Les Troubadours Du Roi Baudouin - Missa Luba

Who would've thought there are so many different catholic masses; it just gets weirder and weirder. Here's one I read about in "Can't Find My Way Home" by Martin Torgoff, a book on the history of drugs in America. Timothy Leary speaks: "This is around the time we first started calling it acid. I remember lying flat on our backs for hours. We'd listen to Ravi Shankar and Missa Louba, from Zaire, which is the mass, partly in Latin, done entirely with drums and African chanting. That was one of our favorites, along with the late quartets of Beethoven." I mean, how much more of a recommendation do you need?
A Belgian missionary, father Guido Haazen, came to Congo in the 1950s to preach and teach. He formed a catholic school for boys, and with it a choir of about 45 kids, with percussion section - "The Troubadours of King Baudouin". The present recording is an attempt to reinvent the lithurgy using native music as a basis. Many sections of the mass are latin texts adapted to the folk melodies.
I included liner notes and a couple of articles in the archive, so I'll keep it brief. A reissue LP (1969?) had the mass on one side and some of the original folk songs on the other. The original LP (1963) also had a few more tracks ("children's songs from Baluba") that were omitted from the subsequent reissues, not sure why. I located and included three of these as a bonus; the quality is lower than the rest.


Les Troubadours Du Roi Baudouin - Missa Luba, 1963
320kbps, 76mb on depositfiles
1. Dibwe Diambula Kabanda (Marriage Song)
2. Lutuku & A Bene Kanyoka (Emergence From Grief)
3. Ebu Ewale Kemai (Marriage Ballad)
4. Katunbu [Katumbo] (Dance)
5. Seya Ya Mama Ndalamba (Marital Celebration)
6. Banaha (Soldiers Song)
7. Twai Tshinaminai (Work Song)
8. Missa Luba: Kyrie
9. Missa Luba: Gloria
10. Missa Luba: Credo
11. Missa Luba: Sanctus
12. Missa Luba: Benedictus
13. Missa Luba: Agnus Dei
BONUS:
14. Kamiole [Children's songs from Baluba]
15. Kamuyambi [Children's songs from Baluba]
16. Katende [Children's songs from Baluba]

Alternative artwork