The Summer 2017 Case of Camp Congo

Summertime is a good time for groovy mellow sounds from the hotbed of African soft rock... a full set today from The Congo.

As frequent listeners know, I consider The Congo to be the single most important country in the development of African popular music sounds of the 20th century. But whereas some countries (Ghana and Nigeria in particular) have been well served with recent vinyl reissues and compilations, interest in The Congo has languished (in terms of vintage music on vinyl) over the past 25 years. I hope to spark your interest in this vastly underexposed music scene.

We start the set today with some old-timey sounds... traditions like calypso and palm wine mingling with distinctively Congolese guitar in some delicious vintage recordings. We move into a folksy set before we wrap the first hour with some sparkling Afro Latin gems.

The second hour today starts with a spotlight on guitar work from the two most legendary axemen of the Congolese scene:  Docteur Nico and Franco. If you thought the world's most experimental guitar sounds in 1963 came from London, New York, or Nashville, prepare to be amazed.

To end the show we simply ride out on a dream cloud of groovy mellow sounds from the early 70s, a time when rumba (the first Congolese creation to take over the African continent) was giving way to Soukouss (the second Congolese creation to take over the African continent). Dreamy elegance here from musicians who had been honing their craft in the competitive Congolese scene for about 20 years. No music scene in Africa in the mid-50s could claim to have driven near the level of competition and sophistication as the nightclub and recording scene in The Congo, so these musicians were noticeably more advanced than other African musicians by the 1970s and beyond.