Search - Vincent Nguini :: Symphony Bantu

Beautifully Lyrical Guitar in Parts, 2-3 wonderful tunes

E Miller | Great Lakes | 05/24/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"For the avid collector, on great tune is enough to buy an album. This has several, it is an English sung hybrid, with a full, warm mellow guitar sound a bit slightly reminiscent of the round fingered Grant Green, but more directly the with the style and sound of Zachary Breaux's live album at ronnie Scott's in New York.
The most precious song is a anthemic lament about his love of Africa, and his desire to see and understand her. It is melancholy in sensitivity, but that is a human emotion that is hardly conveyed in the song, which pulls you in by the universal love of our respective ancestry. It is greatly uplifting and compelling, particularly the glorious guitar solo that ranks among my favorites in a 1000 CD collection (much of it centered around guitars). Do you know Roy Buchanan's solo in Can I Change My Mind? It bests the original for me, and is certainly rare. The fluidity of the guitar is similarly evocitive in Nguini's supple fingers, though quicker, more Jazzy, and less Blues oriented.
Also recommended is Sipho Mabuse's Chant of the Marching, which also conveys an underlying burst of emotion that is almost gospel like in it's effectiveness (whereas actual Gospel has not grabbed me yet). It is also a Crossover in English that seems more African that Paul Simon's hybrid effort (though I'm certainly not slamming that)."