Ay Valeria!

Ay Valeria!

• Angola/Congo/Usa

Ricardo Lemvo has added a new touch to rumba music over the years, mixing Cuban and West African sounds. Born in Kinshasa, the capital of Zaire, Lemvo started out by playing in bands that covered American R&B, learning his English phonetically from the song lyrics. But he heard the rumba incessantly on the radio, and also in his cousin's large record collection. After moving to Los Angeles and paying his dues in the music scene, he formed his own group, Makina Loca (a deliberate misspelling of maquina loca, Spanish for crazy machine) On "Ay Valeria," Ricardo and friends serve up fiery salsa with explosive African Soukous guitars.