AFRICAN WOMAN by MARY AFI USUAH

This is the second album from Mary Afi, With Akwasa as backing band this one sounds more funky and a bit more heavy then the previous album. Great tracks!Mary Afi Usuah trained as an a opera singer at the prestigious St Cecilia Academy in Rome and spent 13 years touring Europe with artists like Duke Ellington and Deep Purple. She matched vocal chops with Robert Plant performing with Led Zeppelin and blew away the top names on the Lagos scene when she returned to Nigeria. She also broke a few hearts with her killer smile, if some accounts are to be believed. African Woman marshals these experiences into an exceptionally powerful and diverse album. From the Tina Turner stomp of �What�s A Woman To Do�, to the Aretha-style musings of the title track, Mary takes everything she learned on the road to tell her story about her continent in a distinctly African manner. The boys from Akwassa were on hand to ensure that everything was kept extra tight and funky. Mary Afi Usuah only released two albums but she is undeniably one of the greatest female singers the African continent has produced. African Woman serves as her legacy, along with the remarkable number of Nigerian female singers she mentored and inspired. - Peter Moore