Consumer Guide: August, 2024

The greatest artist of the 20th century as pop interpreter, an r&b pro gone bluegrass, 13 songs about romantic bliss gone bad, and a thrill seeking soprano with captivating tunes and runaway grooves.

África Negra: Antologia Vol. 2 (Bongo Joe) This band’s home base is Sao Tomé and Principe, a tiny island nation of barely 200,000 situated 150 miles west of the African mainland that was only settled—with slaves, naturally—after the Portuguese discovered the islands in 1470. One might hope this isolated population managed to develop its own musical style, and in a sense it did, though it may be more accurate to label it a unique amalgam: a gentle genre mix that evokes and/or duplicates the fetching polyrhythms of related African dance musics from Nigeria down to the Congo and tops them off with the sometimes sweet, sometimes mellow vocals of Sergio Fonseca and João Seria, a figure so beloved his 2023 death occasioned nationwide mourning. A MINUS

Okaidja Afroso: Jaku Mumor (Chechekule) Well-schooled Ghanaian  traditionalist transforms ancient musics into postmodern but unmistakably African atmospherics (“Gidi Gidi,” “Wole Worhe”) ***

Louis Armstrong: Louis Armstrong Meets Oscar Peterson (Verve ‘97) Piano virtuoso Peterson has always seemed a tad light-fingered to me, which I expect is one reason many jazz specialists consider him the nearest thing to Art Tatum God bequeathed mankind. Without question a virtuoso, he was Norman Granz’s go-to bandleader cum de facto producer at Verve. So in a sense this circa-1957 showcase highlights both of the artists with their names on the cover, and while I remain faithful to Armstrong’s 16 Most Requested Songs on Columbia, this one has its own unmistakable identity,