Perhaps only in New York City can you catch three, excellent, completely different African music shows over the course of a Monday and Tuesday night in November. Afropop hosted two visiting supporters from Oregon, and we could hardly have guided them to a more spectacular two nights of music.
It began at Le Poisson Rouge with African jazz singer Somi fronting a superbly talented five-piece band. The set ranged from a rad take on “House of the Rising Sun” to her dark reworking of Miriam Makeba’s “Pata Pata” to original songs of soothing, meditative warmth. Somi’s voice is a thing of wonder, from a whisper to a wail worthy of opera, with impeccable articulation and total commitment. One of our West Coast friends said the concert “healed” her.
From LPR, it’s a short walk to the Blue Note, where Weedie Braimah and the Hands of Time out of New Orleans were beginning a three-night return visit. Weedie comes from a line of percussionists on both sides, via his Ghanaian father and American mother, an acclaimed New Orleans funk and jazz drummer. Braimah has spent serious time in West African learning traditional techniques and rhythms and he’s assembled a powerful band with three other percussionists, two keyboard players, two guitarists and a bass man. The tunes are exhilarating, driving, dense and often danceable. Midway through the set, Braimah invited up his friend, monster Cuban conguero Pedrito Martinez. With four flying hands, plenty of smiles and blinding technique, the two players had the crowd on their feet and rocking.
On Tuesday, November 19, it was off to SOB’s for an unusual show led by Malian troubadour Habib Koité. In lieu of his regular band, Bamada, Koité was joined by Senegalese kora player Lamine Cissokho, Ivoirian balafonist Aly Keita, and Malian percussionist Mama Koné. All four are brilliant soloists, and each had their moment to shine on their own, but together, their rearrangements of classic Koité songs provided the real magic. The blending of string and balafon melodies gave familiar tunes a new lift and rich sonority. Koité noted that he performed on that very stage on his first U.S. tour some 30 years ago. Some in the room this night were there back then, and all in this near sold-out crowd were clearly devoted fans.
Here are a few of my shots from the three shows.
