Miriam Makeba

In 1988 Africa's greatest female singer recorded an album of traditional Xhosa songs and prayers, partly in an effort to help heal the scars of apartheid. The result is one of the most beautiful South African albums ever released. Makeba's voice is slightly age-roughened but still incredibly powerful; she's supported by an able chorus in her sangoma's (healer's) songs.

It's disorienting at first to hear women singing what sounds like mbube, and though the weave would be richer (and more competitive) if most of them weren't this fifty-five-year-old matriarch, whose still-powerful voice has definitely thickened, the disorientation is salutary--South African pop is very male. Half the tunes are gorgeous and all of them are traditional, drawn from a cross-section of tribal cultures dominated by Makeba's clicking Xhosa. But they're not recreated, which usually means embalmed at best--they're interpreted for the studio, which permits Makeba her overdubs and enables Russ Titelman to lock in the spare accompaniment. There's even a synthesizer, and damned if I can tell exactly where. (Grade - A-)