Sounds of Peace

The revered Manu Dibango died three years after making M&M in 2017 with the Mozambican saxophonist, Moreira Chonguiça. Echoes of the ‘Lion of Africa’ remain in Chonguiça's eighth album and first release since that delightful collaboration [reviewed in #130] in its easy feel and the timbre of his alto sax playing. Despite fame in his native Mozambique, the saxophonist never showboats, but employs his talents to colour the music in the way Wayne Shorter did for Weather Report.

If anything, it's a showcase for his four young backing musicians (on keyboards, bass, drums and percussion). It was, he suggests, ‘an… emotional recording for me as some of the musicians had never been involved with a recording of this nature before.’ Whether on alto or soprano sax, the leader helms his quintet with quiet authority to achieve the kind of funky fluency that one associates with Hugh Masekela and the Crusaders at their loosest. Flavoured throughout with solo or choral voices, this album celebrates regional diversity and cultural multiplicity; life itself. All 13 tracks offer something appreciably different while adding up to a coherent whole that is quietly but wickedly funky.