Verckys

b. Kiamuangana Mateta, 1944, Kinshasa, Zaire. Saxophonist and businessman Verckys started playing music expertly in 1965, when he became a member of Franco’s group, Okay Jazz. He remaining to create his own music group, Orchèstre Vévé, in 1969. Through the 70s this group became among Zaire’s most effective documenting and live functions, but by mid-decade Verckys himself was onstage even more in name than personally, preferring to invest the majority of his period accumulating a network of night clubs, documenting studios and brands. By 1980 Verckys was intimidating Franco and Rochereau for control of the Zairean music business, and created and released albums by an array of celebrities including Empire Bakuba, Victoria Eleison and Langa Langa Celebrities. By the middle-80s his personal empire was as huge and important as Franco’s and Rochereau’s, along with his EVVI label becoming probably one of the most effective in central Africa.