Longoz
Cobalt/Buda Musique (59 mins)
A brooding trombone blaring single, mournful tones; then, on top, a voice made of silk and smoke conjures an image of a deserted jazz club in the middle of the Indian Ocean. And what a voice it is. From the first moments of this album’s title-track opener, you can tell you’re about to be stunned.
To describe Ann O’aro’s music as maloya would perhaps be incorrect, but it’s undeniable that La Réunion’s iconic creole style is deeply embedded in its heart. She takes maloya’s bluesiest elements and most passionate rhythms to inform a stark, emotional jazz that also draws on ideas of bal-musette, waltz, sega and zouk. Such intensity is especially impressive when the ensemble only ever expands to a trio of O’aro on vocals, Teddy Doris on trombone and Bino Waro (son of Danyèl) on percussion.
While O’aro’s voice and music are hauntingly beautiful, her lyrics are another matter. Sung mostly in Creole, they reflect and examine her own trauma as a survivor of child abuse and incest. They make for important but difficult listening. Powerful and harrowing, delicate, sad, angry and utterly beguiling – Longoz is an album that will stay in the ears, mind and stereo for a long time.