China in your hand
Matthew Krouse
Tony Cox’s latest album,China (Sheer Sound), is a tribute to his buddies. In the sleeve note about the title track he tells us that he’s called this work China because ”some friends are as precious and … fragile as china.”
Cox’s chinas are also his collaborators, and so there are sentimental dedications to his long-time friend Steve Newman and meaningful jams with the cream of the musical crop artists such as Wambali Mkandawire, Mauritz Lotz, Louis Mhlanga, Noise Khanyile and Johnny Fourie. The coming together of such a hefty crew of talent can only be proof of the esteem in which Cox is held in musical circles.
The result is, to say the least, effervescent. Metaphorically speaking, the album is like a long trip to Cape Town from Johannesburg. There are strains of kwela (Just One of Those Days), blues (Karoosin’), Cape minstrel (Kaapse ‘amba) and African gospel (Southern Hymn). All in all, it is South African to a T.
But even though many of the tracks border on theme music, China is way above middle of the road. Each song paints its own distinct and rounded image, even if the work itself is somewhat trapped in a mould.