Menu

Album review


Samba Mapangala & Virunga

Live on Tour


Paris 

18/05/2009 - 

After two decades as Congo's roving rumba ambassador in East Africa, Samba Mapangala has released a rare and unashamedly exuberant new album. Live on Tour was recorded during a tour of the singer's new home, the U.S., with his legendary Orchestra Virunga.

print

send

react



You would be forgiven for thinking that Congolese rumba should be dead and buried by now, its popularity erased by the emergence of soukouss (a contemporary zouk/rumba fusion) and other new African music trends. You might equally believe that all that remains of Congolese rumba these days is the soft, slow-tempo version designed to be listened to with a polite spot of foot-wagging, but very little else. And then along comes Samba Mapangala, a rumba singer still relatively little known to the French-speaking world, but a man creating quite a buzz right now in the United States.

Mapangala, whose voice has evoked frequent comparisons with Tabu Ley Rochereau, is a little like the Asterix of the rumba world, using his music as an act of cultural resistance. And his new album proves that there is a small but persistent group of musicians out there, playing rumba the ultra-danceable, high-energy way and drawing on the vibrant black Afro and American sounds of the 1970s.

Mapangala's new album Live on Tour hits an all-time energy high when the musicians break into the "sebene", a kind of instrumental bridge powered along by Jimmy Mvondo on saxophone and Nseka "Eight Kilos" Bimwela on lead guitar. Mapangala was also joined by a host of renowned musicians out on the road including guitarist Bopol Mansiamina and bassist Miguel Yamba (both of whom are renowned for their work with a host of Congolese music stars.)

Most of Live on Tour - exclusively available as a paying download on the Internet - was recorded while Mapangala and his musicians were out on the road in 2007. The album features several cult classics from the group's back catalogue such as Malako and Marina (hits that catapulted them to fame in East Africa), but the album also includes one of Mapangala's latest studio creations, Obama Ubarikiwe (Obama God Bless You). It was this song that led to the rumba star being invited to perform in Washington when America's first black president was sworn into the White House in January 2009.


 Ecoutez un extrait de Malako


 Read on
 Samba Mapangala

Samba Mapangala & Virunga Live on Tour (CD Baby) 2009

Bertrand  Lavaine

Translation : Julie  Street