Franco & Le TPOK Jazz – “Francophonic: a Retrospective Vol. 1 1953-1980″ – [Sterns Music]

Just picking about on the internet finds an incredible amount on Franco (born Francois Luambo Luanzo Makiadi) and TPOK Jazz (Tout Pouissant – or All Powerful – OK Jazz) and the incredible discography that this first volume of work only hints at.

In a nutshell – this is the premiere Congolese rumba combo, lead by Franco (dubbed the “Sorcerer of the Guitar”) over the course of four decades and nearly two-thousand songs – of which twenty-eight are presented here, chronologically. Despite the age of some of the recordings, the release sounds fantastic and over the course of the release continue to improve.

For those of you who delve into jazz and world music, this release my well be a regular feature on your shows – for everybody else, you may want to keep to the shorter songs on disc one. There can be no best songs, when they area all so good. I’m looking forward to the further volumes of Francophonic…