Congo Guitars 1952 & 1957

We take you back to 1950’s Congo (the DRC today), for what many considered the Golden Age of African acoustic guitar music. Influences for what was known as Katanga guitar or ‘dry guitar’ music ranged from Cuba son and rhumba to American yodeling cowboys, gospel, and pop vocal groups.

The famous Katanga Guitar sound, as recorded by Hugh Tracey in the 1950s. Includes the very first recordings of a 21-year-old Jean Bosco Mwenda in his home town of then Jadotville (now Likasi). In the copper mining towns of Katanga, in southern Belgian Congo, the imported guitar became a status symbol and sign of modernisation - a new sound was born. These tracks never sounded so good as here, after Michael Baird's expert remastering (of his own remasters from the original field tapes!) specially for vinyl.....

Boomkat Product Review:
"This is the famous Katanga guitar sound, as recorded by Hugh Tracey, based on the traditional likembe lamellaphone music of the various Luba peoples and their neighbours, who went to work in the mines and, as a result of this urbanisation, embraced 'modernism' by buying guitars. Plus three rumba tracks from Stanleyville (Kisangani), where there was a laid-back atmosphere with white and black dancing together in a flourishing nightlife, exceptional for the Belgian Congo. The recorded musicians there said they had copied the style of playing introduced from the San Salvador district in northern Angola through Leopoldville (Kinshasa)."

Various – Congo Guitars 1952 & 1957 (Recordings By Hugh Tracey)

Label: SWP Records – SWP 045

Visit: https://swp-records.com/
Format: Vinyl, LP, Compilation
Country: Netherlands
Released: 2014
Style: African, Folk

Source: Vinyl Rip by KINDA

A1 Patrice Ilunga & Victor Misomba – Masengu 2:54
A2 Patrice Ilunga & Victor Misomba – Mama Josephina 2:51
A3 Ngoi Nono & Kabongo Anastase – Muleka Mwene Yombwe 4:02
A4 Patrice Ilunga & Victor Misomba – Antoinette Wa Kolwezi 3:08
A5 Ombiza Charles – Safari Wa Baraka 2:57
A6 Chiband & Kazeng – Mangaay 2:52
A7 Anatole Kaseba – Muleka Mwene Ngoie 3:06
B1 Anatole Kaseba – Mudima Zenzele 2:57
B2 Jean Bosco Mwenda – Masanga 2:59
B3 Jean Bosco Mwenda – Mama Na Mwana 2:49
B4 Jean Bosco Mwenda – Bombalaka 2:46
B5 Jean Bosco Mwenda – Sokuchomale Jikita 2:50
B6 Ombiza Charles – Nachelewa 3:06

B7 Henri Bembele – Colette 3:00