CD Review: Ntjam Rosie, Ntjam Rosie

Nine albums in, Ntjam Rosie knows exactly who she is as an artist — and this record reflects that. Her self-titled album draws directly from her faith, her identity, her experience of motherhood, and her Cameroonian-Dutch roots. It doesn’t reach for effect. It doesn’t need to.

Ntjam has long occupied a distinctive place in the Dutch music scene, and by extension, the broader European jazz and soul landscape. Born in Cameroon and trained at Codarts in Rotterdam, she arrived on the scene with a voice and a sensibility that resisted easy classification. Her breakthrough album Elle established her presence convincingly, and in the years since she has navigated soul, jazz, Afrobeat, and pop with consistent intelligence, releasing albums including Breaking Cycles, Home Cooking, and the reworked revisitation of Elle. With this self-titled ninth record, she is not reinventing herself so much as distilling herself — stripping back to what matters and building from there.

As stated in the press release, the album was written largely on guitar over a period of two years. Working with Fontanez (Lucas Meijers) and Rik van der Ouw — with Tim Eijmaal contributing on “Better” — Rosie has made a record that is tight, dynamic, and consistently forward-facing. Mixed by Fontanez at Eminent Studio and mastered by Jeffrey de Gans at Da Goose Mastering, it has real presence without sacrificing warmth. The arrangements are among the album’s quiet strengths: highly creative, modern in their construction, and unafraid to borrow production approaches from outside the jazz and soul world. It works because the intention is always clear.

The ensemble assembled for the project is worth noting: drummers Yoran Vroom, Tuur Moens, and Willem van der Krabben; guitarist Hassan Ait Moumad; keyboardist Emiel van Rijthoven; percussionist Koko Lawson; horn players Floris Windey and Donald Simoen; and the Ragazze Quartet. The rhythm section drives hard throughout, locking in with a groove that gives the album much of its forward momentum, and the instrumental work around it adds colour and weight exactly where it’s needed.

In Your Arms” opens the album on a warm, intimate note — a light, pop-leaning singer-songwriter piece that showcases Rosie’s vocal ease and melodic instinct. It’s a good song, and on its own terms it works well. Whether it fully signals the breadth and depth of what follows is another question, but by the time “Better” arrives, any such reservations dissolve quickly.

Photo by Len Land

“Better” states the momentum immediately — a stronger, groove-driven song with a subtle Afro flavour that sits comfortably in the album’s sonic world. But it is from the third track onward that Ntjam Rosie truly reveals itself. “Nelly’s Song” is a highlight: a contemporary funk feel with real propulsion, great production, and an arrangement that locks in and doesn’t let go. The album never drags after this point.

“Mama,” featuring Diana Dzhabbar, carries a strong Afro-Caribbean feeling, I liked the choice placement of the saxophone solo in the mix, this is one of those small production decisions that distinguishes a good album from a very good one. The outro feel change is equally well-judged. “Fefel ôsôé (By Streams of Water)” opens with kora (or perhaps a sample) and builds into outright Afrobeat, and Rosie’s vocal performance here is among the finest on the record — committed, technically assured, and emotionally present. I found myself returning to this track a number of times when reviewing the album.

“Whose I Am” brings an Afro-Cuban Latin feel with confident trumpet and saxophone solos, and “A Phone Call Away” leans further into that Latin sensibility, the string arrangement adding a lyrical layer that works well. Both tracks reflect the album’s recurring quality: nothing here feels forced or genre-dropped for effect. The influences are absorbed and delivered with confidence.

“Môs ôse (Every Day),” featuring the Ragazze Quartet, has a strong West African feel, and the string quartet is used with real imagination — the pizzicato in particular adds rhythmic texture that complements rather than decorates. “Lost in Translation” is one of the album’s most quietly powerful moments: intimate, ethereal in its soundscape, building tension in a way that feels entirely natural. Its placement late in the running order is exactly right. The album closes with a spoken word outro — candid, almost off-the-cuff, like catching an artist in an unguarded moment. It is an unusual choice that somehow works perfectly, leaving you with the sense that you have spent time with a real person rather than a polished product.

There is no dull moment here — the compositions are uniformly strong, the lyrics carry genuine depth, and the autobiographical quality of the writing gives the whole record an emotional coherence that holds it together across its range of styles. Ntjam Rosie is a must-hear: a quietly exceptional album from an artist at her most honest and most assured. Highly recommended.

Release Date: 24 April 2026
Format: CD | Streaming
Label: o-tone music

New Release Spotify Playlist

The Jazz In Europe New Release playlist features tracks from the new releases featured on Jazz In Europe. Updated weekly, this playlist is the perfect place to discover new music from the leading jazz musicians currently on the scene. We hope you enjoy this selection.