Description
The long-deleted, essential collection documenting the early days of Congolese pop is finally being re-issued, this time as a double CD including both of the separate, original volumes. Lovingly put together by (Congotronics man) Vincent Kenis, 'Roots of Rumba Rock' contains 40 classic tracks and chronicles the birth of what was to become Africa's most popular musical style.
The origins of Congolese rumba, its links with traditional music, French crooners and Belgian brass bands, the spectacular re-appropriation of Afro-Cuban music by Kinshasa musicians who, when exposed to the son montuno piano styles, recognized some of the old likembe (thumb piano) patterns originally brought to Cuba by deported Congolese slaves, and proceeded to adapt them to the electric guitar, the social context, the lifestyle of Congolese musicians in the early Fifties, all of that and much more is extensively described in the liner notes written by Kenis and based on interviews with musicians from that era.
The artists featured include Bowane, Liengo, De Wayon, Master Taureau, Pierre Kalima and other founding fathers of rumba.