Taffetas: Fanta (Rasa)
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The
unmistakable strains of the kora begin this enchanting
album, followed by acoustic bass and guitar. The trio achieves
a delicately woven balance of African-based sound, which
takes on a whole new feeling when, on the fifth track,
Italian vocalist Francesca Cassio brings her wordless vocal
improvisations into the mix. Fanta is
like being invited to a tight but relaxed summit of top
global string players. Highly recommended.
Somi: Red
Soil in My Eyes (World Village)
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This
album took me by surprise. I have certain expectations
from an artist whose roots lie in Rwanda and Uganda. Somi
quickly dashed those expectations, surprising with a splash
of fresh world jazz. The opening track "Ingele" prominently
features talking drum, but the arrangement and Somi's African-language
vocals tell
a tale of jazz. As the album progresses, Somi sings more
in English, reinforcing the jazz side of her lyrical music,
though the African roots are never completely buried. As
Somi says in the notes, "I wanted the organicism of
my returning Home to be clearly placed in the sonic, visual,
and emotional
aesthetic of those memories. Red Soil in My Eyes is
about looking Home for clarity, for grounding, for guidance."
Think Gino Sitson and Richard Bona more than Fela, or just
put Somi in the company of Cassandra Wilson, with whom
Somi shared the Blue Note jazz club's stage in 2005. With
this beautiful, genre-bending album, Somi is sure to win
over many new fans who can see past narrow genre labels.
King
Sunny Ade: Gems from the Classic Years (1967-1974) (Shanachie)
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Can't
get enough Nigerian juju? Or perhaps you turn your nose
up at the current artists injecting hip-hop into their
version of juju? Then you're in luck with this latest compilation
from Shanachie. A follow up to The Best of the Classic
Years, this album draws form the twelve albums Ade recorded
for the Nigerian label African Songs during this time span.
The 16 tracks are raw and wonderful, with the vocals, percussion,
and guitar that defined the juju sound. The track listing
is a bit puzzling: The CD cover lists 16 tracks, breaking
down the medleys into their specific songs, while the actual
CD has only 16 tracks. Except for annoying DJs who don't
have the leisure to air a full 17-minute track, this should
be a minor distraction from a joyous addition to the library
of historical African music.
IndiaLucia: IndiaLucia (Rasa)
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Indialucia
stakes their cross-cultural claim from the first notes
of their self-titled album, with the percussive stains
of flamenco guitar joined by Indian percussion vocals.
Flamenco and Indian music aren't different traditions,
of course, the former having grown from the Roma diaspora,
roaming from India across the world and creating new musical
forms at every stop. The Indian-flamenco connection was
also explored in the film When
The Road Bends: Tales of a Gypsy Caravan. IndiaLucia
brings to this cultural conversation a fluid virtuosity
and energy to spare, and I'll be returning to this album
again and again.
Ricardo
Lemvo & Makina Loca: Isabela (Mopiato
Music)
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"Cuba.
Congo. The musical relationship between the two places
goes back almost five centuries. It is made of iron." Thus
begin the liner notes to the fifth album by African-born
Ricardo Lemvo. It's spicy, danceable salsa throughout,
with just touches of African roots. But what touches! Congolese
guitar legend Papa Noel plays on four tunes. And Lemvo
sings in Kikongo, Lingala, and Swahili as well as Spanish
and Portuguese. He even learned to sing in Turkish for
his version of the "Elbette" by Candan Ercetin, which
Lemvo turns into a smoky bolero. For dancing or listening,
Isabela delivers in style.
Céu:
Céu (Six
Degrees)
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The
buzz about Céu reached me long before her music
did. Often this is a bad sign, an indication of hype trying
to overcome
a mediocre product. Now that I've had a listen to her self-titled
album, I'm inclined to jump on the effusive praise bandwagon.
Céu has the funky sense of Daude with an added dollop
of soul. Born Maria do Céu Whitaker Poças,
the artist's shortened name means "heaven" or "sky," a
fitting image for the clean, airy vocals she lays over
a bed of rhythm with a touch of electronics. Céu
avoids the pitfalls that doom so many attempts to blend
roots music with electronica. Instead, she's got a great
album that I'll put alongside Ojos de Brujo and Bole2Harlem
in the category of great modern world music.
Ron
Wiseman: Mystical Mood (Marshmellow
Records)
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A
Manitoba-born Jewish reggae singer? Well, yeah! Who says
reggae can't include kickin' oud solos? Wiseman doesn't
have the most powerful voice, but his conscious
compositions are musically engaging and lyrically uplifting.
©2007
Scott Allan Stevens, Earball Media |
