The second night of the Africa: Roots & Shoots festival brings three South African divas spanning wildly differing styles and three generations. Sibongile Khumalo kicks off the evening, a powerhouse in regal red. One of the stars of the Women of Africa tour two years ago, Khumalo combines township jazz with operatics and tribal roots music. She opens with Abdullah Ibrahim's Tsakwe/Royal Blue, hitting each note with slow dignity. Her set is abstract and incantatory, moving from rich harmonies to forceful scat. A young protegée with a voice like dark wood, Claudia Bosman, takes the stage for two songs, before Khumalo concludes with a saucy rendition of the Township Medley, pulling a skinny clubber up on stage for a grinding jive. "This song is for people like me who are ample," she quips, "who've got presence."
Natal native Busi Mhlongo follows with the groove-orientated maskanda style that's featured on her recent Urban Zulu album. Dancing onstage in a riot of colour, Mhlongo is like a diminutive female shaman celebrating the rites of spring, conducting her band and backing singers with a mercurial energy. Having spent much of her career in exile, she has absorbed a variety of styles from reggae to rock, and she weaves these influences into the sinuous Zulu roots rhythm, punctuating it with her soaring voice. By the end the crowd is up on its feet. Overtaken by the moment, a young girl dives onstage from the audience and executes some athletic Zulu leg kicks. The crowd roars. Mhlongo is clearly delighted.
By contrast, 68-year-old Miriam Makeba's set is that of the elder stateswoman. She is greeted by a standing ovation but this, one suspects, is more for her status as "Mama Africa" than her current musical approach. Accompanied by a respectful, polished seven-piece band kitted out in smart shirts and trousers, she has a preference for showtune-style ballads with simple arrangements, like the sincere but slightly mawkish Africa is Where My Heart Lies. Mid-set Makeba proves she still has bite, performing with cold, clear intensity Hugh Masekela's So Into Blues, a lament about the 1976 Soweto uprising. At moments like these, her deep voice somehow expresses all the struggle, sorrow and resilience of her country. "They call us the dinosaur," she says majestically, "but at least the dinosaur has history."
Africa: Roots & Shoots continues until March 15. Details: 0171-638 8891.
