Don’t Give Up

Born in Kinshasa, Jason Tamba, who began playing guitar at the age of seven on a homemade instrument, went on to take a degree in classical guitar and ended up in South Africa playing there with the band Afro Fiesta. In 2008, he became the lead singer and guitarist with the Playing for Change house band, performing in the organisation’s Songs Around the World videos with the likes of Bono, Angélique Kidjo and Peter Gabriel. Produced by Mark Johnson, the American mastermind behind Playing for Change, Don’t Give Up is his first solo album and it’s a pleasant if unchallenging set of easy-listening Afro-pop.

He’s an accomplished storyteller and his husky voice is a delight, whether on the rootsy, hypnotic opener ‘Masele’ or the gorgeous, bucolic folk-rock of ‘Gethsemane’, sung in his native language of Kikongo as he recalls the last words of Jesus Christ on Mount Gethsemane. It’s slick but not too slick and beautifully played by a cosmopolitan band that includes American pedal steel ace Greg Leisz and South African singer and guitarist Louis Mhlanga.