Post by jakaswanga on Nov 22, 2017 19:50:00 GMT 3
AGAWO (PATR0BAS) 'PAPA': 1948-2017
What can I say? Only that the death of the Guru of Linguistics, Okoth Okombo, didn't wrench my heart the way Agawo's death has. Here is something I said earlier about Agawo, and his place in my life
Prelude: BEYOND A LUO DOMESTIC, THE AGAWO PAPA LESSON
As the anniversaries of the demise of famous Congolese musicians approach, I always have a date with one, Agawo Patrobas. Agawo Patty -popularly known as Papa--- is a Luoland Rhumbaland legend. He is an announcer, news-reader and disc-spinner at Royal Media's Luo national station, Ramogi Radio.
Ramogi Radio has as slogan KAR CHUNY JALUO! (the heartbeat of the Luo). There are competitors in this -OD WADU, MA TO MARWA, GIRI GIRI, EARTH SHAKER, which are the slogans of Mayienga, Radio Nam Loluwe, and another one known as Victoria, not necessarily respectively.
As the likes of Benga Maestro Okatch Biggy and ahangla supremos Odongo Mayaka and the brothers Nyadundo fashioned new beats and wrenched Luoland from addiction to Lingala soukous and Ok-Jazz-Afrisa super hitz, Agawo stuck to Lingala especially of the old school! I LOVE IT, he kept on shouting as he, unapologetically, remained the last addict to names like Sam Mangwana, Lokasa ya Dinero, Joe Mpiana, Olomide, not to mention bombasts like Verkys of Veve, Mombasa Vata of Lipua, or Lita Bembo of Stukadors.
And when Madilu the System Bialu croons ambrosaic stuff like Ophelia and Si je savais Ca, Papa foams.
As the VOK became a citadel of mediocrity and commercial stations arose, Agawo jumped ship and was recruited to Royal Media. He carried with him his love for great Congolese and Tanzanian music, and luckily his new bosses were perceptive enough to give him room for indulgence. It is a passion which would infect hundred thousands of listeners in the beginning, and as Ramogi radio picked on, hundreds of thousands would jump to millions. These days on Sundays as the noon begins, the Agawo Patrobas rhumba show is a national treasure raking in millions of listeners who love Lingala, especially the Old-School. His Luo vernacular audience is then an insignificant minority.
He recently did a four-part sixteen hour instalment to commemorate the 20th anniversary of (Luambo Makiadi) Franco's death, and Ramogi Radio achieved pre-eminence far and beyond in the hearts of rhumba lovers.
We learnt the second man to join Franco, somewhere in the late 50s, even before his brother Bavon of Maseke ya Meme, was a young shy talent called Lutumba Simarro. This fellow would go on to become Le Poete extraordinaire. The way the thin tall man was razing his guitar to attract passers-by to his mother's desperate food kiosk, ripped his sensitive heart, and the rough poetical gem in his heart surfaced. TP-OK jazz would be the workshop within which the shaping and polishing would occur, the light and heavy births be witnessed. --Mabele, Ebale ya Zaire, Mbongo, Testament ya Bowule, Maandola, Maya, Radio Trottoir.
An exacting and severe man, meaning a perfectionist in art, Lutumba would study the voices of singers and write songs that excelled them. This is the trick behind the terrifyingly perfect renditions of Youlou Mabiala in Radio Trottoir, or Sam Mangwana in anything simarro wrote. Lassa Carlito, hired specically to sing Maya, was soon driven to seek solace in gospel by the mad depths of the song.
Simarro Massiya would never leave OK Jazz, unlike restless pigeons like Sam Mangwana, he would stay a one-band man, even past Franco's death. It is one of the most intense artistic relations seen anywhere.
So deep did some of Simarro's songs dig in the emotional well of his land, the public declared him a monument. His peers call him Le Poete, the people call him Le Monumente National!
Here is an acoustic version of the legendary Testament, delivered by a delicately young Malage de Lugendo.
These things, Agawo Patrobas tells on Ramogi radio, the beating heart of a Luo, with tears in his voice. He does not do
politics, he reads news with the dead-pan voice of a liturgy ritualist, and then he bursts open on Sundays when his rhumba show goes on. Agawo seeks our men/women who drive themselves to perfection in their professions. There are no such in politics. And thus his undisguisable disdain for the lot. Rotten scum.
Even Afrodite the daughter of Zeus whose motionful hips are said to intoxicate men to fuming passion, wouldn't yank me off Agao's renditions; nor would a promised date with Helen of Troy, whose kiss is said to lift men to the clouds of high, tempt me to switch off Papa on Sundays.
And this Sunday as in the past weeks, I am with Agawo Papa as I drum away on the keypads, reporting for Jukwaa as a mental correspondent of the stale ruling class of Kenya. Unlike Agawo, I am like a sewer worm
whose fate is to enjoy tunneling through sh!t! --with passion! 
U copy!?
Bas, let us ride! As my hero Papa would proclaim I LOVE IT!
CONTINUED.
MIGUNA MIGUNA TAKES ON KIDERO, RAWNo more Sat and Sun dates with Papa, no, no more.
Veteran broadcaster Agawo Patrobas is dead. The former Ramogi FM broadcaster passed on at Nairobi hospital, aged 69, while undergoing treatment after a short illness.
Patrobas, who joined Royal Media Services from Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC), was the host of Rumba Ramogi show that used to air weekends in the afternoon until he sacked late last year.
At KBC radio, Patrobas and Elizabeth Omollo held fort with the English Service where they anchored the one o’clock news in addition to serving as continuity announcers.
