Amon Mvula – African Rhumba (Gallo, 2000): 12 tracks, 66 minutes
This is apparently the fifth album by an award-winning young singer/composer from the Northern Province of South Africa, of Venda and Zimbabwean stock, with a powerful voice, and a good knowledge of and feeling for danceable West and Southern African and Caribbean musical genres.
The end result is a very acceptable variety of tracks, drawing on various influences, competently fused together to produce some fun music, even though not noticeably South African. Once again it confirms the extraordinary width, depth and versatility of South African musicians, who excel in numerous contemporary strands of the multifibered world music scene, in addition to their own rich heritage.
The accompanying notes provide a reasonable summary of the lyrics, but tell us nothing about the predominantly synthetic instrumentation – probably of little concern to most listeners for whom the priority is the package, not the packaging! As for the package itself, according to the notes, Amon Mvula plays music “to entertain – to listen, to dance and to have fun’. Well, in my view, he succeeds!
Author: William Bain
William Bain wrote these reviews while he was host of ‘Chimes of Freedom’ on CFFF/ Trent Radio (Peterborough, Ontario, Canada)