Thursday, 7/15/10
by musicclipoftheday
Music can be made anywhere—a street corner, a subway station, even a bathroom.
Shiyani Ngcobo
“The Bathroom Recordings,” live, France (Nantes), 1997
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“Izinyembezi” (Introducing Shiyani Ngcobo [2004])
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lagniappe
I’d like to make a plea for a new concept—elastic precision. It’s what [South African musician] Shiyani Ngcobo has, and what so many musicians have: an absolutely determined (in both senses of the word) and precise groove, with infinite, fractal variants that relate to what comes before and after. . . . Perfection may be infinitely seductive, but it’s the flaws and differences that make the beauty.
—Ben Mandelson, liner notes, Introducing Shiyani Ngcobo (2004)
music clip of the day 
What a right hand!
At the risk of getting too “inside baseball” about all this, I’ve heard a lot of fingerstyle guitarists, playing in a lot of different idioms, but I don’t recall ever hearing a guitarist who did the kinds of things with his thumb that this guy does.