Afrofest 2009
Queen's Park. Saturday, July 11, 2009.
Was awakened on Saturday morning by booming thunder and, within minutes, a torrential rainstorm had begun. Not a great sign for a day that I'd been planing to hit two outdoor events. Turned out to be lucky that the bad weather had passed through so early in the day, though, as it was pretty smooth sailing after that.
Had only been anticipating a relatively short stay in the park on Saturday. As I emerged from Museum station and walked over to the park, the sky was clear and it was quite pleasant out — even the ground underfoot didn't seem all that wet or mucky. Perhaps downtown had been spared some of the storm's force, although it did seem to have had an impact on the setup as things were going about a half-hour behind schedule. That meant I managed to catch most of Valu David's set. His soulful tunes weren't entirely my thing, but pleasing enough to find a spot under a tree and drink in the surroundings a bit.
After a quick and efficient changeover came Madagascar Slim, who I'd been most anticipating on the day's early lineup. I'd seen Slim playing in a more relaxed, acoustic configuration back during Luminato, but here he was with his own band and mostly playing his lavender telecaster. The band behind him was just bass/drums/percussion1, but they were joined on several songs by Malagasy dancers who kept the stage lively. Musically a very solid unit, rolling along nicely behind Slim's flowingly picked guitar. This is good-hearted, upbeat music that feels so easy and natural it's tempting to overlook the technical merits behind it. Fab summertime stuff.
Listen to a track from this set here.
After a bit of walk around the park to see the mix of things going down — kids climbing around King Edward's legs, a crush of people around the food and craft stands, quiet space to stretch out on a blanket around the edges, and Al Purdy taking it all in without complaint2. Went back over to the stage when I heard the sounds of reggae starting to waft through the air. After an introductory groove, the crowd was treated to a mini warm-up by Papa Levi covering "Too Experienced". And then, sadly, pretty much as Kwesi Selassie was taking the stage, I was heading away from the park. Too bad — sounded like a crack band and looked to be an irie show coming together. As I headed back to the subway, I felt a twinge of regret, and a part of me just wanted to stay in the park and enjoy the good vibes, rather than head for what I was expected to be a clusterflock of chaos down at Harbourfront.
1 The band included Ebenezer Agyekum on bass, who I'd seen the night before as a member of Afrafranto. Although he plays the light-hearted trickster on stage, this guy's obviously a solid pro, playing back-to-back sets in different styles and different bands.
2 I'm guessing the organizers slipped him a mickey of rye for his cooperation.
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