Alan Skidmore & Amampondo, The Call Review

Overall Rating

Afrobeat is alive and well, not only from the Nigerian royal family Kuti, but also thanks to Cape Town's Xhosa-rooted Amampondo and their amazing collaboration with veteran and highly thought of saxophonist Alan Skidmore. The Call offers thunderous bassy drums giving a 180 degree fill behind sinewy Sanders screech's, Cherry fluidity and Garrett and Garbarek honks. Think Africa 70, think Osibisa, think Brotherhood of Breath (not surprising considering Skidmore's lineage), but also think traditional instrumentation. Amampondo are principally acoustically driven, which particularly suits the lighter Masakela-pop, but also in here we have quite straight-laced sounding "club jazz" and ballads in the vein of those gorgeous Abdullah Ibrahim soliloquies.

A great "World Jazz" recording.