Search - Dominic Kakolobango :: African Acoustic

Excellent album of classic congolese guitar

08/20/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Dominic Kakolobango is a unique player, the only artist of his generation performing in the classic style of the 1950s. A lovely singer, and expert fingerstyle guitarist, he has updated his music with some brilliant electric guitar lines from the soukous master Dizzy Manjeku and occasional harmonica, but his own acoustic playing is the heart of this album. Reminiscent of Cuban son or bolero, but with a distinctly African flavor, and a touch of early blues, this is an unusual and beautiful disc."

More, please!

04/16/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is great music, inspired by the incomparable Jean-Bosco Mwenda, who was a huge recording star in Afica in the 1950s and 60s. An aside--if you found this disc in the vast Amazon.com electronic catalog, then you must like African music. If so, then you simply MUST get "Mwenda Wa Bayeke" by Jean-Bosco Mwenda. As one reviewer of that disc correctly said, it will change your life. It is, quite simply, the most beautiful music in my not-too-shabby collection. Anyway, back to the present disc, Mr. Kakolobango (may I call him Dominic?) has mostly faithfully propelled the Mwenda/Masengo style of finger picking guitar into the "new millenium" (sick of that phrase yet?). I personally found the couple of tracks with harmonica to be more distracting than enlightening, but most of the pieces, written by Dominic himself, are lovely. Overall, the disc is upbeat and propels itself along nicely. Interestingly, the last track, by Kakolobango, is the fastest. At first, this struck me as an unusual ending for a disc, but upon repeated hearing, I realize that it left me craving more. By the way, the same artist has another disc out that reportedly focuses on music by Mwenda. It's available from Amazon.com and I can't wait to get my copy."