Tembo Kia Ngoma

This is an instrumental album of Congolese and Central African percussion rhythms performed by a musician based in the San Francisco area. Kiazi Malonga is the son and student of the late Malonga Casquelourd – a teacher of Central African dance, drum and folklore. Kiazi has clearly learned well from his father and this album is a good introduction to the concept of ngoma being not just drum but also dance and song. Augmenting the percussion is some excellent and elegant Congolese rumba-style electric guitar performed by the record's producer Justin Phipps, who also adds bass and marimba.

In addition to an array of layered polyrhythmic drums, Kiazi adds mpungui, a traditional antelope horn blown like a trumpet, and kisansi thumb piano. Among the highlights are ‘Lomami’, which is in a Kasai moutouashi dance, and ‘Ntâli Jazz’, a delightfully slinky piece featuring a horn section peppered by Kiazi's dynamic drumming. The album closes with a drum passage, the spoken words of Kiazi's father and an extremely uplifting choral segment taken from a 1990s recording of a 40-strong choir under his (the father's) direction.