"Table Ronde" was a successful song written by

Joseph Kabasele Joseph is a common male given name, derived from the Hebrew Yosef (יוֹסֵף). "Joseph" is used, along with "Josef", mostly in English, French and partially German languages. This spelling is also found as a variant in the languages of the mo ...

in the popular

Congolese rumba Congolese rumba is a popular genre of dance music that originated in the Congo basin during the 1940s, deriving from Cuban son. The style gained popularity throughout Africa during the 1960s and 1970s. It is known as Lingala in Kenya, Uganda, ...

style and performed by his band L'African Jazz. It was written for the

Round Table Conference The three Round Table Conferences of 1930–1932 were a series of peace conferences organized by the British Government and Indian political personalities to discuss constitutional reforms in India. These started in November 1930 and ended in Dec ...

on Congolese independence held in

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

in 1960 which gave the song its name.

History

In December 1959 it was announced that a

round table The Round Table ( cy, y Ford Gron; kw, an Moos Krenn; br, an Daol Grenn; la, Mensa Rotunda) is King Arthur's famed table in the Arthurian legend, around which he and his knights congregate. As its name suggests, it has no head, implying that e ...

conference would be held in Brussels, Belgium in 1960 to discuss the future of the

Belgian Congo The Belgian Congo (french: Congo belge, ; nl, Belgisch-Congo) was a Belgian colony in Central Africa from 1908 until independence in 1960. The former colony adopted its present name, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), in 1964. Colo ...

's L'African Jazz and

OK Jazz OK Jazz, later renamed TPOK Jazz (short for ''Tout Puissant Orchestre Kinois de Jazz''), was a Congolese rumba band from the Democratic Republic of the Congo established in 1956 and fronted by Franco. The group disbanded in 1993, but reformed in ...

were both invited to perform at the event. Only two musicians from OK Jazz were able to attend, so they briefly performed with L'African Jazz. Kabasele took part in the conference, and collaborated with his musicians to produce some songs to commemorate the event. The most notable of these were "Table Ronde" and "

Indépendance Cha Cha "''Indépendance Cha Cha''" (French language, French; "Independence Cha-cha-cha (music), cha cha") was a song performed by Le Grand Kallé, Joseph Kabasele (best known by his stage name ''Le Grand Kallé'') from the group ''Le Grand Kallé et l' ...

". While "Indépendance Cha Cha" was celebratory, "Table Ronde" was more assertive for the cause of Congolese independence. It featured a guitar solo by

Nico Kasanda Naftiran Intertrade Company limited (NICO) is a Swiss-based subsidiary of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC). NICO is a general contractor for the oil and gas industry. NIOC buys the vast majority of Iran's gasoline imports. NICO is a key pl ...

. The song marked a new shift in Congolese popular music away from a care-free attitude towards

militant The English word ''militant'' is both an adjective and a noun, and it is generally used to mean vigorously active, combative and/or aggressive, especially in support of a cause, as in "militant reformers". It comes from the 15th century Latin " ...

politics. During the conference the group recorded their two compositions (along with a piece by OK Jazz vocalist Victor Longomba, "Vive Patrice Lumumba") in a

His Master's Voice His Master's Voice (HMV) was the name of a major British record label created in 1901 by The Gramophone Co. Ltd. The phrase was coined in the late 1890s from the title of a painting by English artist Francis Barraud, which depicted a Jack Russ ...

–affiliated studio. The record label was not interested in the recordings, so Kabasele showed the

master Master or masters may refer to: Ranks or titles * Ascended master, a term used in the Theosophical religious tradition to refer to spiritually enlightened beings who in past incarnations were ordinary humans *Grandmaster (chess), National Master ...

s to various other companies before reaching an agreement with Fonior.

Impact and legacy

Musician Gilles Sala later said that Table Ronde and the other songs released with it "sent a musical shock wave. It was pretty extraordinary, this spontaneous, natural music." ''Table Ronde'' is performed in one of the scenes of the 2000 film '' Lumumba'', directed by

Raoul Peck Raoul Peck (born 9 September 1953 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti) is a Haitian filmmaker, of both documentary and feature films. He is known for using historical, political, and personal characters to tackle and recount societal issues and historical ...

Citations

References

* *{{cite book, last = Stewart, first = Gary, title = Rumba on the River: A History of the Popular Music of the Two Congos, publisher = Verso, edition = illustrated, date = 2003, pages = 86, url = https://books.google.com/books?id=gKEHO1z413EC, isbn = 9781859843680 Le Grand Kallé songs 1960 songs Soukous songs Belgian Congo 1960 in the Republic of the Congo (Léopoldville)