Musician for:

Les Quatre Etoiles Franco Pepé Kallé

Language:

Lingala

Genre:

Rumba congolais

Instrument:

Male vocals

Articles:
Live report
Sound samples - Rumba Congo

On the Internet
Sound samples - Kinavana

Biography

Kékélé is a Lingala word for a fibrous vine that climbs trees in the tropical forests of the Congo River basin. Ropes woven from Kékélé are still used in some places to build makeshift bridges across forest streams.
Kékélé consists of five veteran singers of soukous/rumba congolais: Nyboma, Loko Massengo, Syran Mbenza, Wuta Mayi and Bumba Massa, who all have cooperated in a row of groups, sometimes together, in different line ups with other musicians, sometimes alone, with other artists. Wuta Mayi once sang in Franco's OK Jazz, as did Bumba Massa. Syran Mbenza and Wuta Mayi were together in Les Quatre Etoiles, Nyboma has been singing with Pepé Kallé. And so on. Kékélé first played together as a group at the WOMAD festival in Reading in 2000, with Papa Noel, a collaboration that worked so well that they decieded to make a record together, inspired by the success of Buana Vista Social Club. The group works with revitalising the old style of rumba congolais, a more laid back version of congolese music than the speedy soukous or synth based ndombolo.

Relevant artists:
Sam Mangwana
Papa Noel
Franco
Mbilia Bel

RUMBA CONGO
Sterns Africa/2001

Click record company for review.

CONGO LIFE  
Sterns Africa/2003

It sounds so easy when these veterans let loose. So easy that only people with decades of experience can do it. It's catchy, laid back and varied. Good voices, smart arrangements by former Salif Keita producer Francois Bréant. When did you last hear vibraphone and clarinet in a congo rumba song? You'll get it this time, together with accoustic guitar (Rigo Star), flute, violin and saxophone, plus the always present Regis Gizavo on accordeon. It is of course silky and seducive. In the 11 minutes long medley "Souvenirs-OK-Jazz", the boys are totally sovereign: A perfect revitalising of the old songs. It is impossible not to like this!
(Click record company for sound samples.)

KINAVANA  
Sterns Africa/2006

To put it straight at once: This is perfect album.
What these lovely veterans of Congolese rumba have done this time, is to pick up the songs of the Cuban maestro Guillermo Portabales. Portabales was a descendant of Spanish peasants who had settled in Cuba at the end of the 1800's. When Portabales died in 1970 he was a popular songwriter and performer almost all over South America - and even in Congo.
The rumba has travelled sevaral times across the Atlantic: The slaves shipped to Cuba were mostly from Congo, so when the Cuban orchestras came to Congo for the first time in the 1940's, the Congolese recognized the music. This was the beginning of the Congolese musical revolution. Now the Kekele veterans make a new twist: They have recorded Portabales' songs again and translated the lyrics into Lingala - and suddenly it sounds Congolese - again! Well, translated may not be the right term, re-written is more correct. Anyway this is a rarely successful receipt. As always these lads sparkle with enthusiasm. The sound is sharp and warm at the same time, the arrangements are varied, under supervision of the great Ibrahima Sylla. The album is recorded in Paris, with some mix done in New Jersey, USA. The musicians taking part, in addition to the Kekele quintet, are several African A-team musicians, like Papa Noel, Manu Dibangu, Mbilia Bel and Madilu Bialu. The result is as mentined just perfect! One of the best songs is perhaps "Ba Kristo", where the champs critisize the evangelican churches in Africa not to accept music that is not Christian. The interaction between the male voices of the Kekele gentlemen, Mbilia Bel and Cuban Isabel Martinez, in Spanish, takes this song to another dimension! It just builds and builds. The changing of voices and instruments makes the album a exciting experience from the very first second to the last. Not a single dull moment!

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