Cafe Noir

Papa Noel is a veteran of the golden age of Congolese music.  For Café Noir he draws inspiration from Cuba, the island whose rumba has inspired many leading Congolese musicians.  During the colonial period many Congolese took an enforced passage as enslaved peoples to Cuba. Having survived, their music was key to the creation of traditions in the ports of Matanzas and Havana which have become known as Cuban rumba.

To celebrate this on this recording, Papa Noel's guitar is joined by the distinctive sound of the Cuban tres with its three pairs of metal strings played by Cuban sonero Cotó.  Joining in this reunion is Cameroonian saxophonist Manu ('Makossa man') Dibango, giving him the opportunity to evoke the hot nights of Léopoldville (today’s Kinshasa), drawing on his own early years playing there with African Jazz. Both Cuban and Congolese rumba callejera (street rumba) are all about dance! With Café Noir, Papa Noel pays tribute to the fact that Cuba has always been both a model and source of inspiration for African rumberos.

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