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Congolese guitar great Papa Noel Sick and in need of our support
Dear friends,
Papa Noel, the great Congolese guitarist and composer, is seriously ill and needs our help.
It's a shamefully familiar story: a really important musician, a pioneer, an exemplar of his art, falls on hard times. His audiences move on to younger performers (who include some of his protégés). The record business - which
never paid him his due - loses interest in him. He can't find work. He gets sick. He dies penniless, mourned only by his family and a few old colleagues.
That last part hasn't happened to Noel, but it nearly did. In May, when he was rushed to a hospital in France and put under intensive care, we feared for his life. I'm immensely relieved to report that he survived the emergency. But he's still quite sick and he'll be out of commission for a while. Doctors have diagnosed acute tuberculosis. Evidently he's had a
low-grade TB infection for years, and it suddenly turned vicious. He was treated for it just in time, and if he continues to get good care and plenty of rest for a long while, he should be able to beat it down. But he's in bad shape now, his medical condition exacerbated by his worries about his family and his career.
Papa Noel made his first record in 1957, at the age of 16, and subsequently played with several of the greatest Congolese bands of the 20th century,including Rock-a-Mambo, Les Bantous and Orchestre African Jazz (in which he succeeded Dr. Nico as lead guitarist), and for twelve years he played alongside Franco in T.P.O.K. Jazz. Though he was never really a star, he had many admirers, particularly other guitarists, who regarded him as the equal of Nico and Franco. But when Franco died in 1989, Noel found himself out of work for the first time in his long career. Seeking engagements, he moved between Kinshasa, Brussels and Paris, but there weren't many jobs anywhere for an artist like him. His classic style was passé.
Things started to turn around for Noel three years ago when Sam Mangwana recorded Galo Negro with him and made him his concert bandleader. Many of us got to see and hear Noel up close for the first time when he toured North America with Sam. Last year he performed to high acclaim at the WOMAD Festival in England, recorded an album in London with the Cuban sonero Adan Pedroso, then made his first visit to Cuba, where he recorded with Papi Oviedo. Celebrating Papa Noel's 60th birthday on Christmas Day, 2000, Stern
's African Classics released Bel Ami, Noel's own selection of his best work in decades past. Noel finally received some of the international
recognition he had deserved for so long.
This year began beautifully when Noel accepted an invitation to join Kékélé, a new group of Congolese music veterans who proudly acknowledged him as their chief. With Kékélé he recorded Rumba Congo for Stern's in the classic style he had helped to define in the 1950s and '60s. Then he embarked on a tour of Europe with Adan Pedroso. But by that time his health was failing,
and he barely got through three shows before his manager insisted on taking him to a hospital, where he was immediately put on life-support.
It was touch-and-go for a while. His condition began to improve, then he gave us another scare in June. His doctors have him stabilized now under a heavy medication regimen, and they expect that he will recover. But it could take the rest of this year or longer. His three-month European tour had to be canceled, and he'll be unable to lead Kékélé at its BBC-televised concert debut in September.
Noel was counting on these appearances to put him on solid financial ground for the first time in over ten years. Not only does he have to defer that plan for an unsettling while, but now he's got medical bills to pay in addition to everything else. He's not a French citizen, so the French national health system subsidizes only some of his expenses. His wife has quit her job so that she can nurse him at home. His only income now is royalties on several records whose plaudits far exceed their sales. That's why I'm appealing to you for help.
First, please send Papa Noel a card or a letter. Let him know you wish him a speedy recovery. He'd only just begun to win recognition in Europe and America, and he fears that being unable to keep up the busy schedule he'd worked up to, he'll quickly be forgotten. Tell him that isn't so. It doesn't matter if you don't write French or Lingala; his wife will find someone to translate every word, and both of them will deeply appreciate your best wishes. The address is:
Nedule Monstwet
4 Square Rodin
91350 Grigny Centre
France
Then, if you can, send a check. Any amount will help. John Hollis of Yard High (U.K.) Ltd. has set up a fund for Papa Noel and turned over its
administration to Angélique Bossuet, an independent trustee recognized by the French government. You may contact Mlle. Bossuet in care of Fonds Papa Noel, SHILPA, Chateau de Juaye, 14250 Juaye Mondaye, France, but please don't send your contribution there. Every foreign check will be assessed a stiff fee by the French bank, and we'd prefer that all the money go to Noel, so John and Angélique have asked me to collect contributions in the U.S. When a sizable amount has accumulated, I'll send a check for the total and incur only one bank fee. Stern's Music and Yard High will cover all
administrative costs. One hundred percent of what you give will be applied to Papa Noel's medical bills and family support. Please send whatever you can to:
Papa Noel Fund
Stern's Music
71 Warren Street
New York, NY 10007-3501
You're welcome to contact me at ken@sternsmusic.com or call 212-964-5455. I
look forward to giving you good news about Papa Noel's health.
Thanks, and warm regards,
Ken Braun
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