niwel tsumbu

About NIWEL

Niwel Tsumbu is a Congolese-born, Ireland-based guitarist with a virtuosic style drawing on jazz, classical, rock, folk and rumba. He has earned praise from All About Jazz for his ‘exquisite and almost seamless’ global fusion and has performed with Sinead O’Connor, Buena Vista Social Club and Baaba Maal. Tsumbu’s music is anchored in his sophisticated sense of rhythm, his virtuosic guitar playing and his thrilling improvisations. He is in high demand as an African guitar teacher for the World Music Method, and his popular Instagram reels videos garner up to hundreds of thousands of views.

In 2021, Tsumbu’s global reach was cemented with his guitar work on the Grammy Award-winning album They’re Calling Me Home by Rhiannon Giddens and Francesco Turrisi. He is also a member the Rhiannon Giddens band touring the world at the moment.

At times Tsumbu’s music is a deep emotional well, drawing joy and sadness from universal human waters. At other times it’s a high-tech vehicle flashing with excitement across nations, continents, and the cosmos.

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