Lorraine Klaasen - Africa Calling

Styles: Vocal, World
Year: 2008
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 53:20
Size: 134,9 MB
Art: Front

(4:35)  1. Jabulani
(4:19)  2. Ziyaduma
(5:54)  3. La Reine
(4:15)  4. Spring In Every Season
(4:59)  5. Imbizo
(3:52)  6. Malayisha
(5:47)  7. Africa Calling
(5:07)  8. Ngiyabonga
(4:42)  9. Mina Nawe
(5:00) 10. Ntyilo Ntyilo
(4:45) 11. In My Dream

Lorraine Klaasen is certainly one of the best, if not deepest-rooted South African song stylists to come down the pike since the legendary Miriam Makeba. With the passing of Makeba, Klaasen carries the torch for both the aforementioned icon, and also for her famous mother, Thandie Klaasen. Helping is guitarist Mongezi Chris Ntaka (formerly with Lucky Dube) and bassist Bakithi Kumalo (with Dube and on Paul Simon's Graceland album) adding pure authenticity to the proceedings. While the music is in the Afro-pop realm, it touches on sotho funk, kwela, zulu, and xhosa aspects of village life while adding dance beats and feelings of triumph, with Klaasen singing in either African or English lyrics. There's the electricity of "Ziyaduma," with a pure beat reflecting the duality of representing thunder and the fact that it's all happening in the moment, while the modern modal popping rhythms infused in "Imbizo" bridge the gap between modern and traditional. Klaasen herself is effervescent, a driven vocalist who minces very few lyric lines with sentimentality, although she does offer occasional tender moments. She's driven to deliver the message for the most part, chanting with the group vocalists during the mixed and separate polyrhythms of "La Reine/The Queen," dancing in retro-disco fashion on "Spring in Every Season," or offering the celebratory wedding song "Jabulani" not Abdullah Ibrahim's composition of the same name. Africa Calling is a joy to hear from start to finish, a fully realized project, universally understandable, good for any party, ready to steal your heart and soul with a running start. ~ Michael G.Nastos https://www.allmusic.com/album/africa-calling-mw0001961864

Africa Calling

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Lorraine Klaasen - Nouvelle Journee

Size: 102,7 MB
Time: 40:44
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2016
Styles: Folk, World
Art: Front

01. Nouvelle Journée (3:24)
02. Ke Tshepile Bafatsi (4:02)
03. Home Sweet Home (4:07)
04. Township Memories (3:56)
05. Polokwane (4:21)
06. Izani Nonke (3:50)
07. Make It Right (4:05)
08. Babalazi (3:37)
09. Where To Now (5:15)
10. Thulandivile (4:02)

Long based in Montreal, singer Lorraine Klaasen continues to make music primarily influenced by her native land of South Africa (she was born in Soweto). She won a 2013 Juno Award for World Music album of the Year for her Tribute to Miriam Makeba, a prime influence (as is famed singer Thandie Klaasen, her mother).

Her latest, Nouvelle Journée, is a truly multilingual album, with songs sung in English, French and South African languages Tsonga, Sotho, IsiZulu and Xhosa. It initially sounds a touch odd to hear a South African-flavoured song done in French, as on the title track, and to these ears, it's the more overtly South African tunes that work best.

Klaasen has a fluent and melodic vocal style, and she's aided by an A-list cast of world music players and fine production by guitarist Mongezi Ntaka. There is a real social conscience evident in such material as "Izani Nonke" and the anti-greed ballad "Where To Now," a song Klaasen wrote 30 years ago that sadly remains relevant today. Strong messages are found within this sweetly rhythmic material, confirming the ongoing appeal of music with a townships vibe.

Nouvelle Journee

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