Real Sounds of Africa

The Real Sounds, an 11-piece line-up based in the Zimbabwean capital of Harare and consisting entirely of Zairean musicians, are the most successful proponents of the rumba outside Zaire itself. The group was founded by guitarist Ghaby Mumba, who was born in Kinshasa and played with a variety of local bands before joining the Government-sponsored Orchestre Diables Noirs, playing a mixture of jazz, rock ‘n' roll and rumba in the OK Jazz mould. In 1967, two years after the end of the civil war, Mumba left for Zambia, capitalizing on the local interest in Congolese music with a s...