Zimbabwe-born Dorothy Masuka came up with Makeba in the black Jo'burg musical-comedy revues of the Fifties. Building on the simpler South African jazz styles of the time, she gradually evolved a style for which she revived the term marabi, once an all-encompassing name for syncretic African shebeen music. Makeba's 1967 U.S. hit Pata Pata was originally a South African hit for Masuka, and it's also the title of Masuka's new Mango album. Its swinging rhythms and primary colors modernized with hooks lifted from Zimbabwean chimurenga, Pata Pata's style is direct and tuneful, often drawing on South Africa's catchiest idiomatic melodies. In Soweto, Masuka may still seem old hat, but here in jaded America, she's fresher than fusion--natural pop fetching enough to cross any language barrier.

Playboy, June 1991

May 1991

July 1991