Recorded in Kinshasa, this album pays tribute to one of the most beautiful music born on the African continent on the dawn of Independences. RumbaÕs two great historical figures (Wendo Kolosoy, KinshasaÕs son and Antoine Mondanda from Brazzaville on the other side of the river), the Victoria Bakolo Miziki and the Rumbanella Band (composed of young musicians) revisit the Central African cultural heritage in a passionate and moving way. Smooth voices, elegant guitars, sensuel mZlodies and discreet swing, Rumba is to Africa what Son is to Cuba: a miracle of equilibrium.

In March, 2002, surviving pioneers of Africa's most beloved dance music, Congolese rumba, came together in a Kinshasa recording studio to recapture the glorious, sensuous music of their collective past. The setting was humble, and there were no international filmmakers or foreign pop stars on hand. But in its way, this session was as historic, and as sweet and swinging, as the famous Buena Vista Social Club gathering in Havana, Cuba, a few years earlier.
In the 1950s, when Congolese rumba came of age, Cuban music was an important model, but the tangling, cyclic guitar lines and mellifluous vocal harmonies sung mostly in Lingala quickly came to define a sound that will be forever identified with this city on the banks of the Congo River. So call it the Kinshasa Social Club, or just call it a long overdue rumba reunion.
The music on this CD offers a rare glimpse into one of the most potent and influential chapters in modern African music.