A curious work, created by a Belgium friar on a mission in what was then Belgium Congo in 1953. This is a re-issue of the original 10 inch from 1958, with some added songs. Father Guido Haazen started an ensemble as soon as he arrived in Congo and a few years later he asked and got permission to call them after the Belgium king Baudouin I.
The Missa Luba is composed by Haazen, but only in 1964 it was written down for publication. It must have been done from memory until then. The work inspired many derivatives, like the one I wrote about earlier: the Missa Criolla. It also formed an important basis for the ritual of the catholic mass in Congo, the so called Zaire Use, approved by the Vatican in 1988.