antony and Cleopatra ndio hii, vile iliandikwa na mtu aliitwa Plutarch, a Greek historian:

Cleopatra was a seductive woman and she used her talents to maintain and expand her power. Her first conquest was Julius Caesar in 48 BC. He was 52, she was 22. Their relationship produced a son and was ended only by Caesar’s assassination.

Her initial response to Antony’s summons was to delay her journey - possibly to send the message to the Roman leader that as a queen in her own right, she was not at his beck and call. Eventually surrendering to the inevitable, Cleopatra sailed from Egypt to the city of Tarsus. As she made the final leg of her journey up the river Cydnus she traveled in a magnificent barge filled with flowers and scented with exotic perfumes while she reclined on deck surrounded by her servants and trappings of gold. Antony enjoyed women, and once he saw her, he fell under her spell.

Here, Plutarch is quoted, directly:

"She had faith in her own attractions, which, having formerly recommended her to Caesar and the young Pompey, she did not doubt might prove yet more successful with Antony. Their acquaintance was with her when a girl, young, and ignorant of the world, but she was to meet Antony in the time of life when women’s beauty is most splendid, and their intellects are in full maturity. She made great preparations for her journey, of money, gifts, and ornaments of value, such as so wealthy a kingdom might afford, but she brought with her her surest hopes in her own magic arts and charms.
…she came sailing up the river Cydnus in a barge with gilded stern and outspread sails of purple, while oars of silver beat time to the music of flutes and fifes and harps. She herself lay all along, under a canopy of cloth of gold, dressed as Venus in a picture, and beautiful young boys, like painted Cupids, stood on each side to fan her. Her maids were dressed like Sea Nymphs and Graces, some steering at the rudder, some working at the ropes.
…perfumes diffused themselves from the vessel to the shore, which was covered with multitudes, part following the galley up the river on either bank, part running out of the city to see the sight. The market place was quite emptied, and Antony at last was left alone sitting upon the tribunal; while the word went .through all the multitude, that Venus was come to feast with Bacchus for the common good of Asia.

On her arrival, Antony sent to invite her to supper. She thought it fitter he should come to her; so, willing to show his good humor and courtesy, he complied, and went. He found the preparations to receive him magnificent beyond expression, but nothing so admirable as the great number of lights; for on a sudden there was let down altogether so great a number of branches with lights in them so ingeniously disposed, some in squares, and some in circles, that the whole thing was a spectacle that has seldom been equaled for beauty.

The next day, Antony invited her to supper, and was very desirous to outdo her as well in magnificence as contrivance; but he found he was altogether beaten in both, and was so well convinced of it, that he was himself the first to jest and mock at his poverty of wit, and his rustic awkwardness. She, perceiving that his raillery was broad and gross, and savored more of the soldier than the courtier, rejoined in the same taste, and fell into it at once, without any sort of reluctance or reserve.

For her actual beauty, it is said, was not in itself so remarkable that none could be compared with her, or that no one could see her without being struck by it, but the contact of her presence, if you lived with her, was irresistible; the attraction of her person, joining with the charm of her conversation, and the character that attended all she said or did, was something bewitching. It was a pleasure merely to hear the sound of her voice, with which, like an instrument of many strings, she could pass from one language to another; so that there were few of the barbarian nations that she answered by an interpreter.

Antony was so captivated by her, that while Fulvia his wife maintained his quarrels in Rome against Caesar by actual force of arms, and the Parthian troops…were assembled in Mesopotamia, and ready to enter Syria, he could yet suffer himself to be carried away by her to Alexandria, there to keep holiday, like a boy, in play and diversion, squandering and fooling away in enjoyment that most costly, as Antiphon says, of all valuables, time."

(Excerpt copied from www.eyewitnesstohistory.com)

Ogopa wanawake

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Its not eternal scapegoats its UNIVERSAL scapegoats.

