In the new urban culture that invented itself during the fifties in the copper mining towns of Katanga Province in southern Congo and on the Copperbelt in northern Zambia, the guitar became an important status symbol and quickly local styles developed. This also happened in the big southern African railway connection of Bulawayo in Zimbabwe. This is collection of recordings is an exciting document, the emergence of a new sound – including some famous names such as Mwenda Jean Bosco and George Sibanda, but also others like the wandering Copperbelt minstrel Stephen 'Tsotsi' Kasumali, the swing Zambian harmony of the Four Pals, and the raw rumba from up north in Kisangani. The inclusion of a couple of tracks from Malawi testifies further to the speedy spread of the guitar in central southern Africa at this time.
