Consumer Guide Album

Francis Bebey: Akwaaba [Original Music, 1984]
On the recordings of Paul Berliner and elsewhere I've always found the African thumb piano--mbira, kalimba, sanza--overly delicate, fragile as a music box. These experimental compositions, by a Camerounian musicologist who calls on a wide range of supplementary African instruments and techniques, are lithe and lovely. And when Bebey breaks into his subguttural chest voice you won't know whether to gasp or giggle. B+