The funny thing is that when I was in that crazy in love stage I never argued with the object of my affection because I was tongue tied when I was with him, he also wasnt the talkative type, he was kakuyu and instisted that I should know Kikuyu and if you can believe it , he gave me cassetes of mugithi to help me learn and I did. I still remember those mugithi songs which were love songs, one was where the man was singing how he’s ready to work for 7 years to get the object of his desire. Miaka mugwanja diregete kweka dugata kwanyu. Music and love .He would also eat burnt and oversalted food prepared by me without a word. Nowadays I cant be bothered to even greet a kikuyu man Im dating in Kikuyu.

So called lust is also something cosmic according to the greek? Cupid fires away at your heart. Dont call it simping, its something beyond human understanding. I remember the first day I laid eyes on that man I was on a balcony and its like something had struck me. He was hot. But I’d seen hot men before and never felt anything beyond a fleeting feeling. I believe its spiritual and cosmic.

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Correction noted, universal scapegoats. Only, women aren’t really scapegoats–maybe a few, but most are conniving manipulators. It’s deliberate witchery as you can see in the ancient love story here. This is a theme that runs through romance music from across the globe. Love, illness of the “heart”(meaning the mind), magic and witchcraft, seem meshed together like a multi-fibre braided binding rope. Bavon suffered for failing to unravel its various strands, because when you take the magic apart it loses its power and hold. You’ve been a victim because you were too young and naive to understand the emotion. You were being marinated, ati mugithi lyrics, haha.
Antony was an emperor and experienced soldier, and we are told he “enjoyed women”, (much as you’d enjoy ravishing a good dish), but he hadn’t reckoned with the magic that could be wrought in his heart by the sight of Cleopatra lying on the deck of her barge, surrounded by her stately maidens like a goddess, aided by music, cleverly placed lights, her manner and skill with tone and language. It was an artistic assemble of tricks meant to eventually cause him to foolishly agree to be carried away to lie eating dates and drinking wine, and gazing at sunsets on the sands of Egypt like a boy, and to lose his empire. I’m sure he was stupefied at that dinner, yet he was supposed to be the conquering monarch. All the while, she was slowly emasculating him and usurping his power, and the roles were reversed.
Aftertall, he was nothing in Egypt other than the visiting lover of the queen. No one had to take instructions from him, si kwake, hehe.
It’s akin to a man who leaves his home to go live with a mistress in her house, and he calls it love.
All these kinds of manipulations are the reward the lover receives. They are the lessons of life, my dear. Lessons.

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Zeus sent Pandora to humanity as a punishment for Prometheus stealing fire from the gods. According to the myth, men previously enjoyed fellowship with the gods and lived lives free from disease, pain or labor. But once the woman opened her box, all matters of evil leaked into the world.

In the Garden of Eden, evil stayed at bay until Satan found access to Eve.Some theologians posit that if Adam had owned up instead of making Eve a scapegoat God was going to forgive them but then its Eve who takes all the blame. Yet God in His great sense of humor also decreed that a man would have no hand in the redemption of men. It was the seed of the woman who would crash the serpent’s head. Not the man’s seed.

How’s that for a scapegoat…

Reread what I wrote. He gave me Kikuyu songs so that I could learn to speak Kakuyu ,I speak fluent Meru but I had a hard time comprehending Kakuyu. I never learnt but atleast I could understand the Mugithi lyrics and more or less can understand it now. No marinating. We never had sex for the 2 years we were together. Yet I often visited him in his house. He respected my wishes not to engage in relations while I was still ion school. Ofcourse he was having it with other women . No problem as long as he kept it out of my sight.

I wasnt naive. I fell in love with him at first sight and I left another relationship to be with him because I was in love with him. When he asked me to quit school to join him as his wife to the states on a green card I said No. So you see I was still very clear about what I wanted and I was willing to lose him for my own benefit. I was in love not stupid. I didnt risk getting pregno and I didnt leave my education. I put myself first as I always have . He eventually died anyway so …

You may not acknowledge the power of love but the wisest man who ever did , DID, being jaded doesnt change the fact that love is a force that has great power , a power equaled to death. I mean if God could love to the extent of sacrificing His Only Begotten Son, what of mere mortals. I read a book of love letters from great men, my goodness, love is powerful.

