(Reprinted from the October 2020 issue of The New York City Jazz Record)
MIriam Makeba is probably the most influential jazz singer you’ve never heard of. Born in South Africa in the early 1930s, she rose to prominence in the U.S. in the 1960s, performing with the likes of Nina Simone, Dizzy Gillespie, and Harry Belafonte after achieving early success in her own country. Throughout her life she fought against racial injustice, working alongside her husband, civil rights activist Stokely Carmichael, later becoming a U.N. goodwill ambassador. And, according to composer/singer Somi, Makeba was the first African performing artist ever to achieve huge global commercial success. So why isn’t she a household name like Ella Fitzgerald or Sarah Vaughan?
When the pandemic struck in March, Somi was just about to address this hole in the public awareness with the debut of Dreaming Zenzile, her theatrical musical about Makeba’s life. There was to be a month at The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, followed by a month at the McCarter Theatre at Princeton University—all suddenly on hold. The resultant professional pause, however unplanned, gave Somi a moment to catch her breath; she’d been touring extensively following the release of two albums for Sony/Okeh in as many years, The Lagos Music Salon and Petite Afrique, inspired by her time spent living in Africa and among African ex-pats. (U.S.-based Somi was born in Africa to a Rwandan father and an Ugandan mother.) So, itching for the next thing, she birthed another album, Holy Room: Live At Alte Oper With Frankfurt Radio Big Band (Salon Africana), a recording of her first big band gig ever.
The two-disc release contains 11 tracks—almost all originals from Somi’s earlier albums and each an exploration of what she calls the “in between,” or the space that bridges her different cultural identities. Tunes like “Black Enough,” with its driving pulse and high-powered vocals, and “Two Dollar Day,” a viscerally emotive piano-voice duet, demonstrate Somi’s wide-ranging skills as both composer and vocalist. Enhanced by conductor John Beasley’s pithy large ensemble arrangements, Somi’s compositions go a long way to forwarding her timely insights. Like Makeba, she has something to say and the vocal chops to make herself heard.
Last April, saxophonist Oran Etkin launched his Open Arms project—one new single recorded on location somewhere around the globe to be released each month throughout 2020. These singles, featuring Etkin’s collaborations with local musicians from several far-flung places, isn’t so much about crafting worldly hybridizations (although Elkin does this) but about sharing the delight of music-making. Each musician brings their undiluted, uncompromised musical expression to the table. Elkin himself brings an astonishing versatility as a reed player and improvisational composer; his ability to verbalize intelligibly through the musical instruments in his hands is uncanny. In June he dropped the single “Nhema Musasa” (translated, “Building A New Home”), a preview of his upcoming Open Arms Zimbabwe album. On this teaser, Etkin riffs on the bass clarinet alongside percussionist Musekiwa Chingodza, who sings the tune’s traditional Shona melody as he thumbs the mbira. The joyousness in this West-meets-Africa musical dialogue is infectious—in the background school children dance along while strolling down the street. Etkin’s music, written in unabashed appreciation of disparate vocal and instrumental traditions, usually has this effect on people.
Master saxophonist Dave Liebman (one of Etkin’s former profs) takes center stage on The Rise Up: Stories of Strife, Struggle, and Inspiration (Dünya), a three-part composition for jazz orchestra and chorus by Turkish composer Mehmet Sanlikol. This sophisticated work, based on Turkish and Sephardic Jewish history, melds big band orchestrations with Middle Eastern wind, string, and percussion instruments; the accompanying vocals span a smooth devotional arc from Sanlikol’s searing solo prayer on “Spain” to a Byzantine choral Kyrie on “A Confrontation in Anatolia”. Enchanting performances in service to compelling narratives.
Singers Buika, Luciana Souza, Letizia Gambi and Aimée Allen join pianist Fahir Atakoğlu on For Love (Far & Here), a rich, complex album featuring Atakoğlu’s musically inclusive compositions. Beyond this, each individualistic singer on this release wrote lyrics in her original language—Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and English—for the Turkish-American composer’s intriguing melodies.
The Frankfurt Big Band commissioned composer-conductor John Hollenbeck to arrange Songs You Like A Lot, an eight-track album featuring vocalists Theo Bleckmann and Kate McGarry on a series of conventional pop tunes in unconventional jazz orchestra settings. This album both completes Hollenbeck’s trilogy of beloved songs and debuts his new nonprofit label, Flexatronic Arts.