Album: Various artists <!-- none onestar twostar threestar fourstar fivestar -->

Roots of Rumba Rock, CRAMMED

When Afro-Cuban music was first introduced into the Congo back in the 1940s, the locals immediately adopted it as "their" music, recognising the very same rhythms and figures that slaves had taken to the Caribbean generations before. The son montuno piano styles of Cuban musicians, for instance, were derived from the likembe thumb-piano patterns of the region, and were gladly repossessed by Congolese musicians and transposed to the guitar. The result was some of the most infectiously danceable music ever, a series of rumbas, biguines and sebenes - and even the odd polka piké - that swept through Africa, serving as a beacon of hope for many independence movements. This expanded two-CD reissue of a long-unavailable anthology contains early-Fifties examples by the likes of Pierre Kalima, Liengo, Master Taureau and the godfather of Congolese music, Bowane, once imprisoned for demanding ownership of his copyrights, and the discoverer of Franco, Vicky and Rossignol. Highly recommended.

DOWNLOAD THIS: 'Kotiya Zolo Te', 'Ndumba Madeleine', 'Mazola Vanga Sanga', 'Balobi Na Pimbwa'