Song of Songs 8:6-7 New Living Translation (NLT)For love is as strong as death, its jealousy as enduring as the grave. Love flashes like fire, the brightest kind of flame. Many waters cannot quench love, nor can rivers drown it. If a man tried to buy love with all his wealth, his offer would be utterly scorned.

I love these two songs in equal measure…Optimism with realism

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Hehe, optimism with realism. I’ve read all this–including your own story, maybe for the 7th time. I’ve also listened to both Natalie Cole and Ella Fitzgerald, but there are no answers in those songs, mainly just 2 sets of plays with words, with instrumentation. Neither your story, nor Natalie and Ella’s songs bring out the hidden explosive beast called love, the giddy whirlwind of emotions that would send a man hurtling through Africa’s bumpy roads to take back by force a woman like Mary Jose from his bro Franco, as Bavon Marie Marie did. He couldn’t have reasoned to search her eyes to read her truth, as Natalie Cole would have us think, or buy her love, as Ella Fitzgerald expects men to on the street, (she hints they only buy sex, and follow the lady up a short flight of stairs, typical), or love with reason as you claim to have done.
Love is not reason, love has no reason, and it can’t be explained. That’s why I said it loses it’s magical power when it’s dissected on order to understand it, then we are left with pieces of its truth, because we can’t. Who could understand Bavon’s obsession with Marie? She had already left him, but he couldn’t see thart. Who could understand Mark Antony’s capture by Cleopatra?I’m sure there were more fascinating and well read and shapelier women in the vast Roman empire, but she kept him like a tethered dog in Alexandria while his country disintegrated.
You might be right, it’s cosmic, but not necessarily benevolent or selfless.
That’s why singers are still composing songs about it in villages and cities all over earth, even now.

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@Lionheart
@TrumanCapote

And “et all” following all this revealing missive and deluge of very intimate disclosure and personal experience which I am still “digesting” and gleaning vast amounts of “intelligence” from …

It is just that I just got up from a very strenuous Night Shift and will soon respond in kind as soon as I organize my mind ( …and a few “domestics”. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:… )

Stay tuned …!!:stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye::hotsprings:

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Benevolence hasnt gotten anyone very far mon cherie. Life or should I say love, is alot more nuanced than that .Are you looking for answers? Do you have answers about death? Where do you then expect to get answers about love then? And back when Ella FitzGerald crooned the S word wasnt used as liberally as it is now. Even transactional sex at its basest, was a type of love, a love that was on sale. Even sex workers will ask you if you are looking for a date, they wont ask you if you want sex. Have you listened to the music from that era from the 50s and 60s? The Doo Wop era? The music was really demure and it reaches the crevices of my soul nothing modern can.

You are a man, you should understand Bavon Marie better than I do. The relationship between men and women in a patriachal society is one of ownership. Not love.Not obsession. Not whirlwind of emotions. Its ownership. That’s why no matter how ugly a man’s wife is , if he even suspects you of messing around with her, it’ll get ugly. Men are territorial and this is why women who are trying to leave men are getting burnt to death. It is also why 80% of all murders are men killing other men . Its so rampant that nobody will report it. Its the 20% of killings that involve women and children you hear of .

The competition then gets worse because Makiadi was a bigger muscian than Bavon. He didnt have much control over that but then relinquish his woman as well? How was he going to walk among men? Huh? Men killl each other in bars over barmaids and women they dont know from a bar of soap. Do you think its about the woman? It never is ! But women being the universal scapegoat will always be blamed for this agression and competition men have towards and with each other , when women are just pawns, for the battle of dominance of one man over the other. James Brown had it down pat if you ask me.

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