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Niwel Tsumbu

Niwel Tsumbu is the fifth child of a family of six born in 1982 in Democratic Republic of Congo (ex Zaire). Growing up in Kenshasa, he was a shy boy until the day his brother brought a guitar home. Just a week later Niwel's cousin Papy Makaya (who taught Niwel his first piece on the guitar) was amazed with the sixteen year old's ability to learn and play the music of his ancestors - soukous and rumba.

From then on Niwel’s schoolbag was under his bed and the guitar took its place.. His mother’s hopes that her clever son would become an engineer or a lawyer faded as Niwel would lock himself in his room and play all day. He was later introduced to Crispin Ngoy: a very talented musician who passionately taught Niwel jazz. This led to Niwel discovering many other styles of music which influence him to this day.

At seventeen Niwel secretly enrolled himself in music college. He still didn’t own a guitar, and spent endless hours walking from school to home, drop his schoolbag, walk another thirty minutes to borrow a guitar, and then walk some more to Crispin's house for a jam.

NIWEL TSUMBU MOVED TO CORK IN SOUTHWEST IRELAND IN 2004, leaving his troubled motherland of the Congo, looking for a safer and better life. He quickly became involved with the Irish music scene and formed many groups including Sumu, Kimia (Jazzmu), Motema, the Clear Sky Ensemble as well as starting a long-time collaboration with percussionist Eamonn Cagney.

Niwel’s elegant and fluent guitar playing draws from AFRICAN RHYTHMS, RUMBA, JAZZ, CLASSICAL, FLAMENCO and more. Playing electric & acoustic guitars & singing mostly in his native 'Lingala', Niwel plays a range of music that stretches from contemporary versions of Congolese traditional music from the 1930s & 40s to modern jazz. Niwel's love of the Spanish style of guitar playing beautifully exposes Rumba's Latin roots. As well as playing guitar Niwel plays drums, percussion and saxophone.

Still only 28 years old, Niwel has emerged as an engaging and innovative musician and composer and is in constant demand by his contemporaries. He has performed with Buena Vista Social Club, The Wailers, Michael O' Súilleabháin, Kila, Cathy Jordan (Dervish), Steve Cooney and Nigel Kennedy. With Trasna (Mel Mercier, Liam O Maonlai) Niwel performed at the Festival of World Cultures and in China at Expo 2010 alongside Xiaohui Ma. He has shared the stage with Baaba Maal and played concerts in his native Congo and in Paris. His recent interpretation of ‘Electric Counterpoint’ at The Reich Festival in front of Steve Reich was a triumph. Niwel’s year-long residency alongside composer Roger Doyle continues throughout 2011 at the Mermaid Arts Centre, Bray. Niwel continues to perform with Donal Dineen (Parish) at various festivals including Electric Picnic. Gavin Friday has asked Niwel to join him on tour in winter 2011 on his European dates.

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7
Album Review

Rhiannon Giddens: You're The One

Read "You're The One" reviewed by Katchie Cartwright


Rhiannon Giddens has a voracious musical appetite and a big talent that uses everything to fuel her many creative activities. With a MacArthur, a Pulitzer, and multiple Grammys on her shelf, this has not gone unnoticed. In a body of work that includes musicological projects along with different types of art, You're The One focuses on Giddens as a songwriter, in a variety of idioms. “I hope that people just hear American music," she says. “Blues, jazz, Cajun, country, gospel, ...

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Live Review

Improvised Music Company@25, Various Artists At Sugar Club

Read "Improvised Music Company@25, Various Artists At Sugar Club" reviewed by Ian Patterson


Improvised Music Company@25 Sugar Club jny: Dublin, Ireland November 26, 2016 It was an appropriately festive atmosphere in the Sugar Club to mark Improvised Music Company's twenty fifth birthday celebrations. Older musicians, perhaps just starting out a quarter of a century ago, rubbed shoulders with the current generation of aspiring artists. Friends and supporters of IMC turned out in goodly numbers, though not enough to demolish all the iced buns, proudly bearing the ...

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Album Review

D.F.F.: Pouric Songs

Read "Pouric Songs" reviewed by Ian Patterson


D.F.F. is a seven-piece super-group founded by multi-instrumentalist/songwriter Dave Flynn and Pouric Songs is its stellar debut recording. The versatile Flynn is also the man behind the Clare Memory Orchestra--a fusion of Ireland's leading traditional and classical musicians--so it's no surprise that D.F.F. blends genres and colors so seamlessly. Pop, rock, African rhythms and folksy balladry have all gone into the melting pot to produce a vibrant, celebratory idiom. Acoustic and electric guitar rub shoulders with cello and mbira; congas, ...

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Event

D.F.F. - Exciting Cross-Genre Band Play The Button Factory, Dublin, April 10

D.F.F. -  Exciting Cross-Genre Band Play The Button Factory,  Dublin, April 10

Source: All About Jazz

D.F.F. at the Button Factory Saturday 12th April: Doors 8pm D.F.F. featuring the musical talents of Vyvienne Long, Niwel Tsumbu & Dave Flynn. Touring their debut album Pouric Songs out 28 March on Frisbee Records What does D.F.F. stand for one might ask? Well it can mean whatever you want it to mean, whatever definition comes to mind when you hear the exceptional sound of Ireland’s new cross-genre musical sensation! With an incomparable sound, D.F.F. merge singular talents and international ...

"An unmissable listening experience" Hot Press album review S'all Vibration October 2011

“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 Song of the Nations album review April 2009

“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 of Song of the Nations album launch, March 2009

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Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

You're The One

Nonesuch Records
2023

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Pouric Songs

Frisbee Records
2015

buy

Song Of The Nations

Offbeat Records
2008

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