JO TONGO was born and raised in DOUALA (CAMEROON),West AFRICA. His
mother has a lot of sons and daughters but Jo is the elder brother. The father
is a notary and also a good violin and upstraight bass player.JO was surrounded
with music since his mother belly cause his grand grand father, the Reverand Alfred
TONGO DIBOUNDOU use to play organ in the church he was preaching. At the age
of 13 , JO TONGO was granted with an acoustic guitar by one of his uncles and
starded studying how to play by himself. He found his way by using a guitar book
since he was abble to read and write music. Matter of fact, JO learned
elemantary music theory at the high school, and was always the best on this
matter. At the age of 15, he joined the high school band as guitarist and two
years after became the band leader. That happened in YAOUNDE, the
capital. At the same time, JO set up his first band in DOUALA with his young
friends, the ROCK’N CHACH, mixing up african, caribbean and american
soul music and starded writing his own compositions, sounding different from the
other bands. JO recorded these musics at the cameroonian radios both in DOUALA
and YAOUNDE. There was no recording studio in CAMEROON those days. JO gained his
elder misicians consideration and starded playing with them. Since he became
without doubt the best guitar player of his country. To prevent him from winning
the bands competition organised by the head of state of the moment, JO TONGO was
sent to Paris by his father. The latter did not want his son to become a
professional musician. In Paris, JO studied pharmacy for two years, but
was obliged to stop cause of his father’s problems with the cameroonian
government. At the same time, Jo was learning classic piano. He obtained the
first degree of piano of Paris national superior academy of music. Then he
changed for accountancy for two years. Jo worked three years as an accountant,
then he decided to become a professional musician. JO TONGO starded playing with
the best musicians in Paris, like Manu DIBANGO, Françis BEBEY, Joseph
KABASSELE, Franklyn BOKAKA. He was involved in the main recording sessions
in studio with african and european artists. In 1966, Gerard AKUESON gave
JO opportunity to make his first record. JO played what we could call
world-music today. From his second record, JO turned to a kind of Afro funk
music, very original and exciting, mixing up african sound and american Rhytm
and blues. Jo was given the battle name of JOJO L’EXPLOSIF ( JOJO THE
EXPLOSIVE ) . In 1968, after he recorded his second record (GET IT THE WAY I
LIKE & NON NON NON ), the young artist was invited to a concert in the
"SALONS DES AMBASSADEURS " in the "CHAMPS ELYSEES " in
Paris. The main african and Caribbean artists had to perform in front of all the
ambassadors of Paris. Manu DIBANGO's band had to back all of them. But for some
unknown reason, DIBANGO refused to back JOJO. After a lot of arguments, he
accepted. But instead of singing two songs like everyone, Jo was allowed to sing
only one song. After performing GET IT THE WAY I LIKE, the public made a
standing ovation to JOJO and asked him to sing another song. The artist turned
to the musicians and said: I'VE BEEN LOVING YOU. JO performance was simply
wonderful. Gisèle BAKA, a caribbean singer and manager came to congratulate the
young man.Then she invited JOJO to another concert she organised in
"OLYMPIA" in Paris, two months later, in commemoration of Doctor
Martin Luther KING Jr death. DIBANGO started the same problems again, saying
that if JOJO is there, he would not come. A lot of artists decided not to be
there if JOJO is absent. This time JO sang a single song. The public delighted
and excited was waiting for another one.The young man just came back on stage
for a reverence. A star was born. As a music director and conductor, JOJO made
beautiful arrangements for other artists as UTA BELLA and Manu DIBANGO.
Jo took lessons of classic orchestration and arrangements with VLADIMIR
KODJOUKAROV, the conductor of the French National Classic Orchestra.(
Orchestre National de Paris ). JO TONGO became the most popular african artist.
He played for african heads of states like NYASSIBWE EYADEMA of TOGO, YAKUBU
GOWON of NIGERIA, MOBUTU SESE SEKO of ZAIRE( Demecratic Republic of
CONGO), AHMADOU AHIDJO of United Republic of CAMEROON, Prince ALBERT
II of MONACO.The artists that brought JO to higher audiance are the american
pianist and singer MEMPHIS SLIM, the King of BOOGIE WOOGIE and MIKE
BRANT,a singer from ISRAEL who became a legend in France. In 1976, after
performing in MIDEM ( Cannes ) JO TONGO created a new band he called TUMBALO.
Patrick, Alex and Chris FRANCFORT ( now called THE GIBSON BROTHERS ) asked JO to
become members of his new band. Vicky EDIMO who heard about this asked JO to
join the group, what was done. TUMBALO recorded 10 songs for DECCA, but for some
unknowned reasons, this record never came out in time so that the FRANCFORT
brothers decide to follow their own way. They were right. JO TONGO has one of
his music used in a french movie called " FEMME DE SA VIE" with the
famous french actress Emmanuelle BEART. Later on, he was asked for another music
for an american movie: NEVER EVER with a well-known french actress SANDRINE
BONNAIRE. Nowadays JO TONGO added REGGAE MUSIC to his influences. He backed KY-MANI
MARLEY ( one of the BOB MARLEY’s sons ) who came to Cannes Festival
(of Cinema ) for the movie he produced, ONE LOVE, in 2004. With a help of
Claudine DE JESUS COSTA, JO TONGO who also made cinema studies in Cannes created
RISIN’SUN to promote afro music and movies. His last CD, JO TONGO ( JOJO L’EXPLOSIF)
GREAT HITS and the video clips for this album are RISIN’ SUN
productions with a help of AURORE PRODUCTION.
