CD Review: Samite's 'Trust'

Samite
Trust
Musicians For World Harmony

Ugandan-born and US-based, Samite brings an acoustic style to East African music that is instrumental, upbeat, and brimming with sparkling notes of contemporary beauty. On Trust, which is the soundtrack for a documentary film--Addiction Incorporated--Samite paints images of acoustic beauty with twinkling kalimba, airy flute, folksy accordion, jazzy trumpet, and other assorted winds, strings, and percussion. The mostly instrumental work contains not only acoustic guitar and some electric guitar, but penny whitles, piccolo, cello, and trombone. The upbeat, rumba and highlife style of the instrumental music is very enjoyable overall. Fans of African jazz, mbira, folk, highlife, contemporary African music, and instrumental fusion will love Samite's latest release. ~ Matthew Forss

CD Review: Uganda's Samite

Samite

My Music World

Samite Music

My Music World is the latest release that follows up Samite's 2006 Embalasasa. Samite explores the traditional music of Uganda and shapes it into a modern musical experience without losing the roots. Soothing percussion and instrumentation of kalimba, madinda, whistle, guitar, bass, and keyboards accompany Samite's vocals. The songs are mostly instrumental, but Samite's voice makes an appearance on a few tracks. The sound is partly meditational and partly groovy, especially for the longer tracks, such as 'Ninze', 'Njabala Owekyejo', 'Imagine It To Make It Happen', and 'Sirina Kyentya'. Fans of Samite's other albums will find My Music World to be a welcome contribution to any African music collection. In short, My Music World enraptures all who listen to it's pleasantries. ~ Matthew Forss