Kékélé
Kinavana
Stern's Africa, 2005

Kekele are the standard bearers of the ongoing acoustic wave in Congolese music.  While others have ventured into acoustic rumba, Kekele has made it their identity.  This, the group’s third release, deepens the experience with a focus on the music’s Cuban roots.  The name Kinavana, a hybrid of Kinshasa and Havana, says it all.  The album is an elegant homage to Cuban composer and guitarist Guillermo Portabales.  Portabales descended from Spanish peasants, and specialized in the rural guajira, and later when he moved through the Americas, sons, guarachas, and boleros.  So now, we get these veteran Congolese players’ take on genres that they experience as New World evolutions of older, Congo music.  If that’s enough to make you dizzy, don’t worry: the music won’t.  It may, however, produce a euphoric buzz, like fine champagne on a summer afternoon. 

The opener, “Mace,” is classic son sung with powerful clarity by Bumba Massa, and graced with crisp guitar work by Syran Mbenza and Papa Noel, as well as a soprano sax break from Afropop legend Manu Dibangu.  Noel’s presence here is particularly appreciated as the legendary guitarist has been in poor health in recent years.  Dibangu, who famously passed time in Kinshasa in the early 60s, playing with Grand Kalle and African Jazz, sits in on five tracks here.  There also also three guest spots from the all but forgotten diva of late-80s Congolese pop, Mbilia Bel.  Bel coos unmistakably on the mid-tempo “Chérie Sandra,” shadowed by a similarly cooing flute, and she harmonizes gorgeously with Nyboma on “Yo Odeconer.”  Truly, these are two of the sweetest voices in Congolese music.

Bel also contributes to the album’s centerpiece, “BaKristo,” a lively rewrite of a Portabeles’ son-montuno, “En Carretero.”  Here, the song is reconceived as a critique of evangelical churches in Africa that work to suppress all music they perceive as non-Christian.  This track also features the voice of a rising star in New York Latin music, Isabel Martinez.  One senses here the hand of veteran producer Ibrahima Sylla, a man who understands the power of a concept album, and also of glamorous guests like Dibango, Bel, and Martinez.  A sting section and flute gives some tracks the authentic flavor of classic charanga.  Elsewhere, brass players lend an old world, jazz flavor.  But the core band is the key to this album’s greatness.  Syran and Papa Noel are particularly magical as they ride robust acoustic guitar melodies over these thick arrangements, but there are simply no weak points in this lineup.  Kekele is not so much a revival as a reinvention of Congolese music.  The music reflects history, but is unlike anything done before, a fresh sound of today, and after three great albums, one that is apparently built to last. 

Click to view: Kekele Summer 2006 Tour Dates

Contributed by: Banning Eyre