You may think you don’t know anything about Congolese music. But if you’ve ever tapped your foot to the irresistible beat of the rumba, you’ve experienced a national tradition. Rumba originated in ...

Congolese Rumba is the glorious musical hybrid of Cuban music fused with African DNA. It started back in the 1950s with a boatload of 78 rpm Cuban records featuring Arsenio Rodriguez, Orquesta Aragón, ...

This week on Global Notes 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 ...

When you look at Congolese music the question that comes into mind is whether it ever reached its full potential and whether it is a reflection of what Congo as a country has become. For a country ...

Nairobi — Mention of the word Congo immediately evokes two contrasting emotions - war and revelry. For Congo, the name shared by two neighbouring countries, is synonymous with music, especially the ...

Prologue: a mighty sound: Mobutu and the musicians, 1997 -- Difficult delivery: Bowane, Leopold II, Stanley, Brazza, Kamba, Feruzi, and Wendo, 1946 and before -- Why don't you make a record? Olympia, ...

World music star Papa Wendo, often hailed as the "father" of Congolese rumba music, has died at the age of 82. The musician was admitted to a clinic in Kinshasa in DR Congo on Monday and died after a ...