B & W, the makers of high-end British speakers, went one step better. The company has produced great music to go along with their speakers. The project known as South Africa '95 had a simple mandate; bring into the studio a bunch of South African and western musicians, then watch and see what happens. Among others was Brazilian master percussionist Airto Moreira, Sao Paolo born guitarist Jose Neto, South African bassist Sipho Gumede and Pop Mohammed. After two weeks of spontaneous recording sessions in Jo'burg and Cape Town, Presto! Out came not one but three albums dubbed the Outernational Meltdown Series.
Of the three, Free at Last (B&W 076) is driven purely by that invisible spirit that enables musicians who have never played together to produce something akin to magic. Airto Moreira whips the drums into motion and the rest follows. Throughout the album, there is great inventiveness, a willingness to experiment with sound to make joyful melody. What you get is brilliant flashes of Jazz, a dose of traditional chant, and a fantastic free-for-all percussion. The track The Long Walk to Freedom is long enough (15:17) to lose your head into. But then again who can resist that simmering guitar on the track Sanibonani?
Healers Brew (B&W 077), the second album in the series, is just that, a collection of traditional healing chants, percussions and church hymns. This is a worthwhile album if only for the three tracks of raw acappella by the church group Intethelelo Yabazalwane Choir. My favourite is Mangibe Nawe Baba sung by the full choir (I played it fifteen times straight first time around). The last track Togetherness unites everyone for a wild jam with percussion and wind instruments-and what fun that was.
Jazzin' Universally (B&W 078) combines funky horns, galloping guitar played in the township style, well packaged percussions and feather-touch piano thrown in for good measure. In fact the blaring of horns touch the sky on the tracks Phambili and Nikiwe. Moses Molelekwa, meanwhile, burns the grand Yamaha piano and then some on the track Bo Molelekwa. This is the brave new sound of Jazz in South Africa in the 90s. Overall, this is the strongest album in the series mainly because the talented musicians have space to let it all hang out. Highly recommended.
Zairean vocalist Tabu Ley Rochereau is celebrating the 35th anniversary of music making with the special retrospective Africa Worldwide (Rounder). Backed by his famous band, l'Orchestre Afrisa Internationale, Tabu Ley explores some of his greatest hits from the 60s and 80s. Tabu Ley, whose distinctive sweet pleading voice is a trademark, demonstrates that he remains in top form on titles such as Cafe Rica, Kimakango To Libala, Christina and Marie Clara. Huit Kilos Nseka is hot on the lead guitar. There is only one problem though: Tabu Ley (who has composed more than 2000 songs ) wrote these tunes for the romantic era of Zairean music in the 60s. Here his voice still woos but the new arrangements fail to capture that faraway time when even the angels stopped to listen to the legendary African singer.
Previous editions of Afrodisc are available
Opiyo Oloya is the host of the radio program Karibuni on CIUT 89.5 FM Radio, Toronto. The show airs on Saturday 4:00 PM- 5:00 PM.
E-Mail: Stvincen@inforamp.net