03 December 2009 (gig)
05 December 2009
Amadou & Mariam were simply brilliant at the Forum on Thursday. I have been hearing little slices of Amadou & Mariam for a fair while but I can’t say that they were one of the artists that came immediately to mind when I looked for music but within moments of their entrance I was up and dancing, uttely entranced by two these two and their band.
Their music is generally described as Afrobeat or Afropop and you can hear some of the early Afrobeat sounds in their music, especially Amadou’s guitar, but there is still a lot of their Griot origins in the music as well as a European edge and they throw in a whole lot of other influences as well so that the whole is a meting pot of world music with the emphasis on ‘Music’.
For a pair of blind musicians they have a pretty good sense of a show as well with two dancers/backing singers keys, African percussion, bass and drums all creating a whirlwind of imagery while A & M are static in the centre of the stage but all of this was an accompaniment to the music which was breathtaking.
They played songs from the ‘Welcome To Mali’ album and ‘Dimanche a Bamako’ with Mariam’s slightly nasal voice and Amadou’s higher pitch bouncing back and forth and the band building a storm behind them. Amadou showed his chops with some superb guitar soloing, showing shapes and riffing with abandon at times, and the percussion and drums perfectly in sync and raising heartrates to dangerous levels.
Mariam had little opportunity to go solo but when she did, on ‘Sabali’, she was a revelation – an African Piaf with an incredible ability to carry an emotion into a song.
The Magic Numbers joined them onstage for a couple of numbers and were good fun, enjoying themselves but not necessarily adding a whole lot to the sound.
This was a showcase for a duo who have gone from strength to strength this year with Glastonbury, a tour with Blur, an itunes festival headline and next week the Nobel Prize concert and they did themselves no harm with the packed Forum bouncing around with beatific smiles on their faces – even some of the bouncers!
