Joseph Athanase Tshamala Kabasele, professionally known as Le Grand Kallé, was a Congolese singer-songwriter, composer, and bandleader born in Pala Bala, Belgian Congo, on December 16, 1930. Raised in Léopoldville, he worked as a typist before entering the music industry, recording early tracks for the Opika label in the early 1950s. In 1953, he founded African Jazz, pioneering a style that integrated traditional Congolese percussion into modern rumba arrangements and producing popular songs such as "Parafifi" and "African Jazz". During the Belgo-Congolese Round Table Conference in Brussels in February 1960, Kabasele and his band performed "Indépendance Cha Cha", which became a landmark anthem across Africa. Later that year, he established Surboum African Jazz, the first musician-owned record label in the Congo. In 1969, he co-founded the Paris-based group African Team. Kabasele was named grand maître of Zairean music by the national union UMUZA in 1980. He died on February 11, 1983, and was interred at Gombe Cemetery in Kinshasa.
