Amira Kheir - Mystic Dance (CD)

Facts Amira Kheir, "the diva of the desert" - as Le Journal du Mali dubbed her and the BBC World News echoed - has finished her third album, and it has already received a warm welcome. Her first release, View from Somewhere (2011), introduced "an identity that transcends geography," as African Business observed. Songlines described the album as "bold and poetic - beautiful and fearless." With that, she embarked on three years of performing in settings that ranged from intimate folk clubs and jazz clubs to prominent concert halls and several of the world's most celebrated festivals, earning reviews such as "a charming performer - comfortable with both high drama and intimate balladry" (The Independent) and "a stunning set infused with many influences but anchored in the sounds and identity of her homeland Sudan" (Fly Global Music). Back in London - her adoptive home for the past decade - she recorded her second album, Alsahraa (STCD 1122CD, 2014), in a church with a small acoustic group. "Amira Kheir sings from the heart and soul," Inside World Music praised, and fRoots lauded her "engaging presence" and "lovely honey 'n' spice voice." Ms. Kheir's new album is an elegant collection of traditional songs and dances and original compositions for acoustic and electric instruments in which even the Kurt Weill-Ogden Nash classic, "Speak Low", fits comfortably. The latest issue of Songlines describes Mystic Dance (a five-star "Top of the World" selection) as "an album that hangs in a shimmery ether somewhere between Afro-Latin jazz, desert blues and ancient Sudanese music," and declares "whatever it is, we love it." So will you.