Women of Africa
Women have always been at the center of sub-Saharan music, as they were the keepers of the hearth, intimately involved in the life-sustaining mysteries of agriculture, food preparation, birth, and death. However, Africa, like the rest the world, is in the throes of social change. Female roles are evolving and the artists heard here represent a confident, worldly sensibility. The roster encompasses Dorothy Masuka's comfortable, gospel-flavored South African jazz, Maria de Barrios' sensual Cape Verdean morna, and a liltingly tonal ballad from Paris-based Algerian refugee Souad Massi. But a major reason to purchase this album is the track byKhadja Ninof Burundi; her deep-toned, knowing, unpolished voice transforms aStevie Wondertune into an ecstatic anthem of empowerment. Despite the occasional overuse of easy-fix electric keyboards, each singer emerges as a force to be reckoned with as, one by one, their voices salute the earth and soar into the heavens. --Christina Roden