Product Description
After the success of the first Bana Congo release (Tumi CD 107) Papa Noel returns with another cross-border collaboration in which he brings African and Cuban rumba into the 21st Century, reuniting their creative energies and celebrating their common heritage.Cafe Noir perhaps is the best Afro-Cuba Rumba ever recorded.The CD which took three years travelled from: France, to Cuba, Then back to France,Congo and eventually to London.
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Papa Nol (born Antoine Nedule Monswet on Christmas Day, 1940, hence the affectionate nickname) is one of the greatest African guitarists of all time. His bell-like, rounded, tone, shimmering quicksilver runs and ability to pull ecstatic melodies out of the air -- he never plays any tune the same way twice -- have made him a national treasure with an international fan base. Nol has sat in innumerable seminal bands, from Franco's legendary Kinshasa-based OK Jazz and to the very popular modern Afro-Cuban outfit, Kkl; in fact, his biography reads like a history of rumba Congolaise from its inception to the present day. And he is equally celebrated as a composer. His gloriously upbeat anthem, "Africa Mokili Mobimba" is known and loved throughout the Continent and a festive, large-scale version of it, complete with a playfully extroverted call-and-response chorus and tasty sax riffs from Nol's contemporary, Cameroonian superstar Manu Dibango (of "Soul Makossa" fame), opens the album. Accompanied by a stellar team that includes Abby Surya and Pierre Belkos (vocals) plus Rey Crespo (arrangements) and host of journeyman Cuban instrumentalists, Nol has fashioned a valentine to the re-Africanization of Cuban rumba. In his hands, both traditions are ineffably enriched and strengthened, as the circle is resealed, source-to-source. --Christina Roden
- Product Dimensions : 5.6 x 0.4 x 4.9 inches; 4 ounces
- Manufacturer : Tumi Music
- Original Release Date : 2007
- SPARS Code : DDD
- Date First Available : February 9, 2007
- Label : Tumi Music
- Number of discs : 1
