• Reviews

• All
• Music
• DVDs
• Live
• Cinema
• TV
• Books
• Comic Books
• Video Games

Jun 13, 2009 By Kyle Lemmon Web Exclusive

Hugh Masekela was one of South Africa’s cardinal jazz men when he decided to pack up his trumpet and leave his homeland due to a self-imposed émigré to object apartheid. He was also one of the first African musicians to strike out onto the world stage, with his proto tours with then-wife Miriam Makeba and later in support of Paul Simon during his Graceland period. The trumpeter, flugelhornist, cornetist, composer, and singer is 70 this year, but he has the verve of a man still exploring. Infuriately, one can’t always say that about the compositions on his 35th album, Phola. The title translates to “to get well” or “to heal”. Though some of Phola’s songs tussle with dark themes, the music sticks to the light adult contemporary aesthetic Masekela fans have begrudgingly grown accustomed to after Masekela’s struggles with alcoholism from the late ‘70s through to the ‘90s.

These new tracks mirror the iconic jazz musician’s pining for a turning of the page for Africa, even as he stays on the same musical chapter. Quiet variations on a life well-lived exemplify Phola, as it conflates politics and social consciousness with love and solitary musings. With the Malawian multi-instrumentalist and producer Erik Paliani at the boards, Phola certainly sounds crisp but is a bloodless exercise overall. This may be in large part due to seven of the album’s songs being vocal pieces weighed down by protracted codas. Masekela’s flugelhorn solos often teeter on being vapid exercises. His playing, however, is no doubt impressive for his age. The lyrical subject matter may swerve from warm memoirs (“Sonnyboy”), political denunciations (“Bring It Back Home”) and global sea changes (“Weather”). One of the two instrumentals, “Moz,” is a fine reimagining of Masekela’s 1968 hit “Grazing in the Grass.” It’s too bad Phola is such a toothless release because Masekela has several years of music in him.

Author rating: 4/10