For sheer production values, the top prize in the current Congo Music revival category has to go to Kekele, whose second release Congo Life is a sonic masterpiece, every soaring voice, every snap and sizzle of percussion, and gleaming acoustic guitar note--most of them from the great Syran Mbenza--vivid and in perfect balance with the whole. Four veteran vocalists--Wuta-Mayi, Nyboma, Bumba Massa, and Loko Massengo--trade off lead roles throughout these eleven tracks, and join forces to add brilliant choral backing elsewhere. Most of the songs are new, and the conventions of the past are not so much recreated as honored, but always with a difference, such as tasty accordion spicing from Regis Gizavo of Madagascar, or all-clarinet horn section breaks played by Caçau de Queiroz.
Nyboma's soaring tenor voice is especially pleasing here, particularly on "Issake Shango," which unfolds from a mid-tempo vocal showcase to a concise, lively jam topped by Syran's brisk acoustic guitar work. With the exception of one 6/8 number--"Oyebi Bien," contributed by guest guitarist Rigo Star--the grooves are pretty relentlessly rumba, of the 1960s Kinshasa variety, but there are some excursions into a more characteristically Cuban sounds. The violins on Loko Massengo's "Bebe Yaourt" evoke charanga. And Wuta Mayi's "Affaire Mokuwa" hits with the strong feeling of son.
Maybe the best track on Congo Life is a medley of Franco hits called "Souvenirs-OK-Jazz." The great Congo rumba of the '50s and '60s transformed pop music in Africa, but most of it was poorly recorded and preserved, so one attraction of these revival efforts is hearing beloved oldies rendered in high-fidelity.
Kekele, "Issake Shango"
For sheer production values, the top prize in the current Congo Music revival category has to go to Kekele, whose second release Congo Life is a sonic masterpiece, every soaring voice, every snap and sizzle of percussion, and gleaming acoustic guitar note--most of them from the great Syran Mbenza--vivid and in perfect balance with the whole. Four veteran vocalists--Wuta-Mayi, Nyboma, Bumba Massa, and Loko Massengo--trade off lead roles throughout these eleven tracks, and join forces to add brilliant choral backing elsewhere. Most of the songs are new, and the conventions of the past are not so much recreated as honored, but always with a difference, such as tasty accordion spicing from Regis Gizavo of Madagascar, or all-clarinet horn section breaks played by Caçau de Queiroz.
