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ext up, Samba’s going acoustic. “I’ve started work- ing in the studio with Charlie Hart and Ben Mandel- son. We’re working on something different, totally acoustic sounds to represent my voice. It’s an experi- ment and we’re going to see if it works. The danc-
ing side with Virunga will always be there, but I want to try this acoustic side too.”
“We’re throwing Samba in with these evil geniuses,” is how CC describes the project, which also features jazz drummer Roy Dodds amongst others. “It’s not necessarily in the soukous-rumba groove at all. It’s really expanding his compositions.”
Mandelson has known Samba since 1980, when he witnessed a performance of the original Virunga line-up at the Starlight Club in Nairobi. Suitably blown away by what he heard, he’s kept in touch ever since and planned to put out Virunga Volcano as the first release on his GlobeStyle label back then, until contractual problems got in the way. The acoustic project is the first time that he and Samba have really worked together (although he does get a “thank you” on the sleeve of Feet On Fire). “For a long time now, Charlie Hart and I have joked about Oh Samba Where Art Thou, the lost Samba Mapangala bluegrass album,” Ben tells me, when we chat a few weeks after my interview with Samba and CC. “Down from the Virunga mountain. These acoustic projects tend to have a reason to exist, people respond to their message of authenticity. It’s something new and different and yet, at the same time harking back to an earlier era.”
Ben suggests that I talk to Charlie Hart and so I ring the renowned Slim Chancer and producer the following evening. He first met Samba when he and his wife were trekking around Africa in the late ’80s (a last taste of freedom before starting a family). Ben had tipped him off about Samba and so he found himself meeting Mr Mapangala backstage at Nairobi’s Garden Square club. “He pulled out a copy of an album which included Malako Disco,” Charlie explains. “The album that was to become Virunga Volcano (although that wasn’t what it was known as at the time). He told me that it had been released in the West a year ago, but he hadn’t seen a penny in royalties and asked ‘Can you help?’ That put me in a difficult position, because I thought, I can’t say no as I’ll feel guilty about it. But if I say yes, what am I letting myself in for?” Reluctantly he took on the case and sometime later man- aged to secure Samba £1500. They’ve been friends ever since.
“Samba’s been recording mainly in the Paris style for the past ten years,” says Charlie (referring to Samba’s recordings pre-Maisha Ni Matamu). “It’s fine, but it’s only one direction. And he’s been asking me for a new direction.” They’ve been working in Charlie’s Equator Studios, built on the back of his house. “The acoustic set- ting is challenging him in a good way and I’m really pleased with the quality of his singing. We’ve already done three tracks which are nearly complete and he’s taking stuff back to the States with him to work on there.” The plan is to hopefully release the acoustic album next year and maybe tie in some UK live dates too.
One way or another, Samba Mapangala really is back.
reverbnation.com/sambamapangala
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Photo: Michael G Stewart
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