All Rivers Flow …to Lake Maiuko.

Maiuko lays bare her Luso-African soul on stage at the Quarter House

Saturday, 14 th March 2010. A full house at the Quarter House in Folkestone, and justly so! Why? Maiuko & The Quartet, and guest artists were featured on the evening’s bill. By my book, more than enough reason to brave the dismal grey drizzle which persisted throughout the whole evening.

On my train journey down to Folkestone for the concert, I recalled some of the previous performances by Maiuko I have had the privilege of attending. During my musings and cogitations, no matter how hard I endeavoured to analyse, rationalise and categorise Maiuko and her music, place her in a box, define her genre, sass her out, - which is something, I gather, music reviewers and critics are supposed to do - I came up with nothing other than an image of a large, serene lake somewhere on the Southern African plains, a body of water where heaven and earth meet, and life is born.

Then it dawned on me that in fact this was it! This was exactly what Maiuko is all about: the rivers of life flowing from all four cardinal points into a lake, which is Maiuko herself and her musical creativity. In this place, this place of water, the subtle, haunting and nuanced textures of Maiuko’s smoky voice evoke the cultures of the great Limpopo, Tagus, Niger, Thames, Amazon and Mississippi Rivers. Hers is a fusion of sound which is timeless and universal, and defies the boundaries of definition and convention we are so accustomed to in the Western world.

When I arrived at the venue, I enquired at the front desk as to Maiuko’s whereabouts, to which the doorman on duty that evening promptly replied: “Oh!, so you’re looking for our local vocal goddess of soul!” How appropriate, I thought. “Yes, that is precisely who I am looking for!”…

Accompanied by her quartet, and guest musicians, Paul Cheneour on flute, and Vince Trenton drums, Maiuko made her appearance on the Quarter House stage donning a high two-tiered, dreadlock coiffure in homage to her Swazi heritage. Maiuko’s repertoire for the evening offered a mixed bag of old and new from her previous and forthcoming albums, as well as a few classics such as Feeling Good, in which her lazy, husky vocals conjured up the hot, sundrenched cotton fields in what is in essence an anthem to hope. Her purred rendition of My Oh My, from the album Different Wars, was purely feline, sensual and ultimately jazzy.

Purporting to grace the audience with an insight as to one of the major influences in her music, Maiuko gave a smouldering, evocative rendition of Four Women, a song made popular by the inimitable Miss Nina Simone, which narrates the poignant, tragic lives of four prostitutes in the American Deep South. Enhanced by Paul Cheneour’s sweeping flute and Maquenzie’s smooth keyboards, The Light brought a certain Celtic flavour to the mix, to which Maiuko’s restrained vocals added extra delicate depth.

Maiuko rounded off the first half of the concert with José and Mozambique, a deeply moving tribute to her mother’s perennial wisdom and the happy days of childhood spent in her company in the former Portuguese colony.

The second half kicked off with Love Games, where Maquenzie's keyboard solo was especially masterful and slightly reminiscent of Chick Corea in his earlier Elektric Band days. Club Butel, a joint effort by Maiuko and Max Middleton, composed in a bar somewhere in the South of France, was presented in a new, more vocal-oriented arrangement. An intriguing piece of jazz fusion with a definite hint of the nineties.

With Voa, Maiuko taps into her Afro-Portuguese roots yet again. True to its name, Voa is a Portuguese fado with a soaring melody line, the perfect vehicle to showcase Maiuko’s extensive vocal range. Sung acapella to a zouk tempo on the cajón, Voa tells the eternal tale of lovers parting ways.

It was particularly gratifying to see Scott Wyllie’s double bass come to the fore in many of the songs, contributing significantly to the melody line, as opposed to the less obtrusive background role commonly attributed to this instrument. The use of the cajón also added a little spice to the rhythm section. A percussion instrument of Afro-Peruvian origin, the cajón is purported by some to have been developed in the early nineteenth century by African slaves, who, as musical instruments were forbidden to them, used crates and boxes to play their music. Since then, the cajón has travelled the world over and is seemingly here to stay.

For the last four songs of the evening, Maiuko was joined by guest artist, Laye Sow. This effervescent singer/composer from Senegal is steadily building up quite a following in the United Kingdom. His exuberant stage presence, strong voice and engaging manner brought a powerful burst of energy to the evening’s proceedings. The Néné and Uere Uere duets with Maiuko, performed to wildly contagious elemental tempos, provided the perfect excuse to get up and dance. And that is what the audience did! They got up and danced…

The evening drew to an end with an old South African favourite, Pata Pata, and a huge mass of gyrating bodies out on the floor.

Maiuko, Lake Maiuko? Who is she, what is she? How to describe her music? Afro-jazz? Nu-soul? Afro-fado? Luso-zouk? Blues?

To be honest, I don’t really much care! Call it what you will! All I know is that it’s great music, and it makes me feel good!

Roots Harmonia , Maiuko’s latest album, is due for release later this year. Be sure to pick it up!

Adelina Pereira

Photo Credit - Dan Desbourgh