One of the Afro-Latin crossovers at the heart of world music is the Congolese rumba.

Visitors to Brighton and Hove in recent years have proved how vibrant the music remains.

Kanda Bongo Man, Papa Wemba, Mose Fan Fan and Santana Mongoley variously celebrate rumba and the soukous sounds that followed it.

The man to whom they owe the greatest debt is Wendo Kolosoy, who appears at the Dome Concert Hall with members of his band Victoria Bakolo Miziki.

Papa Wendo is a walking history lesson. An accomplished singer and guitarist before his teens and orphaned at ten, he became a mechanic on riverboats and a professional boxer during the early Forties.

His first hit, Marie Louise, came in 1948, with his status as the star of Congolese rumba continuing for two decades.

Ever uncompromising, he chose to avoid the political complications that came with the Mobutu regime and, as a result, was not active for the next three decades, apart from one album in 1991.

1997 brought Laurent Kabila to power and a more accommodating atmosphere for Wendo - Kabila having been a fan of his music as a child.

Wendo has since made up for lost time, touring Europe and the USA in 2000.

In Kinshasa, Zaire, he presides over a collective of 30 dancers and musicians.

Now approaching 78, Papa Wendo is still in fine voice.

He has a new album, Amba, recorded with several fellow veterans and some new blood, including a horn section, percussionist and vocalists.

Kanda Bongo Man provides the perfect support for the maestro. He broke through with his 1983 Womad debut to become the most successful soukous star, confirmed by his 2002 reappearance.

Growing up in the Seventies, Papa Wendo's stirring rumba would have provided the essential soundtrack for Kanda and his peers.

He left school at 18 to join his first band in Kinshasa and was quickly snapped up by the leading group, Orchestre Bella Mambo, in 1976.

His contribution to soukous includes the dynamic kwassa kwassa dance rhythm.