Uptown Artist Spotlight: The Paradigm Shifter
The “N” in his name doesn’t stand for newbie or newcomer. When it comes to long-time Harlem resident and distinguished performer Ngoma, his name is certainly no misnomer. In the African culture Ngoma has several meanings: a drum song, a healing, or a dance experience that transcends national and social boundaries. Ngoma constitutes all of the aforementioned and then some.
Quiet and reserved with a humble demeanor, Ngoma surprises and instantly earns respect as he lures his audience into a musical adventure, guiding them to a place called “Stringland and Other Soul Notes.” Violin, cello, acoustic bass, acoustic guitar, electric bass, piano, flute, baritone horn, and the yidaki (didgeridoo) encompass some of the instruments that he weaves into a transformational-experience for live performance and on his latest CD, State of Emergency.
As I sit in a rustic industrial aesthetic lounge called Outpost, Ngoma exudes quiet confidence as he approaches the mic. He delivers a thought-provoking spoken word PSA — a signature of his seamless and synergistic integrations of music, poetry, and stirring consciousness.
As a Harlem resident, Ngoma is intimately familiar with change — the impact of the arts on it, and a performer’s ability to affect said change. He eloquently tackles the issues of gentrification, environmental ignorance, and institutional injustices, while challenging the local and global community to be proactive. The crowd, stirred by his word notes and metaphoric inferences, spontaneously responds with a chorus of “un-hmms” and “tell-its’” to the beat of affirming claps in a modern day call and response.
Ngoma is an elder messenger by way of his artistic storytelling style expressed through musical composition, arrangement, instrumentation, songwriting, spoken word and the ability to synthesize seemingly disparate occurrences within the context of history, the present, and our future . . .an embodiment of his self-proclaimed title, “ Paradigm Shifter.”
What does the future hold for Ngoma? Look for him in the PBS Spoken Word documentary, “The Apro-Poets” with Allen Ginsberg and a forthcoming collaboration with a South African artist to create trans-cultural music.
For updates, check his myspace page at www.myspace.com/notyouraveragestringthing or visit his website
www.Ngomazworld.com. To purchase his latest CD, “State of Emergency,” go to www.CDBaby.com or www.iTunes.com.
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