Music Review: Nafuna Yesu – Desire Luzinda & Joseph Sax

I always found it amusing that people seemed to have no idea whatsoever that, curves and leaking nude imagery aside, Desire Luzinda could actually sing. Comfortably and gorgeously.

Now that she has abandoned the secular music industry and gossip columns, we may actually get to see the best side of her, musically speaking.

She is fcusing on gospel music and it looks good on her, because, like I said, she can actually sing.

Her latest effort is a gorgeous mid-tempo ballad called Nafuna Yesu, where she teams up with the saxophonist named Joseph Sax. This was an intriguing pairing, especially because Joseph has a capacity to play a particularly smooth soprano sax when he chooses to.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bK_M0XhX1ZM  

The song is crafted with subtle instrumentation designed to give Desire a backdrop against which her voice is the focus of the song. This approach works well, with gorgeous harmonies and with the saxophone ad libbing neatly.

Gospel music hasn’t yet been impacted drastically by social media the same way secular music has, and the genre is holding on to this trait willingly.

It means gospel music songs tend to have aspects to them that we miss, and this particular song doesn’t disappoint. The saxophone executes a beautiful interlude, a bridge of sorts, and there’s even a key transpose as the song reaches its climax. The song clocks in at 3 minutes 42 seconds – the secular music industry equates that to about an hour I imagine.

I think my only misgiving with “Nafuna Yesu” is; the production could have gone with a more definitive form of instrumentation. I understand what they were going for, using subtle instrumentation so that they could show off the vocal prowess of Desire and the saxophone ability of Joseph Sax, but while this works, the end result is that the backing instrumentation is a little generic. 

You can have great vocals and a solo lead with definitive instrumentation backing it – you just need to have a decent producer at the boards, working his way into a mix that works so that the final mix down is what showcases what you want to highlight.

An excellent example is Whitney Houston’s "All the Man I Need", where the focus is Whitney’s vocals and the ultimate soprano sax artiste, Kenny G. You wouldn’t call the backing instrumentation generic now, would you? That particular track is produced by Narada Michael Walden.

Either way, I am nitpicking. It’s fantastic to have Desire singing again, and to hear that her pipes are still awesome! When are you dropping the next one, Desire?