The father of modern Congolese music, the pope of rumba who was taken from us by illness at the age of fifty one, left a legacy of 150 albums behind him. "I am the only African musician to have lived out my career for thirty years without ever leaving the orchestra that I created or the style that was the trademark of the group. I am proud and I thank the Lord for having given me such a full life" he declared. After Franco's death on October 12th, 1989, an immense page was turned in modern African music from the African continent.