Music
Press
"This new disc has a coherent direction - predominantly jazz rock - and showcases some clever instrumentation and lively compositions"
- Songlines 3/5 stars album review
“Tsumbu’s guitar playing is nothing short of exceptional and the wall of sound that hits you once you press play is infectious. If you’re one of the many unfortunate ones who can’t afford a holiday this year, pick up Song of the Nations and experience the world from the comfort of your armchair”
- Hot Press album review
“Niwel and his band are at the top of their profession…Niwel Tsumbu’s live show is unmissable”
- StarLife Magazine live review
“Antidotes to the recession don’t come much more potent than this. Niwel Tsumbu’s indomitable, infectious spirit invaded the intimate confines of Whelan’s before his first song had evaporated. Tsumbu takes his audience on a journey of discovery that traverses the peaks and troughs of life’s unpredictable terrain with startling precision. He gives full rein to a sweep of syncopated rhythms that have many punters grasping and gasping to keep up.”
- Irish Times live review
“There’s something about Tsumbu’s native language, Lingala that has infused the Congolese guitarist and singer with a spellbinding fluency....Tsumbu’s confident juxtaposition of clarinet and guitar, insistent percussion and declamatory vocals trace a path that’s all his own...tribal rhythms and transcendent male harmonies declare Tsumbu’s intention to carve a niche nobody else has even dreamt of”
- Irish Times 4/5 stars album review
“an unmissable listening experience... while his voice reeks of the heat and dust of central Africa, Tsumbu's guitar-playing is a thing of joy” Hot Press
- Hot Press Magazine Oct 2011
Discography
‘UH! E ZA NZELA MOLAYI’ 2006
‘SONG OF THE NATIONS’ 2009
'S'ALL VIBRATION' 2011
Airplay on local and national radio in Ireland, UK and in Congo
Photos
Bio
Aged sixteen Niwel picked up the guitar in Kinshasa. He had an innate ability to play his ancestral music - soukous and rumba. Niwel's compositions stretch from contemporary versions of Congolese music from the 1930s to modern jazz.
Niwel moved to Ireland in 2004. His third album ‘S’ALL VIBRATION’ was released in October 2011. Hot Press Magazine described it as “an unmissable listening experience”. He has performed with Baaba Maal, Buena Vista Social Club, at China Expo 2010, Paris and in Congo. His interpretation of ‘Electric Counterpoint’ at The Reich Festival in front of Steve Reich was a triumph.
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