African Guitar

This Rough Guide showcases some of Africa’s leading lights of the guitar, both past and present, from West African bluesmen Samba Touré and Alhousseini Anivolla to the fingerpicking wizardry of South African maskanda legend Shiyani Ngcobo.

Jean Bosco Mwenda - Mwenda Wa Bayeke: African Guitar Legend - The Last Studio Album (1988) {Rounder CD5061 rel 1995}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 238 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 105 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 19 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1988, 1995 Rounder Records / Mountain | CD 5061
World / Congo / Africa / Guitar

Bosco has been a legend ever since acoustic guitarists discovered the instrumental version of his 1952 "Masanga." Though he recorded 150 sides in the following decade, almost nothing is available except these 1988 studio sides, which trade the mellowness of middle-age for youthful zip without losing any of their charm. And, yes, there's an instrumental "Masanga."

Instrumental recordings, from 1970 to 1983 and long-prized by collectors, that feature the African Virtouses - a group that in its various incarnations featured one of the most illustrious guitar-playing families in Africa, the Diabate brothers. Lush and seductive their music carries echoes of Spain, Latin America and even the Paris of Django Reinhardt, yet its roots lie deep within Guinean folklore. This is acoustic African guitar playing at its most intimate and beguiling.

They called him the "Sorcerer of the Guitar," and with his band, O.K. Jazz, he helped shaped not only the history of Congolese rumba, but also soukous. This first U.S. compilation devoted to his work begins in the mid-1950s, when he was still a teenager, with "Merengue," and runs through 1987, and "Attention Na Sida," his final recording before dying of AIDS two years later. In between you get to understand his genius, not just as an instrumentalist, but also as a singer and writer, his band shading and filling out the music beautifully, while Franco himself produces flurries of notes and fluid runs that call to mind both Wes Montgomery and Ali Farka Toure. Compiled by biographer Graeme Ewens, these songs capture all the facets, from the brief catchy singles, the sizzling live magic, and the extended album tracks–and every one is vital.