"Georges Mateta Kiamuangana, a sax player with OK Jazz since 1963, took the name [Verckys] because it sounded like Curtis, as in King Curtis, [and] went on to become an extraordinarily rich and influential figure in the DRC - a bandleader, prolific hitmaker and impresario to stand alongside Franco and Rochereau, also the owner of a recording studio and a highly succesful record label. A powerful modernising influence, he was responsible for recording a whole generation of new talent - Zaiko Langa Langa, Koffi Olomide and Papa Wemba included ... Here he is again, resident in Brussels, Verckys and the Orchestre Vévé are touring Europe in 2015. To go with his reappearance, here's a scholarly and groovy anthology of the Orchestre at its peak, playing (...) a great breadth of styles, with the emphasis on well-muscled instrumentals as a platform for sax and brass excursions. His rumba is what has lasted best, though current appetites will seize on the funk and so-calledpsychedelicstuff".
