©
Mark
Allan / Barbican |
Rokia
Traoré: Village Underground, London, 23rd June 2012
Rokia Traoré was in London for 3 shows with
different emphases (Sing - Dance - Dream) during one week in
June and will be back in July for 'Desdemona' at the Barbican
in which she'll play the part of the African nurse Barbary.
At the Village Underground in Shoreditch, Rokia starts off with
Dounia, a song from her album 'Tchamantche' which would
be familiar to her fans gathered there. After that she and her
new band present new songs to be featured on her forthcoming
album due for release later in 2012. Producer of the new album,
British musician John Parish, joins in too. Some of the songs
are in Bambara but the 4th one, Mama, is in English
and will easily become a favourite to mark occasions such as
Mothers' Day.
Rokia takes time to chat to her audience between songs and they
love that. For example, she explained her reasons for composing
Melancholie, which has French lyrics. It’s soon
followed by a Billie Holiday cover, the very intense Gloomy
Sunday (a few years ago she was part of a tribute tour
'Billie and Me'). Rokia says that people need to get along together
- did she see that two people in the audience almost had a fight
because one found the other was taking up too much space dancing,
I wonder?! and quotes a proverb from Mali: You can’t be
tall and short at the same time. Her final song before being
called back for an encore is Tuituit – as the
title suggests it’s about the calling of birds that Rokia
hears when she wakes up in Bamako and they seem to be addressing
her - in these days of Twitter, that was amusing!
©
Anne
Wanjie
|
©
Joshua
Jordan
|
Mama
Africa: Celebrating Miriam Makeba. Curated and presented by
Angelique Kidjo
On 21st November 2009 a full house at the Barbican waited with
eager expectation to find out what form this tribute to Miriam,
lovingly known as Mama Africa - one year after she died - would
take. Charismatic as ever, Angelique Kidjo was hostess supreme.
As well as singing a few songs solo during the evening, Angelique
introduced some of the artists and joined in duets with them.
In one of her informative anecdotes about Miriam, Angelique
explained how Miriam, the real star of the evening, was her
role model.
As Miriam had lived in Guinea for many years it was appropriate
that West Africans Sayon Bamba, Dobet Gnahore, Asa, Baaba Maal
and Vieux Farka Touré performed. Both Sayon and Dobet
are beguiling dancers – their renditions of Hapo Zamani,
Dubula and Kilimanjaro were outstanding. All the
songs were taken from Miriam’s repertoire except Angelique’s
Afirika which she sang from within the audience –
something she is well-known for doing. Angelique also sang Surilam,
the beautiful Indonesian lullaby.
Throughout the evening the main performers were accompanied
by a powerful and energetic band – sometimes suitably
pared down – and a South African trio chorus who were
Miriam’s own backing vocalists. South African Vusi Mahlasela
put all his energy into Mama Ndiyalila as a duet with
Angelique, and then The Click Song.
At the end of the show all the artists and the audience were
on their feet to party joining in the very popular Pata
Pata and, as an encore, Soweto Blues with obvious
enjoyment. It was an honourable tribute to Miriam with artists
and band members from so many different countries singing in
several different languages joining in her much-loved music
which itself was truly international. Attending the concert
has given me a renewed interest in Miriam's music to the extent
of buying more of her CDs!
©
Anne
Wanjie
|
|