Dr. Nico

b. Nicholas Kasanda Wa Mikalay, 1939, Luluaborg, Zaire, d. 1985, Kinshasa, Zaire. An associate of Le Grande Kalle’s African Jazz in the first 60s, professional guitarist and composer Nico continued to be always a creator member, with Rochereau, of African Fiesta, one of the most well-known and important Zairean bands from the middle and past due 60s. He was created right into a musical family members, but later went to the Leopold II Institute, graduating being a specialized instructor in 1957. Regardless of the certification, he focused on music after that, motivated by his accordion-playing dad and guitarist sibling (Mwamba Dechaud). Kasanda shortly became a virtuoso guitarist himself, resulting in his induction into African Jazz. His popularity among Congolese guitarists was second to non-e, and during African Jazz’s functionality on the 1960 Zairean self-reliance celebrations he was presented with his nickname, Dr. Nico. After signing up for African Fiesta in 1963 he preserved his reputation and present for invention, documenting a huge selection of singles, a lot of which were regional and pan-African strikes. Then retired through the music picture in the first 70s, infuriated from the collapse of African Fiesta’s Belgian record business, feeling economically cheated. He performed only a small number of displays over many calm years before coming back in 1983 with a fresh recording agreement for Togo’s Africa New Sound label. Many albums were documented, generally alongside his sibling and with the support of Les Redoubtables De Abeti. His 1st American albums adopted for the African Music Gallery in Washington. Nevertheless, this brief amount of extreme activity was finished by his unexpected death (suspected to become alcohol-related) in 1985. His impact on African acoustic guitar playing, recognized by many experts as the utmost pivotal of most such improvements, lives on.