Papa Wemba
Bakala Dia Kuba
Sonodisc, 2001
For most of his career, Papa Wemba has often seemed more interested in stretching and breaking the rules and conventions of Congolese pop music than in claiming his place as one of the genre's most beloved exponents. Some of his innovations--notably his quirky taste in European fashion attire--became Congolese staples. Others--such as his eager embrace of the rhythms and aesthetics of R&B and other non-local genres--left members of his original audience behind. During the 1990s, Wemba managed to have things both ways, releasing adventurous albums with his international group, as well as more conventional Congolese music with his group Viva la Musica. By now, the world both inside and outside the Congo has pretty much learned to accept Wemba on his own terms, so it's fitting that this album seems to bring the two streams of Wemba's musical life together.
This something-for-everyone package starts off studiously avoiding overt Congolese rumba and soukous. The opener, "Pourquoi tu n'est pas là," is a sweet, lilting number that combines high-tech keyboard sounds with a gentle acoustic guitar track. The follow-up "Ainsi Soit-Il (acoustique)" is also soft and pretty, now with only acoustic piano and guitar backing Wemba's playful melody. (A more fully orchestrated version of this track ends the album.) Not until the fifth track, "Mawe," do we get a real Congo groove. In fact, we get two, as the song alternates between the Latin-tinged soukous feel, and the rootsy 6/8 mutuashi sound Wemba has championed during the 1980s. The latter tracks move more and more decisively into rumba and soukous territory, but always with a difference. The slow rumba at the start of "Sujet de Prières" uses violins in the place of guitars. "Mawe" makes a similar substitution, using horns. There is lots of keyboard work as well, although even this inveterate keyboard detractor must concede that much of it is quite tasteful, and we do get lovely bursts of classic guitar soukous, notably on the album's title track, and on "Vanité des Vanités."
Whether massaging a broken heart on a ballad, crying out for love in soukous mode, or tearing into an R&B-tinged number like "Toutou ma Biche," Wemba is in superb voice throughout these 12 tracks. The selection may strike hardcore soukous heads as tame, but when Wemba and his band pull out the stops on a classic Congo pop arrangement like "Mère Première," there's no denying his mastery. More than any other Congolese singer operating today, Wemba presents a complex personality, one that includes but refuses to be limited by the musical styles that have shaped him over the years. While it may not be his most exciting or ground-breaking work, this set gracefully illuminates that complexity, integrating the rumba-rocker, the Otis Redding-infatuated crooner, the modern pop singer, and the village boy in him, as never before.
Contributed by: Banning Eyre for www.afropop.org
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