Blog January 21, 2022
Angola’s Bonga Offers A Rolling Acoustic Semba Single
Angolan semba infuses the dancey, fleet fingerwork of Congolese
guitar-playing with that soulful, sad Lusaphone tonality, a fusion of
folk music and musics from Cuba, Brazil and elsewhere. Celebrating a
50-year career as an artist, Bonga is a bit of an elder statesman of
the genre, but to hear his latest single, his husky voice has aged
beautifully. The arrangement by his longtime guitarist Betinho Feijo
positively rollicks.
From his upcoming
album, out Feb. 18 on
Lusafrica, hear “Ti Zuela” right here:
This is the second
single from the album, following 2020’s “Kudia Kuetu,” a duet
with the French singer Camélia Jordana. His last full-length came out in 2016, the soulful Racados De Fora.
