Festival: Bana Y'Afrique

Bana Y'Afrique (feat. Ethio Stars Band / M'bilia Bel)

Metro Hall. Sunday, July 25, 2010.

Bana Y'Afrique was another of the city's many festivals that I'd had on my radar for a couple years but had never headed out for. Sometimes lost in the shadow of the big-event vibe of Afrofest, the festival was in fact celebrating its eleventh year, with acts stretching over both days of the weekend. Sadly, I missed out on Saturday's action, which included Alpha Yaya Diallo and the always-awesome Afrafranto. But I was resolved to get down there to take in some stuff on Sunday. I arrived in time to catch part of the Burundian drum group Umurisho's set. It was good fun, and highly kinetic stuff.

It was a rather windy day, but after the recent intense melting humidity the wind made it feel like a good honest heat. The wind was strong enough to cause some headaches for those running the show, however — in between acts, a huge gust nearly brought down a stageside tent. That stage itself had a some-expenses-spared utilitarian vibe, with a blank white vinyl appearance making it look like the inside of a golf dome.

It looked almost equally sparse in general around Metro Square in the early afternoon, and the folks that were on hand were mostly spread out and looking for shade. There were rows of metal chairs set up in front of the stage, but in the full glare of the sun it would take a rather devoted fan to situate themselves there. In fact, there was hardly anyone sitting up near the stage save me — but I was willing to bake a little, as I was definitely psyched for another chance to see the Ethio Stars Band, who had really impressed when I'd seen them previously.

Right from the start the band were in fine form. Unlike the cosy confines of The Gladstone's tiny stage, here the five musicians had room to spread themselves out widely. There was good sound for this set and Ermias Assebework was in fine voice. The band was drawing mostly from the same batch of tunes I'd heard them play before, although I think there were a couple more funky/dance-worthy numbers in the mix.

Despite a small turnout, the musicians were having fun. I was amused to note that drummer Daniel Barnes was singing along while he played, but closer attention revealed he was singing along with Girma Wolde Michael's saxophone lines with bah-bah-bah gusto. It didn't distract him from the nimble touch he exhibited in guiding these songs along. It's worth observing how non-monolithic the band's music is — they're not just playing variations of one thing over and over. There's a lot of little flourishes making their way in here. Listen, for instance, to Waleed Abdulhamid on bass: at one moment almost hitting a reggae line, and a little later throwing in some funky thumb-popping — and it's the same down the line for the other guys, each showing off the wealth of musical knowledge they're bringing to this.

It was a broilingly good hour-long set, and my appetite for this band remains undimininished. There was more good stuff coming up through the afternoon, but I ducked down to Harbourfront to see something completely different.

Came back up from Harbourfront with K. to find a much larger crowd on hand. Having some time to relax, we pulled up a nice spot of lawn and hung out for awhile, people-watching and trying to figure out who was currently on stage as things appeared to have slipped off schedule. In a long gap after a dance group left the stage, we were told that the headliners were stuck on the 401 and would be late to arrive. Helping to fill in the hole in the schedule, the organizers called up some of the day's earlier performers to join together for an improv percussion set, which kept things going on stage. They even brought up some dancers to add more entertainment, and kept the crowd at bay for about fifteen minutes. They continued as the the band showed up began setting up around them. A nice job from the musicians and quick thinking on their feet for the organizers.

It did mean that things were running well behind schedule, however. Although slated to start at eight, it was about quarter after nine when M'bilia Bel's band eased from a hurried soundcheck into an intoductory fanfare for the evening's star. Bel, known as "the Queen of Congolese rumba", is a big star, still with a lot of drawing power and fondly-remembered hits stretching back to the early 80's.

Despite the basic soundcheck there would be sound problems throughout the set, especially with the vocals, which ranged between inaudible and feedback-squealing. It was a full-sized band, standard for a rockin' soukous party, with no less than three guitarists on top of bass, drums, percussion, keybs and a pair of backing vocalists. At the outset, not only was the sound pretty rough, but things were semi-confusing on stage. There were a lot of people who weren't in the band just hanging around — at one point, a musician with a guitar case on his back wandered across the stage and started hugging bandmembers in welcome while they were playing.

With a stature announcing royal unconcern with such petty things, M’bilia Bel took the stage in a sparkly dress and tiara, and as the intertwining guitar lines started rolling across the square with gentle groovy insistence, it was mostly possible to ignore the imperfections. The co-star on stage was Bel's male vocalist, who at first seemed to occupy more of a hypeman role, but he turned out to be a capable singer when Bel called him into the spotlight. His microphone problems were perhaps the most pronounced of everyone on stage, with his his vocals peaking out pretty much throughout.

Though the sound was still rough, the crowd that had been eagerly awaiting her was largely unconcerned, turning a lot of the songs into big singalongs ("plus fort!" Bel would call back to the crowd), with the most eager moving past the chairs to stand and dance at the foot of the stage. As seems to be the usual mode at shows like this, songs were smooshed together into long continuous grooves, the band stopping to rest only every ten or fifteen minutes or so.

The haphazard vibe continued with a momentum-sapping interlude to find some volunteers from the crowd to come up and dance, but Bel remained cheerfully unconcerned. When the music was rolling along, this was good stuff, but taken all together, as an experience it was merely okay. Like a car stuck in traffic jam on the 401, it never really got rolling during the hour the band had on stage before wrapping up.