• Kekele’s third album Kinavana pays tribute to the music of Guillermo Portabales. It comprises 12 songs that Portabales composed or recorded. In place of the original Spanish lyrics, the Kekele singers have written new Lingala lyrics that are decidedly not translations from Spanish.
“a magnificent album”
Martin Sinnock SONGLINES
“nothing less than incandescent”
Richard Henderson WIRE
“voices and instruments as sung and played by
humans of talent and discretion”
Rick Sanders fROOTS
“Kinavana is a masterful performance that shows
Kekele to have an ever-changing sound concept”
Sid Whelan THE BEAT
“not just the best African album I’ve heard in years;
it’s superior to most of the world music releases”
Rumba congolaise lives on, its vivacious rhythms, charming voices and dazzling guitars revived by eight veteran musicians under the collective name of Kekele.
"Something special happening here, with several great Congolese singers teaming up to form a supergroup that harks back to the folksier latin phase of the music the mood is acoustic, the rhythms smooth and catchy as cicadas in the moonlight, the voices sweet and beguiling." Folk Roots
"Kekele is to Central Africa what Buena Vista Social Club is to Cuba." The Weekend