A long-time music business acquaintance recently did me the favor of introducing me to the music of Simphiwe Dana of South Africa. She prepped my by saying she was "the India.Arie of South Africa." That intriguing intro plus my respect for her taste in music created quite a lot of anticipation in me to hear this lady's music. The CD cover only added to the anticipation. It presented Simphiwe in a black and turquoise outfit, a kind of vaguely Asian/ somewhat Star-Trekian pantsuit. Huge cylindrical indgo headgear, an exaggeration of traditional female Zulu or Xhosa headgar and more than a little reminiscent oof Erykah Badu's towering wrap, perched on her head, decorated by mystical turquoise symbols. The attractive, youthful, bronze-complected young woman stares dead at you from a background that could be desert but looks more like the surface of the moon, bathed in turquoise light.
Put on the CD, which is her debut album from 2004, entitled "Zandisile." The album opens with "Yukani", an atmospheric vamp with a slinky Badu-esque vocal. Another cut, "Ndiredi", opens with stark, evocative vocal lines over what sounds like a harp, joined by luscious harmony vocals...it then ships into an uptempo groove rooted in gospel but inflected with township jazz and then opens up into pop choruses. Most of the songs are sung in Xhosa but there are couple of songs with English lyrics, "Tribe" ( love song, surprisingly) and "Troubled Soldier," (sample lyric: "felt the chains pulling me down/ all the way down deep underground/ saw my heroes dropping yeah yeah/ lethargy set in like disease/ CHORUS: troubled soldier in the know/ burdened by the future passed/ fighting fighting we're all fighting/ for a chance at the sun. The album is an unclassfiable collage of jazz, soul, South African township styles, Zap Mama-esque vocal interplay and more. Though some of the songs are not distinguished, they all sound wonderful on the surface. The quality of musicianship, singing and production is a rare delight in these times.
The quality of Zandisile made me immediately seek out her 2nd album, "The One Love Movement On Bantu Biko Street" , which sports another intergalactic cover. It opens with rich female harmonies, a Sweet Honey In The Rock kind of vibe but soon a acoustic ensemble of string, bass, drums, piano and percussion comes in, the piano playing jazz chords. Dana's voice is marvelous, rich, strong, alternately intimate and soaring. Overall this album is a little more jazz-oriented and the township elements are more prominent but it delivers the same wondrous quality of the first. It just is damn good to listen to.
Simphiwe Dana has been performing in Europe and a buzz is building apparently. A number of video clips of her performing are on YouTube as is her very striking video clip for "Zandisile". These can give you a flavor of her better than any description I could come up with. Some folks are evidently saying she's the new Miriam Makeba (which tends to happen to any strong-voiced female singer from South Africa); it is not a crazy comparison but when I first listened to her I didn't immediately think of Makeba. Others compare her to Lauryn Hill, though she doesn't rap at all as far as I can tell. The India.Arie comparison is fair enough except that Simphiwe is far more jazz rooted than India. If pushed to make a comparison, I would come up with Diane Reeves, except that Simphiwe is coming from South African milieu and roots and incorporating jazz and soul and Western pop, whereas Diane Reeves is coming from an American milieu and incoporating African elements at times. Whatever the comparisons or labels, ultimately Simphiwe is unclassifiable--and wonderful! Do yourself a favor and check her out. Both cd's availabe on Amazon.
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