Biography
The name Kékélé, drawn from a resilient vine native to the Congo River basin and traditionally twisted into durable ropes, aptly reflects the lengthy, sturdy careers of its musicians. Those artists eventually circled back to the foundational sound of Congolese rhumba, performed in the classic manner that evokes the prime era of OK Jazz and Ry-Co Jazz. Within Congolese music circles the ensemble stands as a true supergroup of established figures. Vocalists Bumba Massa and Loko Massengo launched their trajectories in the 1960s, while the remaining singers helped establish the soukous outfit les Quatre Étoiles during the 1980s; lead guitarist Papa Noel had already served as the instrumental counterpart to the late great Franco. Although most participants had previously collaborated in assorted groupings and were familiar with one another through Paris’s expanding world-music community—where the majority had resided for years—they had seldom shared recording sessions, the chief exception being a mid-1990s duet album by Mayi and Noel. For an extended period the musical climate had favored the faster, more dance-oriented soukous that supplanted the gentler, more relaxed rhumba in which these players first honed their craft. A modest resurgence of the older style surfaced in the late 1990s. Les Quatre Étoiles incorporated a hint of rhumba on their 1995 release Hello Hello, yet the effort remained tentative. Subsequent rhumba projects by guitarist Mose Fan Fan and veteran Wendo Kolosoy—who issued the first rhumba recording in 1948—signaled that conditions were favorable for a fuller revival. Kékélé itself arose without commercial calculation. The notion of forming a band, or at least committing material to disc, emerged gradually from informal jam sessions held in apartments and homes during 1999. The songs that became the debut album Rumba Congo took shape across those relaxed gatherings, guided by affection and a return to origins. Once prepared to record, the musicians enlisted veteran producer Ibrahim Sylla, based in Ivory Coast. Their first album appeared in 2001; shortly afterward guitarist Papa Noel entered hospital.
Albums
