Linda Moylan
The Fool 
(Talking Elephant Records)
★★★★★

AWAY from it’s glitz there is a London Linda Moylan knows only too well — she grew up in pre-gentrified East London of London-Irish heritage.

The sorrows of immigrant experience and working-class resilience in face of overwhelming odds are rendered with the moving authenticity of someone who knows.

Every song is a gem of unique arrangement, where melody and distinct emotional charge is stupendously interpreted by Moylan’s strong, warm voice that has a sublime range. 

And then there are the lyrics, pensive and poetic reflections on tough realities: “I’ve walked all your back streets in these hand me down shoes,/ I’m a long way from home,” (Hide Me London), sung forlornly to a staccato beat or, the violin led Venus In The Dirt: “A few sticks of furniture is all we need,/ Paid off on the bed just last week,/ Laying here beneath our coats,/ We don’t even feel the cold”.

Formidable!

Niwel Tsumbu
Milimo
(Diatribe Records)
★★★★★

BORN in the Democratic Republic of Congo, guitarist Niwel Tsumbu grew up on the rhythms of the Soukous music https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mH_OeaVVoDw of his homeland, before studying classical guitar and then relocating to Ireland in 2004. The Soukous’ inspired, joyous Masta will have you dancing round the room in no time.

Part of Tsumbu’s secret is in the nylon strings he uses which results in warm, more rounded tones and subtler resonance, particularly in spirited passages.

Tsumbu’s guitar virtuosity is like a breath fresh air and the scapes he conjures are simply exhilarating as in the spellbinding Rubato (Chopin and Schumann were the other devotees of the format). Etude I, II and III will take your breath away with their minimalist simplicity, while Afrique Moderne and Gracias Paco (de Lucia) are positively modern guitar masterpieces.

Breathtaking achievement, a modern classic. Don’t miss his Birmingham gig. https://www.celebrating-sanctuary.org.uk/gigs/2024-11-21/lunchtime-concerts-at-symphony-hall-with-niwel-tsumbu-dr-congo

Ineza with Alex Webb & the Copasetics
Women's Words, Sisters' Stories
(Copasetic Recordings)
★★★★★

FEW tributes come with the panache of Women's Words, Sisters' Stories. It is a collection of covers by women jazz voices sung by the Rwanda-born, Belgium raised, Kent resident Ineza.

The notable innovation lies in fusing jazz’s improvisational character with soul. Ineza’s adventurous selection is revealing: Abbey Lincoln, Betty Carter and Rachelle Ferrell. “It champions the quirkiness of womanhood... [their] lyrics might be more witty, wacky, unconventional even,” she confides.  

Ferrell’s pulsating Don't Waste Your Time https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nX8LK0BlG1I epitomises Ineza audacious approach. Who Needs You https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5AtsOtTzvE0, written by Billie Holiday and Jeanne Burns in 1957 was only recorded by Aretha Franklin in 1961. “I especially love the shuffle 3/4 feel. It adds a different, less dark character to the song,” says Ineza.

Alex Webb authors the project and has assembled a bunch of young, talented women musicians from the London scene who collectively deliver an energising oeuvre is pure joie de vivre. Hats off!