Once or twice a year I go and see an artist who I know very little about, sometimes these choices are spectacular, other times they are embarrassingly poor. On Saturday the latest choice was Namiwa Jazz (Nam-I-Wa). Now I have seen her I know she would tell you that it was my destiny to be there.
As soon as Namiwa took to the stage I could sense that she was special, she had stage presence that few entertainers naturally have. She was confident (without a hint of arrogance), brave (she sang only her own compositions) and had a good voice. She describes her music as Afrotwang. It is an amalgam of Hip-hop, RnB, Soul with a hint of Jazz and Afrobeat. The music was not the sort I would listen to at home but the performance was good.
Namiwa had one backing vocalist, percussion, guitar, bass and drums and they all played well. My favourite song of the night was ‘Jungle’ which was played twice, telling me that with familiarity I could grow to like her songs.
I particularly enjoyed the start of the second set where she asked three audience members for a word, then used them to make a fresh lyric. (This is not because I was one of the three and she said good things about my shirt!). To demonstrate that the experiment was not a lucky success she repeated it with three more words.
At the end I left with some admiration for this lady. She sings well, writes well, performs brilliantly and has a good heart. (She told us about the Namiwa Change Formation which offers women of colour to develop their creativity). Would I buy her music? Probably not. Would I see her again? Maybe. Would I recommend her? Definitely, I have a feeling her music will appeal to the younger generation rather than to we older folk! I certainly wish her success in a business that at times does not reward those as talented as she is.
Johns London Music Reviews 