Serah, Late Harvest (Great Northern Arts, 2003)
Serah does herself no favor by packaging her CD in a way that far too closely emulates Joni Mitchell. The portrait of the singer that accompanies the lyrics to the first song (painted by Soemi, the "mio amore" to whom Serah dedicates the disk) comes perilously close to being a parody of Mitchell's self portrait on the cover of Taming the Tiger. Where Joni is as accomplished a painter as she is a musician, this painting is, at best, the work of a "Sunday painter." The reason I begin here is that, as I say, Serah does herself no favor setting herself up for immediate comparison to one of the premier artists of the last thirty years. Were I to offer advice, it would be that Serah might do far better to draw comparisons to someone like Johnny Clegg, next to whom her blend of activist sensibilities and Afro pop tinged arrangements might fare better. Better still, find a designer who will avoid setting up any such comparisons.
Serah has a pleasing voice, with a smooth, intimate delivery. Perhaps the best known collaborator on this project is keyboardist David Sancious, with the well-regarded percussionist Wasis Diop as the most credited co-producer/arranger. All in all, Serah can be credited with finding a great group of musicians and singers to work with on Late Harvest. Much more about Serah and the international group of musicians with whom she works can be found on her well designed Web site.
On Late Harvest, Serah blends elements of pop, folk, and world into a coherent and consistent overall sound. On many tunes there are background vocals in an African language provided (as near as I can tell from the liner notes) by Diop, Guilla Thiam, and two members of the extended Toure family, Omar and Daby. This is often quite effective, adding a layer of... hmmm... let's call it universality... to the proceedings. In terms of the reference I made above, think of Serah as the yin version of Johnny Clegg's yang.
The strengths of Late Harvest are Serah's voice, the high level of musicianship among the international group she's pulled together for the project, the well-crafted arrangements, and the disk's overall consistency. The lyrics are competent, but don't break any new ground. The New Age tendencies, lyrically and musically, are not my cup of tea, even if I DO drink green tea nearly as often as black coffee. Fortunately, the New Age attributes of Late Harvest are kept from becoming cloying by the regular doses of jazzy, Afro pop, flourishes.
The opener, "I Think I Know," is a bouncy love song that sets the tone for much of the disk to follow. It's a pleasant, mid-tempo song with a nice arrangement, including the African chorus. If the lyrics are somewhat predictable, that's a minor quibble. The next original is track three, "Psalm Song," which is a bit simple, but is again saved by an evocative and layered arrangement. For me, this establishes the pattern for the rest of the disk. The lyrics may be less than outstanding, but the overall treatment makes the whole greater than the sum of the parts. And I'm certain plenty of listeners will find these songs speaking to them in a way that my perhaps too jaded, perhaps overly discriminating, taste doesn't allow. (I can also blame GMR... lately, for another review, I've been steeping myself in the words of Dylan Thomas, one of the twentieth century's most original and complex writers in the English language.)
There are three cover tunes on Late Harvest: "Stand by Me," "Crazy Love" and "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow." Curiously, none of these are properly credited in terms of copyright and authorship. They're a mixed bag. "Stand by Me" is given a nice arrangement with a lilting reggae touch. Serah's take is more mellow than pleading, but that seems to work for her. Andy Snitzer's sax and the background voices add a nice touch. "Crazy Love" works well. Serah's voice is intimate and evocative, Snitzer's sax and Sancious on keyboards give it the proper nod to Van Morrison's own versions of one of his signature songs, and Richard Bona's Afro background vocals give it the right connection to the overall sound on Late Harvest. Most problematic is "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow." The bass and reeds intro brings up that Joni Mitchell reference again, with less than ideal results. This one fails to convince.
All in all, I found Serah's Late Harvest to be, if not spectacular or dramatically innovative, more than pleasant. As a singer, she has an intimate, evocative, style. She's well supported by a talented international group of musicians. Her Web site includes enough audio file samples that you might want to give her a listen and decide for yourself whether Late Harvest would fit into your CD collection.
