Today, I received a CD that I had ordered on a whim without knowing anything about the band, and am quite blown away - by their music and by their story.
Staff Benda Bilili - Polio (in the background you can hear toads - listed in the credits as "guests")
Staff Benda Bilili are a group of Congolese street musicians. They live around the grounds of the zoo in Kinshasa, and play music which is rooted in rumba, with elements of old-school rhythm'n'blues and reggae. The core of the band consists of four senior singers/guitarist, who are all disabled (they suffered from poliomyelitis when they were young) and move around in spectacularly customized tricycles. They are backed by a younger rhythm section consisting of ex-sheges, abandoned street kids who were taken under the protection of the older members of the band. The soloist is an 18 year-old boy who plays astounding electric guitar-like solos on a one-stringed lute he designed and built himself out of a tin can.
Also see:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6612749.stm I can highly recommend buying their album "Très très fort" (published 2009), it comes with 11 tracks, 4 videos (only 3 of which can also be found on Youtube), great photos and a lot of information about the band and their story.
Best wishes,
Wolfgang.
EDIT: Oops, sorry... I must somehow have missed Diane's and Mona's posts about them in this very thread back in November. I still won't delete this post because they deserve this repeat mention, I feel.
