Text and photos by Banning Eyre

In March, 2002, surviving pioneers of Africa's most beloved dance music--Congolese rumba--came together in a Kinshasa recording studio to recapture the glorious, sensuous music of their collective past. The setting was humble, and there were no international filmmakers or foreign pop stars on hand. But in its way, this session was as historic, and as sweet and swinging, as the famous Buena Vista Social Club gathering in Havana, Cuba, a few years earlier. In the 1950s, when Congolese rumba came of age, Cuban music was an important model, but the tangling, cyclic guitar lines and mellifluous vocal harmonies sung mostly in Lingala quickly came to define a sound that will be forever identified with this city on the banks of the Congo River. So call it the Kinshasa Social Club, or just call it a long overdue rumba reunion. The music on El Congo, Rumba Congolaise (Marabi) offers a rare glimpse into one of the most potent and influential chapters in modern African music.

Rumbanella Band formed in 1986 under the leadership of Madou Lebon Mulowayi, a guitarist and singer who got his start as the accompanist for the late John Bosco Mwenda, one of the founding fathers of Congolese music. Born in Katanga, in 1951, Madou started playing guitar seriously as a teenager. He trained as an electrician, and worked that trade, but in 1968, began a professional music career playing in Norvela Jazz. Madou had grown up on early rumba music recorded for Kinshasa's first record label, Ngoma, especially music by singers like Losta Bello, Bukasa Leon, and Wendo Kolosoy. From their Katanga base, Norvela Jazz toured the southern region of the Congo, crossing over from Lubambashi into Zambia where they played the copper mining region. It was in Lubumbashi that Madou had his fateful meeting with Mwenda, probably the most famous and influential singer guitarist of the 1940s and 50s in that region.

"It was 1970," recalled Madou, "I was looking for a band. Bosco Mwenda found me playing a song and he said, 'This boy can play.' He need an accompanist and asked me to try out. I told him, 'I'll come Monday.' He tested me, but I succeeded, and then he welcomed me. He bought my mother a sewing machine and me a record player. I learned his songs from records." .…Bosco Band. ….learned songs from records….father had a photograph. I spent 10 years in Mwenda's group. We had three guitars, myself, Mwenda, the bass player, also congas, maracas, clave, two saxophones, two trumpets, trombone, flute."

This was the biggest group Mwenda ever fronted, a sign that he was feeling pressure to develop his sound in the face of competition from all the rumba bands. In this formation, Mwenda and Madou played at the famous 1974 Ali-Foreman fight in Kinshasa--the "Rumble in the Jungle." After a decade working with Mwenda, Madou got picked up by the famously peripatetic singer, Sam Mangwana. "It was Mangwana who took me from Lubumbashi to come to Kinshasta and make a band, Tiere Monde Revolution. We recorded 'Fatimata.' 'Capitale General,' and 'Zongo Loke.' After three years, the band ended because Mangwana went to Paris." After this Madou spent three years as being what he called "a griot." This is a Congolese term for playing solo style with just his acoustic guitar.

In 1986, Madou wanted to create his own band dedicated to keeping the classic rumba sound alive. "Because lots of people were asking for the old music," recalls Madou. "There weren't any records. That music was considered old fashioned, so people asked us to play. Even in the cabarets, people requested the old songs. I was used to playing these songs, so it made sense to make a group to play these old songs." Three other members of Rumbanella Band participated in the 2002, El Congo recording project: vocalist Lola Bivuatu, bassman Bolita Mzela Zimbika, and guitarist Kankonde Joseph, a.k.a. "Serpent."

Serpent actually won his nickname for his football moves as a boy in the 1950s. "Before I was a musician," he recalled in Kinshasa in 2002, "I was a football player, not a great player. But in football, there was a certain guy called Serpent. That's why I was given that name. I wasn't yet a guitarist, but I was happy to be given that name. He was my idol." When he picked up a guitar and began playing alongside Congolese guitar legend Docteur Nico, the epithet applied just as well to his nimble finger work.

Like Nico and many other Congo music pioneers, both Madou and Serpent grew up and learned their musical skills in the mineral-rich Kasai region, in the southeast of this vast Central African country. For reasons of history, the people of Kananga and Mbuji Mayi had been divided. "What I know," recalled Serpent, "is that before independence, the originators of Kananga, our place--the Belgians used to say that the Baluba of Mbuji-Mayi were more intellectual than us. If you have independence, they will intimidate you. That's why you must chase them out and keep them in their province. That's why there was a separate province. But we are the same people."

