Healing Tree: Best of Stella Chiweshe

A compilation culled primarily from the Piranha label releases of Stella Chiweshe's masterful mbira work. This album showcases some of the best work by Chiweshe, the acknowledged master of her instrument. The chimurenga stylings show through from time to time, as do vague soukous-influenced riffs by her band. Chiweshe manages throughout to show off her amazing ability on the "thumb pianos," though the mixing occasionally gets a bit more trippy and spacy than one might expect or hope for from a usually relatively traditional artist. Nonetheless, the tunes are certainly listenable, as well as danceable in most cases. In summary, while not the traditional fare from Chiweshe, this album is still certainly worth hearing, especially given its greatest-hits status. Other, single albums are perhaps worth looking into before picking this one up, but for a quick overview of her career, it can't be beat.