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Papa Noel

From: Africa > Congo/DRC (Zaire)

Genres: Rumba (Congolese), Soukous, Traditional

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Born on Christmas Day, Antoine Nedule Montswet (Papa Noel) always went by the name Noel. A city boy, removed from the traditional influences of the village, Noel fell in love with Cuban son at an early age. During his childhood, he witnessed the birth and early flourishing of the Congolese music recording industry. That music transferred the Cuban sound onto guitars, and Noel wasted no time in getting his hands on one. He set about learning both Cuban songs, and the new hits recorded by Congolese musicians like Wendo and Henri Bowane.

Noel took to hanging around music studios, and was one of the musicians lucky enough to get pointers from expatriate Belgian jazz guitarist Bill Alexandre, who helped many early Congo pop musicians. Noel drew attention showing off his Django riffs, and got his first recording date at 16, backing singer Léon Bukasa.

Stints in many Congo bands would follow for the young guitarist. He joined singer Rossignol Lando and saxophonist Jean-Serge Essous--recent renegades from Franco's OK Jazz--in forming the group Rock-a-Mambo, the band that crossed the Congo River to Brazzaville in 1960 to become Orchestre Bantou. Three years later, Noel came home and played behind the Grand Kallé in Orchestre African Jazz. Less flashy than the celebrated Dr. Nico, Papa Noel--as he became known--was a masterful guitarist, able to shift smoothly from rhythm to lead guitar, and also the mi-solo or third guitarist's role.

Papa Noel tried his hand at band leading with his 1968 group Orchestre Bamboula, but he found that playing was more interesting to him than band administration--hard work in the competitive Congolese outfits of that day! He then moved from band to band for awhile, but in 1978 settled into a 12-year stint in TPOK Jazz, alongside the great Franco, the preeminent Congolese guitarist of that era. Noel's nimble finger work complimented Franco's fierce attack nicely. Noel moonlighted occasionally, notably to record a tremendously successful 1984 album, Bon Samaritain. Though enraged at Noel's extra-curricular activities--seen as treasonous in those days--Franco couldn't part with his favorite number two guitarist.

After Franco's death in 1989, Papa Noel moved to Brussels. He recorded an album with TPOK Jazz spin-off group Bana OK, and then made another recording under his own name, Haute Tension in 1994. Songs from that and Bon Samaritain appear on a compilation called Bel Ami. In 1998, Noel recorded a classy, largely acoustic session with vocal legend Sam Mangwana, Galo Negro, and that led directly to his own acoustic group performances, a highlight of the WOMAD festival in 2000.

2001 started out gangbusters for Noel, with two great new releases on tap: Rumba Congo with the Congo veterans' group Kékélé, and an intimate recording with Cuban guitarist Adan Pedroso, Mosala Makasi. Then, in May, Noel fell seriously ill, just as he was about to begin touring.

- contibuted by Banning Eyre (www.afropop.org) and adapted from Ken Braun's liner notes to the CD "Bel Ami."

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Cafe Noir

There are centuries-old ties that bind the Congo and Cuba, dance steps that swayed from central Africa to the Caribbean and back again. The story of Congolese guitarist Papa Noel and his latest African-Cuban collaboration, Café Noir, is the latest word in a long and fruitful cultural conversation spanning the Atlantic.

In the 1930s, Cuban sounds took the Belgian Congo by storm. The rhythms of the rumba, originating in a Congolese dance brought by slaves to the island long before, were delightfully, eerily familiar to Congolese musicians and dancers. Imported records inspired a new generation of musicians to explore the Cuban transformation of their ancestors’ songs, creating what became known as rumba congo, a musical form that hit a nerve throughout Africa.

At first, bands played tunes they learned from Cuban recordings, sometimes inventing Spanish-sounding lyrics, but soon they crafted their own original songs with words in the local language of Lingala or in French. Against the backdrop of colonialism and dictatorship, their music assumed a truly African flair and started a musical craze that soon spread across the Congo and beyond.

Seventy-eights of Cuban son and Congolese rumba spun on many a prized phonograph player around Léopoldville, now Kinshasa, including the turntable at the home of the young Nedule Montswet, later known as Papa Noel thanks to his Christmas birthday. Noel listened from an early age to his mother’s record collection, which featured Congolese rumba greats like Antoine Wendo, whose songs were believed by some fans to have magical powers.

"I was very lucky that I had all these amazing ‘babysitters,’” Noel mused in a 2002 interview with Jane Cornwall for Jazzwise Magazine. “I mean, Wendo's [1948] song ‘Maria Louise’ was held to be so powerful it could raise the dead! I couldn't help but be inspired by these musicians. They were the first epoch of a particular style of Congolese rumba."

Noel became an apprentice of sorts to the legendary musicians of this first generation of rumba congo players. After years of absorbing Cuban and Congolese sounds, Noel taught himself to play the guitar when his mother encouraged him to pursue his passion for music. Meanwhile, a tide of talented young musicians had gathered in 1950s Léopoldville, replacing the trés and piano parts found in their favorite Cuban songs with the guitar and infusing the new music with African jazz sensibilities. Noel began to hang around studios where musicians like Wendo recorded, learning the ropes and deepening his self-guided education in rumba congo.
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All songs just $0.99 each!

	Title	Length
	Africa Mokili Mobimba	5:53

	Democratic	6:34

	Lolita	4:41

	Salsa Africaine	4:54

	Cafe Noir	5:23

	Sandokan	5:31

	Soleil	5:36

	Tomatito	5:38

	Soukous Son	4:51

	Latin Reverie	3:32

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Bel Ami

This is an excellent window into the early bandleading efforts of one of Congo music's classiest guitarists. In 1984, Papa Noel slipped away from his duties in Franco's TPOK Jazz, and quietly recorded an album called Bon Samaritain in Brazzaville. When the release became a hit, Franco fumed, but Noel kept his job. Ten years later, Noel was living in Brussels and put together another band to...
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Need Help listening to Samples?

All songs just $0.99 each!

	Title	Length
	Bon Samaritain	6:34

	Malou	6:58

	Madiabuana	7:15

	Simba Martha	6:27

	Bel Ami	7:20

	Bebe Dady	5:14

	Kizungu Zungu	8:22

	Tshe Tshe	4:28

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