Reviews
Dimbambe: Identité
Affable yet determined, velvet-smooth yet troubled. Such colourful, perhaps contradictory epithets could describe the Cameroonian Mario Combo and his fourth...
Reviewed by Daniel Brown in issue: Jan/Feb/2016
The Days That Shaped Me
Marry Waterson & Oliver Knight
Marry Waterson and Oliver Knight are the children of Lal Waterson, so grew up in that great singing family that...
Reviewed by Julian May in issue: Apr/May/2011
Roforofo Fight
Following Fela Kuti’s trip to the US in 1969, he returned to Nigeria with a revolutionary mission, changed the name of his...
Reviewed by Nigel Williamson in issue: October/2022
Mama Africa
Ignore the title. For although Makeba – who died in 2008 aged 76 – richly deserved the ‘Mama Africa’ soubriquet,...
Reviewed by Nigel Williamson in issue: July/2015
Luna, cera e vino
This is a classy album of Italian electro-folk from a trio that formed back in Caserta, north of Naples, in...
Reviewed by Robin Denselow in issue: December/2025
On the Romance of Being
Based in the Amandawe township in KwaZulu-Natal, Desire Marea has held a place at the centre of South Africa's queer...
Reviewed by Olivia Cheves in issue: May/2023
Conversations with Manol
I loved the idea behind this CD even before I started listening to it; the album pays homage to an...
Reviewed by Maria Lord in issue: Nov/Dec/2013
Catching Ghosts
Peter Brötzmann, Majid Bekkas & Hamid Drake
Peter Brötzmann is a graduate of the 1960s free jazz movement, who plays saxophone clarinet and the Eastern European tárogató....
Reviewed by Jo Setters in issue: July/2023
Black Eagle
Based in New Zealand’s musically-vibrant capital Wellington, singer Iva Lamkum boasts a Samoan-Chinese bloodline, but it’s difficult to identify all...
Reviewed by Seth Jordan in issue: Jan/Feb/2013
