He spent a large part of his life in Nairobi, Kenya, where he collaborated with fellow Zambia emigre Peter Tsotsi and Benson Simbeye.
As members of Eagles Lupopo Band they sang 'patriotic songs' praising President Kenneth Kaunda and commenting on various social issues.
In 1953, he went to work in the mines in South Africa, where he formed his first band, the Bantu Negroes, which disbanded when he returned to Zambia the following year to become a business executive.
Peter Tsotsi Juma and Nashil Pichen helped develop the Equator Sound Band's "twist" style, modeled after the South African kwela rhythm.
It was a song about Mr Phiri, a long-lost migrant worker who returns home from the city empty-handed, only to find that no one in his village remembers him.