SENTI TOY

How Many Stories Do You Read On My Face?

2007-08-06

Excellent mixture of many genres from a woman (full name is Sentienla Toy Threadgill) born in Nagaland, a tribal state in northeastern India. Senti sings about her homeland in a number of songs on this disc, which is described as an "unclassifiable blend of jazz, traditional folk and blues-tinged pop" (i.e., a "WYCE natural"). Half of the numbers relate to Nagaland (#2, #3, #4, #9 and #10), the best of which is "More Than the Fingers" (#3), a song about "learned" anthropologists speak in a demeaning manner about the intelligence of her people. Other gems on this disc (and there isn't a clinker anywhere) are the title track and "You Got Breath" (#7). Senti is currently working on a doctoral degree in ethnomusicology at New York University. I think she'll pass. -MJVD