Sangoma

About

In many ways, Miriam Makeba’s <i>Sangoma</i> is an album of both personal and historic significance. This collection of traditional Xhosa tribal songs was recorded in 1988, two years before the singer’s triumphant return to her native South Africa at the end of the apartheid era. By that time, Makeba had transcended her importance as an international pop star to become a Pan-African cultural ambassador. Not surprisingly, <i>Sangoma</i> is both an homage to the past and a salute to a new world about to dawn. Makeba’s trademark vocal command and dexterity is largely intact from her younger days, filling these tracks with a keening longing and boundless sense of joy. Singing most of her own background vocals, she interweaves soaring counterpoints against minimal percussion. Highlights here include the stirring “Ngalala Phantsi,” the celebratory “Angilalanga,” and the subdued, poignant “Congo.” At times (as in “Mabhongo”), Makeba has a regal bearing; at others (“Ngiya Khuyeka”), she sounds as carefree as a child. It’s worth noting that a <i>sangoma</i> is a spirit-channeling tribal healer — an appropriate name for an album that exorcizes painful ghosts and touches the sublime.

via Apple Music

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