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Tuesday, June 7 in Cape Town. Today, I’m meeting up with Hillary again. She’s been kind enough to offer to drive down to Cape Point with me, the world where two oceans meet. But first, she’s arranged for us to meet with an acquaintance of hers, Joyce Scott.

We set out down the coast together around 9:30, heading straight to Joyce’s house. Joyce is an 80 something year old woman who’s face reminds me of my grandmother on my mom’s side of the family. She welcomes us into our house, and offers us tea. She also offers us the South African equivalent of biscotti. We sit down in her living room where a grey cat from the neighborhood wanders in and out freely while we chat.

Joyce spent years as a missionary in Africa, working in a long list of countries. She was a musician and music teacher, but along the way she realized that she needed to local music. “In Africa, anything important that needs to be said is sung,” she says. Without intending to, she has become quite the scholar of African music and ethnomusicology. The conversation continued, her showing us instruments, playing recordings, singing a few songs. We ended our time playing the amadinda together, a Ugandan xylophone of sorts.

Meeting Joyce was amazing. She has notes on songs she has learned in one of the townships, Xhosa songs. I’m trying to get back to her to copy her notes to transcribe. She also has an extensive library which she’s catalogued, and she was kind enough to let me photograph the list for me to look through later. At 80, Joyce has accumulated a wealth of knowledge that she wants to pass on, particularly to another missionary who will continue her work. I know I’m not the man for that, but I think working on those transcriptions would be a great way to help her.

After our morning meeting, Hillary and I continued down the coast to Kalk Bay. Despite being just a thirty-five minute drive from the heart of Cape Town, Kalk Bay feels like a separate world, the smell of salt from the water and a cool breeze blowing off the ocean. The main drive is dotted with little shops, and we pop into a few galleries where I saw some fantastic pieces. Eventually, we end up at a restaurant called Live Bait. It’s right on the water where the boats are bringing in the fish and hhe fish sellers are hawking them to people walking by. Locals fish off the pier. We have a nice leisurely lunch looking over the water, and time gets away from us.

Original plan was to get down to Cape Point. We managed to set foot there for a few minutes, and I snap some quick pictures before hopping the car to get back to the city. I’m scheduled to teach swing dance lessons tonight. It feels like the least I can do for this wonderful community that has taken me in this week. I teach classes on improvising in the dance, getting away from moves and steps, thinking about communicating rhythms. I want to broaden their view of the possible to return to them the gift that this trip is giving me.

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As a tradition, I cash in my coins for an iTunes gift card and spend the last week of every year looking through various  top music lists for new (to me) music. I’m still listening through a lot of the music, especially some of the full albums I purchased, but here is a quick and dirty list of a few stand-out songs from 2015. (Warning: some songs are NSFW)

6. “Soubour” by Songhoy Blues

Until the lyrics come in, this song rings out like a blues-rock anthem. When the vocals come in, everything changes as the seamless melding of the band’s traditional Mali roots and lyrics fuse together with the blues. The history of blues is rife with the infusion of African influences. Here the influence goes the other direction. And this wasn’t the only African song to make it onto “best of” charts in the US this year. I’m hoping this is a sign of increased diversity to come to our radios in the states.

5. “Pedestrian at Best” by Courtney Barnett

This song rings out with that sort of speech-song that I relate with Sheryl Crow or a band like The Killers (and further back to The Talking Heads). Usually, these kinds of ambiguously pitched vocals hold little appeal to the trained singer in me. Here, her control over inflection and intonation combined with the hypnotic rambling rhapsody of her lyrics pulls my along against the punchy music from the band beneath it.

4. “Killing Strangers” by Marilyn Manson

Again, another song outside of my usually comfort zone. I’m not a huge Marilyn Manson fan. I am a huge fan of blues, though, and this song is a fantastic pared down blues-style riff song. I think Manson’s growling voice fits perfectly, and the amount of restraint musically and vocally shows an artist who no longer needs to show off or prove anything. As far as I’m concerned, Manson can just drop the mic after this.

3. “What You Don’t Do” by Lianne La Havas

I’m a sucker for neo-R&B, a style that has been hovering on the outskirts of the mainstream pop-world for what seems like ages. Lianne La Havas came pretty close to breaking through with this song which saw major radio play. I love how close it sticks in structure and harmony to a traditional Motown shuffle while using just enough electronic sounds and processing to make it feel almost futuristic.

2. “S.O.B.” by Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats

The same vain as neo-soul, but a slightly different branch. This is less Motown, and more a mash-up between Ray Charles and Sam Cooke with maybe just a tinge of James Brown and a twist of country thrown in. Go ahead. Take a listen. Tap your feet, or just give into it and dance about the room.

1. “Whiskey and You” by Chris Stapleton

Chris Stapleton delivers one of the most sensitive, vulnerable and artistic vocals I have heard in years. A whiskey tenor with a powerhouse voice, he pulls back with such restraint, accompanied just by his guitar. It is such a risky, bold, and naked performance. It’s easy to sound good with a full band…to bury the vocal inconsistencies in a wash of drums, guitar, reverb, and autotuning. But what Stapleton does here is not only incredibly difficult, it’s near perfect.