Reflections

For over five decades, the South African vocalist and anti-Apartheid icon Miriam Makeba, aka "Mama Africa," put her country's music on the map and was an early world music pioneer. This multilingual CD features percussion, string, and horn arrangements of old and new songs, including contributions by her ex-husband Hugh Masakela and composer Caiphus Semenya. "I'm in Love with Spring" is a lush duet with singer Nelson Lumumba Lee. Van Morrison's "I Shall Sing" is rendered in an infectious motherland pulse, matched by the bouncy Braziian numbers "Mas Que Nada," and "Xica Da Silva" by Jorge Ben. But Makeba's 21st-century retakes of her Xhosa-language, township-tempo classics "Pata Pata" and "Click Song" are the high points here. Though her voice is tempered by the wear and tear of time, the regality and rhythms of her homeland still ring through. --Eugene Holley, Jr.