London-based Congolese guitarist Otis Lumumba has come up with a musical boost for environmental conservation. He has launched a new instrumental album titled Äfter the Rain .
Otis, who says it took four years to work on the album, is optimistic that it will be an inspiration to his fans globally. Speaking to the Saturday Nation earlier this week, he expressed his delight in having the music available on YouTube, i-tunes Äfter the rain by Otis Lumumba, Apple music, and all the social media platforms.
“It's been a long journey of preparing the tracks and I am glad I finally have something unique for my fans touching on human nature,“ he said. Notably, the track, Papa Gaby is dedicated to the legendary Papa Gaby, who, he says, was his mentor in music back home in Kinshasa. This was before he joined the Orch Wenge Musica Maison Mere led by Werrason (Ngiama Makanda).
London-based Congolese guitarist Otis Lumumba has come up with a musical boost for environmental conservation.
Photo credit: File | Nation Media Group
“Papa Gaby was not only a mentor but also an inspiration to many up-and-coming guitarists from DR Congo," he said. Other tracks on the new album include; Earth love, Masuwa, Masolo, Plus Plus, Forest Wind, Tshabuala and Ëbale .
The beats on the album range from rhumba to Soukous. Also featuring on harmony guitar is his fellow UK- based guitarist Burkina Faso "Mboka Liya".Later in the year, he plans to release other tracks, this time with vocals. He is also planning to tour Kenya.
His Kenyan fans will remember his last trip to Nairobi in December 2019, when he accompanied Kanda Bongo Man to perform during the Koroga Festival.
This was his second visit to Kenya having last performed at the Carnivore Restaurant in 2001. Then, he was one of the guitarists with crooner Werrason's Wenge Musica band. This was when he performed alongside ace guitarist Flamme Kapaya and crooner Ferre Gola.
Otis Lumumba.
Photo credit: Pool
For Otis, 2019 visit, was one of his last major tours outside England, as thereafter there was the global outbreak of the Covid- 19 pandemic. He recalled it was during the pandemic break that he got more time to work on tracks on the new album.
"With more young and middle-aged people increasingly showing an interest in music, it has been my ambition to not only feature as a guitarist on stage but also to encourage many up-and-coming instrumentalists," he said. For him, Kenya remains one of his favourite performance spots, bearing in mind that this was one of the last countries where the original Wenge Musica band performed before it split in 1997.
Later after the Nairobi show, Otis was in the Wenge Musica band in 2002 for a grand concert at the Zenith Hall in Paris. While the rest of the Wenge Musica band members returned to Kinshasa, Otis opted to move to London where he lives to date.
From his London base, besides occasionally backing up Kanda Bongo Man on tours, Otis also teams up with fellow Congolese singer and dancer Nickens Nkoso and guitarist and producer Fiston Lusambo, among others.