"My family did not want me to play music. Even me--I did not want to play music. I didn't want it. Even when I was in school studying with my friends, when the music teacher came into the room, I was uneasy. I didn't want to follow that. I did not know my future. If I had known, I could have continued with that. Even now, I don't know how to write music. God made me a musician. I had a friend around 1961 or '62, and he had this little homemade guitar, a banjo. I liked the feeling of the music. The same friend was called when there was an opening in a band in Kananga. 'Me?' he said. They said, 'Come. We will show you.' He went, and they gave him an electric guitar. Like yours. After the rehearsal, he brought the guitar home. He showed it to me. At that moment, I was a fanatic for old Dechaud, the brother of Nico."

Inevitably, Serpent was drawn into the action. "I started to learn. In five days, I learned four or five songs. They said, 'The rumba, we play like that. The cha-cha-cha, like that. The bolero. The tango. The slow.' But the guy who taught me wasn't strong on chords. He showed me what he knew. Then he said, 'We have a concert tonight.' I was afraid. I was 15 or 16." After a night of trial by fire, Serpent became a member of Union Success, and his career as a guitarist was launched.

"After that, I played in a lot of bands. They came for me like bread. The old musicians liked me. Now, I am 51. I have seven kids. They have grown up and left. My last is in the military now. But that was my start." Both Madou and Serpent came to the capital, Kinshasa, when it was in its prime, the cosmopolitan cultural hub of the entire region. By then, they were well primed to soak up the fantastic new music that was bursting from every bar and record stall in the city. Soon, they were integral parts of the scene. "There was lots of ambiance in Kishasa," recalled Serpent. "Music every day. Not like now, when it's just Saturday and Sunday. Then it was Tuesday, Wednesday…every day. We would start the concert at 9:00 to finish at 1:00 AM. Then you would go to a bar and drink until 4:00 in the morning, 5:00."

For Serpent, the big break was being discovered by the great Dr. Nico, and being recruited as the "mi-solo" guitarist for African Fiesta Sukisa in 1969. The band was set to travel to Belgium and record, but Nico's divorce from his wife caused problems and the trip was cancelled. Serpent recalls a tough life in Nico's band. "Franco at this time had bought cars for the musicians of OK Jazz. Lots of bands had cars bought by their chiefs. OK Jazz, cars. Verkys, cars and even Yamahas. Negro Success, Vespa. Ko Bantu, Vespa. But us, we walked. We were taking busses to rehearsals, looking for a little bit."

Eventually the band quit Nico, and Serpent went on to work with Josky--before he joined OK Jazz in 1974--and other big acts, including Orchestre Veve, and Tabu Ley's Afrisa International. In Rumbanella Band, Serpent appreciates Madou's humility. "Rumbanella for me is simply an interpretive group," he said, "That's it. We play rumba, and even ndombolo. We are obliged to play that to survive, but not really. I don't need to be in a group where there is a president who takes everything for himself. That way, we become discouraged. Normally we play in bars with just acoustic guitar. It's practical. You can play anytime anywhere. No boss. No producer. Just our songs and us."

The El Congo recording project was the brainchild of French producer Christian Mousset. Rumbanella's recreation of classic hits, especially by the legendary African Jazz and African Fiesta, make up the core repertoire on this CD. There's also a version of John Bosco Mwenda's signature composition, "Masanga Djiya," and an original composition by Serpent, "Na Luki Motungisi." Wendo Kolosoyi and his pioneering band, Victoria Bakolo Mizike, were also on hand, recording their sensational comeback album, Amba. Wendo's backing singers Willy and Mass fill out the Rumbanella vocal section. This collection also includes a Wendo composition, "Botiaki-Tembe," performed by Victoria Bakolo Mizike, and a fresh version of Wendo's classic 1948 song, "Marie Louise," which he sings here backed by the Rumbanella Band. Last but not least, comes the king of the likembe (thumb piano), Antoine Moundanda of Brazzaville. Moundanda contributes a solo composition, and a spontaneous improvisation with his old friend and colleague, Wendo, the perfect finishing touch for this rumba pioneers' summit.

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Contributed by: Banning Eyre