His other contemporaries included Willy Mwangi, Anunda Sakwa, the late Nzau Kalulu, Ben Oluoch Okelo, Elizabeth Obege, Ali Salim Manga, Mohamed Juma Njuguna and the late Jacob William Maunda.
Patrobas, who joined Royal Media Services from Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC), was the host of Rumba Ramogi show that used to air weekends in the afternoon until he sacked late last year.
At KBC radio, Patrobas and Elizabeth Omollo held fort with the English Service where they anchored the one o’clock news in addition to serving as continuity announcers.
His other contemporaries included Willy Mwangi, Anunda Sakwa, the late Nzau Kalulu, Ben Oluoch Okelo, Elizabeth Obege, Ali Salim Manga, Mohamed Juma Njuguna and the late Jacob William Maunda.
What can I say? Only that the death of the Guru of Linguistics, Okoth Okombo, didn't wrench my heart the way Agawo's death has. Here is something I said earlier about Agawo, and his place in my life
As the anniversaries of the demise of famous Congolese musicians approach, I always have a date with one, Agawo Patrobas. Agawo Patty -popularly known as Papa--- is a Luoland Rhumbaland legend. He is an announcer, news-reader and disc-spinner at Royal Media's Luo national station, Ramogi Radio.
Ramogi Radio has as slogan KAR CHUNY JALUO! (the heartbeat of the Luo). There are competitors in this -OD WADU, MA TO MARWA, GIRI GIRI, EARTH SHAKER, which are the slogans of Mayienga, Radio Nam Loluwe, and another one known as Victoria, not necessarily respectively.
As the likes of Benga Maestro Okatch Biggy and ahangla supremos Odongo Mayaka and the brothers Nyadundo fashioned new beats and wrenched Luoland from addiction to Lingala soukous and Ok-Jazz-Afrisa super hitz, Agawo stuck to Lingala especially of the old school! I LOVE IT, he kept on shouting as he, unapologetically, remained the last addict to names like Sam Mangwana, Lokasa ya Dinero, Joe Mpiana, Olomide, not to mention bombasts like Verkys of Veve, Mombasa Vata of Lipua, or Lita Bembo of Stukadors.
And when Madilu the System Bialu croons ambrosaic stuff like Ophelia and Si je savais Ca, Papa foams.
As the VOK became a citadel of mediocrity and commercial stations arose, Agawo jumped ship and was recruited to Royal Media. He carried with him his love for great Congolese and Tanzanian music, and luckily his new bosses were perceptive enough to give him room for indulgence. It is a passion which would infect hundred thousands of listeners in the beginning, and as Ramogi radio picked on, hundreds of thousands would jump to millions. These days on Sundays as the noon begins, the Agawo Patrobas rhumba show is a national treasure raking in millions of listeners who love Lingala, especially the Old-School. His Luo vernacular audience is then an insignificant minority.
He recently did a four-part sixteen hour instalment to commemorate the 20th anniversary of (Luambo Makiadi) Franco's death, and Ramogi Radio achieved pre-eminence far and beyond in the hearts of rhumba lovers.
We learnt the second man to join Franco, somewhere in the late 50s, even before his brother Bavon of Maseke ya Meme, was a young shy talent called Lutumba Simarro. This fellow would go on to become Le Poete extraordinaire. The way the thin tall man was razing his guitar to attract passers-by to his mother's desperate food kiosk, ripped his sensitive heart, and the rough poetical gem in his heart surfaced. TP-OK jazz would be the workshop within which the shaping and polishing would occur, the light and heavy births be witnessed. --Mabele, Ebale ya Zaire, Mbongo, Testament ya Bowule, Maandola, Maya, Radio Trottoir.
An exacting and severe man, meaning a perfectionist in art, Lutumba would study the voices of singers and write songs that excelled them. This is the trick behind the terrifyingly perfect renditions of Youlou Mabiala in Radio Trottoir, or Sam Mangwana in anything simarro wrote. Lassa Carlito, hired specically to sing Maya, was soon driven to seek solace in gospel by the mad depths of the song.
Simarro Massiya would never leave OK Jazz, unlike restless pigeons like Sam Mangwana, he would stay a one-band man, even past Franco's death. It is one of the most intense artistic relations seen anywhere.
So deep did some of Simarro's songs dig in the emotional well of his land, the public declared him a monument. His peers call him Le Poete, the people call him Le Monumente National!
Here is an acoustic version of the legendary Testament, delivered by a delicately young Malage de Lugendo.
These things, Agawo Patrobas tells on Ramogi radio, the beating heart of a Luo, with tears in his voice. He does not do
politics, he reads news with the dead-pan voice of a liturgy ritualist, and then he bursts open on Sundays when his rhumba show goes on. Agawo seeks our men/women who drive themselves to perfection in their professions. There are no such in politics. And thus his undisguisable disdain for the lot. Rotten scum.Even Afrodite the daughter of Zeus whose motionful hips are said to intoxicate men to fuming passion, wouldn't yank me off Agao's renditions; nor would a promised date with Helen of Troy, whose kiss is said to lift men to the clouds of high, tempt me to switch off Papa on Sundays.
And this Sunday as in the past weeks, I am with Agawo Papa as I drum away on the keypads, reporting for Jukwaa as a mental correspondent of the stale ruling class of Kenya. Unlike Agawo, I am like a sewer worm
whose fate is to enjoy tunneling through sh!t! --with passion! 
U copy!?
Bas, let us ride! As my hero Papa would proclaim I LOVE IT!
CONTINUED.
MIGUNA MIGUNA TAKES ON KIDERO, RAW
