In the Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter of April 7, 2010 the always readable Nils Hansson recommends three African artists. One of these is Razia Said; a new acquaintance to me.
Razia Said is from Madagascar and from what I can understand her new album, Zebu Nation (Cumbancha / Bonnier Amigo), is her debut. She seems to be completely mature as an artist, so my assumption may be wrong. [ Update: It seems that she also made an album titled Magical, issued in 2005. ]
Madagascar is far from both Mali and San Francisco, but that’s where my association goes.
On Razia Said’s Myspace page Sade is mentioned as a reference. Sure, the music is a cool and groovy breeze, but the repetitive backbone of the songs makes me think of Rokia Traoré’s West African – absolutely gorgeous – blues and actually Wooden Shjips. Minus distortion and less fuzzy, but still.
There are traces of that nice pumping that can be found in music around the world.
Now, I’m just waiting for her to visit Sweden.