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Best of Year List
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San Francisco Bay Guardian, Best of Year List >>
The Rasputin Manifesto
A Few of the Best World Music CDs of the Year
-by Dr. Rhythm
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Kekele: Kinavana (Stern's)
Kekele consists of the most accomplished Congolese musicians still standing from the great proto-soukous wave of twenty years ago. They've mellowed, unplugged and now reflect on their roots with Kinavana, their third and most successful outing to date. To the flexible all-star roster of front-line talent they've added a solid Latin underpinning (arranged by Nelson Hernandez) of flute and strings to give a charanga backing to their exploration of the work of some of Cuba's great folk composers. It's not Buena Vista revisited, nor Africando (as you might think), because they are not sinking in Spanish. In fact they have taken the original lyrics and phonetically transposed them to Lingala to create new lyrics, so Nico Saquito's "Oye mi son" becomes "Yoka biso." This is also a part of the heritage as the reincorporated Cuban sones of the 30's were adapted to the Congo style with the violin and piano parts transposed to electric guitars. As Ken Braun notes, it wasn't so much appropriation as repossession of something the Congolese realised was inherently theirs. In addition to the full sound provided by strings and horns, the return of Papa Noel (after an enforced absence due to illness) is welcome. Mbilia Bel adds her sweet ethereal voice to a couple of numbers and the great hippo-voiced Madilu also shows up. Manu Dibango plays sax on five tracks. Richard Virnet's muted trumpet is more New York than Santiago, adding a nice splash of urban sophistication to the metropolitan mix, especially on "Yo Odeconer" (a reworking of Nico Saquito's classic "Al Vaiven de Mi Carreta"). Syran and Papa Noel rise to the occasion pulling off some brilliant interplay on their Spanish guitars.
12/19/06
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