11 June 2008 (gig)
16 June 2008
After the usual shenanigans with the door at the Jazz Café I was finally able to get to see Seckou Keita’s latest incarnation in its natural setting – live.
The album – ‘The Silimbo Passage’ – that the crew were launching has already had a 5 star review and I was desperately keen to see what this could become in a live setting.
Featuring a combination of Jazz, Senegalese Kora, Blues and classical it is remarkable but played live the quintet took on a new sheen and watching the interplay between the different strands I could see just how much an ensemble piece it really is. Take away any of the musicians and the music really would lose an integral element – a large part of the magic is in the indefinable charismatic connection between Seckou and Samy Bishai, the Egyptian born violinist, then look at the telepathic link between Davide Mantovani’s bass playing and the percussion of Surahata Susso. The bridge between the yin and the yang of the quintet is Binta Susso whose vocals give a focal point to the music and who adds percussion or simply a visual focus at times.
The music crosses so many borders that it cannot be classified as anything specific. It is highly sophisticated, there is a percussive heart to much of the music but the string sounds take it towards Eastern Europe or the bazaars and souks of the Middle East but then the voices take it firmly into Senegalese Griot. This is truly World Music – not MOBO or any of the other acronyms used to describe African originated music – this is music for the world and it strikes directly at the soul of the listener, not just the ass.
Needless to say, the Kora playing by Seckou Seita is incredible, almost a Clapton of the Kora, and he is the perfect front man with the rest of the band all taking their cues from him but it is as a band that this works. However, I cannot remember the last time that I saw a band applauding their leader for an audacious piece of improvisation and actually mean it – at times Keita even amazed his own band which makes him the Hendrix of the Kora rather than the Clapton.
If you have a chance to see them live you might be in for the most exhilarating display of musical colour and texture you are likely to find this year.
