African Tree

I wish I could say that this album lives up to the artist’s laudable idea of planting 500 trees in Uganda to commemorate his trip to East Africa ‘to find music'. Alas, it doesn’t. Not quite. Marcelo Andrade plays flute and reeds for the London-based Adriano Adewale Group, whose promising debut album was reviewed in Songlines #59.

In Kenya he discovered just how strongly his native Brazilian culture is rooted in the African tradition. Strangely, the most authentically African-sounding track here is a charming version of the Beatles’ ‘Blackbird’, with vocals by the local Kibinda Singers.

There are high spots that bode well for the future. ‘Barriga D’água', for example, is accordion-based neo-reggae worthy of Gilberto Gil. The dramatic ‘Foge Kudu’, with its rampaging elephantine trombones, is up there with Ray Barretto’s classic ‘O Elefante’. But as good as these individual parts are, however, they fail to add up to a convincing sum. It’s as if there are too many ideas and influences at work. While Andrade’s Brazilian heritage dominates, the result can be lacklustre samba-lite. Which is a shame, because there’s a nagging sense that Marcelo Andrade could have produced – and probably will produce – something very good indeed.