The Play List
Regina Spektor: The singer songwriter has just released a new album. In preparing to buy it, I’m revisiting old favourite albums such as 11:11 and remembering how much I enjoy her beautiful ability to bring forth all of her idiosyncratic Reginaisms to the music. (MB)
Harari (Greatest Hits vol. 2): Originally called The Beaters, this Soweto band’s time on the world stage was cut short by intra-band warfare and egos gone array (sound familiar?). This collection of their hits goes way deeper than volume one, but the individual albums are still the real deal. (KS)
Zap Mama (Ancestry In Progress): I’m thinking a lot about my late friend and fellow space age Zulu punk spirit Busi Mhlongo, and y’know, Marie (Daulne) and Sally (Nyolo) — key founders of Zap Mama —were both huge friends to Busi and I. (BM)
The Reading List
The Book of Memory: Pettina Gappah’s book has made its rounds in the office and it has been my long-haul flight companion and Swiss people-watching companion for a few days. The writing doesn’t try too hard — it grabs you by the hands and guides you back and forth between the protagonist Memory’s past and present. (MB)
Genesis: Nigerian-American writer Tope Forlain’s story picks up on the 2016 Caine Prize theme of mental illness. It also slots in an additional layer of migrancy in the United States, a great peg to pin the story. Forlain never lets the intensity drop as the family he describes implodes.(KS)
Miles and Me (by Quincy Troupe): It is close to I’m Not Your Weekend Special conceptually, but much more personal in how it mines the relationship between author Quincy Troupe and the subject of his major award-winning biography, Miles Davis. It is personal in ways I was clearly not with Brenda Fassie.(BM)