02 February 2009
Vortex Online
Chris Parker

Named for the tree in Bagamayo, Tanzania, under which Ubi, the father of Nathan Riki Thomson's music teacher Hukwe Zawose, spent his days 'playing music and occasionally dancing', this album is not so much steeped in, but more accurately actually embodies, the musical learning that took place there.

Thomson himself - who will be familiar, like other participants in this project, as part of guitarist Antonio Forcione's band - plays double bass, flutes and ilimba, kantele and litungu; Adriano Adewale various percussion instruments; Simon Allen percussion, concertina, dulcimer, bass harmonica, waterphone and saw; and Jan Hendrickse flutes and other wind instruments. It also features guest appearances from Forcione himself, violinist Katja Thomson, bass flautist John K. Miles, cellist Jenny Adejayan and singers Nia Lynn and Cassius Mlewa Maganga.

The music, often diaphanous, filigree-delicate, and occasionally almost dreamily atmospheric, is all inspired by Thomson's experiences ('Bus to Bagamayo', for instance, recalls the eponymous jouncing four-hour journey along a pot-holed, often flooded road; 'Cheza' Arabic string orchestras, but also the work of Charles Mingus; 'Waiting for Rain' is dedicated to suffering Zimbabweans), and can, consequently, sometimes sound like a series of evocative but somewhat amorphous soundtracks, but the whole project does cohere courtesy of the clearly heartfelt commitment of its various performers - this is basically unclassifiable music that incorporates elements of jazz and various African traditional musics into an often mesmerisingly languorous whole.