Following their successful concert last year, Afro-Colombian band Alé Kumá again join forces with Congolese guitarist Dizzy Mandjeku and return to present their first CD together, De Palenque à Matonge. And where better to showcase this than in Matonge itself? African and Latin American musical styles have been influencing each other for centuries – just think of the rumba from Cuba or the champeta from Colombia. With their project, De Palenque à Matonge, Alé Kumá and Dizzy Mandjeku pay tribute to these ancient musical links in a unique international collaboration.
The album’s title, De Palenque à Matonge, refers both to the heart of Afro-Colombian music and to the heart of the Congolese community in Belgium. With this album the five Colombian and 4 Congolese musicians take the next step in a musical partnership which has already seen them perform at the famous Viña del Mar song festival in Chile, the leading folk music festival in South America.
Rumba legend Dizzy Mandjeku (OK Jazz, Tabu Ley, les Grands Maquisards, Odemba) has made several trips to Colombia. Together with the cream of Belgian Congolese musicians and along with Alé Kumá he goes in search of the roots of the soukous, the rumba and the champeta and performs individual reinterpretations of a range of Afro-Colombian music styles. The result is a stage peopled with exciting performers of all ages who bring a new vitality to the Afro-Colombian music scene.
Musiciens
- Dizzy Mandjeku: guitar
- Leonardo Gomez Jattin: double bass
- Nidia Gongora : vocals
- Paola Marquez : vocals
- Malage de Lugendo : vocals
- Josée Esengo Muza : vocals
- César Medina : sax
- Toms Ntale : guitar
- La Wey Segura : percussion, marimba
- Saidou Ilbouda : drums