POP MUSIC REVIEWS : African Pop by the Four Stars

It’s hard to imagine the cooperative approach of the Quatre Etoiles (Four Stars) in the competitive context of the American pop world. At the Music Machine on Saturday, not only did the Four Stars perform a hit song by Kass Kass, a side venture of two of its members, but the group also backed singer Sam Mangwana in his local debut.

When these Paris-based Zairians are clicking, there isn’t a superior band in soukous --the lilting music that’s the most popular of African styles--but the group’s two 45-minute Music Machine sets suffered from lack of focus.

In part that’s because the group expanded on soukous’ characteristic combination of crystalline guitar lines and gentle rhythm grooves, injecting such Western pop touches as riff melodies and gospel chord changes. The opening instrumentals were shaky, but the intensity level took a measurable leap when the high, bittersweet lead vocals of Nyboma and the muscular, mid-range harmonizing of Jean Papy Ramazani joined the instrumental mix.

But only at first. The Four Stars never managed to sustain the momentum they sporadically generated throughout the performance. Mangwana took over the lead vocals for the second set, but he couldn’t break the hit-and-miss pattern. A two-song salvo fired by a stirring Syran M’benza guitar solo was typical.

M’benza’s reticence was another problem, even if his clear, piercing tone did split the difference between Zaire and the Ventures on one tune (African surf music?). M’benza is a brilliant lead guitarist, one of the handful on the pop scene seemingly capable of spinning off inventive variations for hours on end. But he stepped up front far too infrequently Saturday.