Congo Guitar

Delicate and joyful, with a tinge of melancholy, Congo Guitar is a raw and intimate record by Congolese, Sweden-based guitarist Vumbi Dekula. Born in Kivu province of North Eastern Congo, Vumbi picked up the guitar when still very young and was influenced by Dr Nico and Franco, two legends of Congolese soukous and rumba. He later played with the Tanzania Orchestra Maquis and, after moving to Stockholm in the early 1990s, with Ugandan Sammy Kasule, Ahmadu Jarr’s Highlife Orchestra, and his own Dekula Band. Here the music though is stripped of any big band energy, accompanied only by the light touch of a drum machine, so that Vumbi’s gentle guitar takes center stage. Vumbi’s music is softer than most soukous, but it resonates with the sounds of the great Congolese guitarists who came before him.