Mystic dance

""Mystic Dance" is Kheir's third album and takes her mix of swaying Sudanese rhythms, jazz, soul and folk up into a higher realm. These 10 tracks combine her own originals with trad Sudanese songs, plus a spare cover of Kurt Weill's "Speak Low" and the lovely "Munaya" (Dream) written by (...) the oud player in her band. The arrangements on here are uniformly excellent, the various East African and Western elements combining together like never before ... Idris Rahman from The Soothsayers is on hand, adding clarinet and tenor sax, most notably on the soaring standout title track, as well as the beautiful "Nasaim Allel" (Night Breezes) which also feature London-based South African poet Leeto Thale ... At the heart of all this is, of course, Kheir's voice. And what a wonderful instrument it has grown into. Rich, flexible, by turns plaintive and cool. Completely in control".