Gig: "Support Afrofest" Concert

"Support Afrofest" Concert (feat. Ruth Mathiang + Waleed Abdulhamid / Donné Roberts / Fojeba / Resolutionaries Marimba Band / Afrafranto)

918 Bathurst. Friday April 22, 2011.

It had been an unsettled few weeks for Music Africa, the organization that runs Afrofest. When the news came through that the city was going to revoke its permission for the use of Queen's Park, it hit many as a shock. And, frankly, as a high-handed and patently unfair gesture, given that putting together an event as large as Afrofest takes months of dedicated planning, which was already well underway. While there is doubtless some merit to worries about the long-term effects on the ever-growing festival on the park and its gorgeous trees, pulling the rug on such short notice was highly disrespectful to a top-tier cultural event that had been held at the park for two decades. Fortunately, the community rallied around the organizers and that put a lot of pressure on City Hall. This concert was part of that effort, not a fund-raiser so much as a consciousness-raiser, and an effort to broaden the organization's membership base to help keep it resilient against future crises.

And so, on a cool and windy Good Friday I was headed down to the beautiful hall at 918 Bathurst and received my membership card as I made my way in. Unsurprisingly, it was a well-organized show, with some food booths in the back and the room set up with some dancing space in front of a few rows of chairs. The night began with Music Africa president Michael Stohr announcing that Afrofest would be held in Queen's Park in 2011.

That was a positive note setting the table for Ruth Mathiang and Waleed Abdulhamid, playing together this night as an acoustic duo. Abdulhamid — a busy collaborator as well as a bandleader in his own right — was on a stool with his guitar, providing the instrumentation and backing vocals while Mathiang filled the room with her voice and bright presence. "Hopefully you won't be sitting down too long," she said to the crowd, leading with the simmering "Mama Africa",¹ the music dropping out mid-song to get the crowd clapping and singing along.

The pair offered an intriguing mix of vocal textures, with Mathiang's smooth tones next to Abdulhamid's rougher voice like a smooth cheek rubbing against a whiskered one. There were also some contrasts in the subject matter, with a solemn ballad about the costs of war in Darfur on women and children followed by a celebratory wedding song from the same region. Relative to the sparse instrumentation, there was a lot of groove going on, and I was excited at extrapolating how that would get ramped up even more with a full band.²

Listen to a track from this set here.

Donné Roberts brought a slightly stripped-down band from the last time I'd seen him, now playing without First Nations musician Marc Nadjiwan. But the cross-cultural "Afro Pow-Wow" trappings were still apparent, both in the opening instrumental and in Roberts' chanting in "Malembo". That was layered on top of some nicely irresistible Malagasy grooves, with Roberts' powerful guitar work supplemented by bass/drums/percussion and sax.³ By the time the band was playing "Wenge Yongo", the dancefloor was filling up nicely.

As I'd experienced before, there were a few points that didn't have enough grit for my palate — sax player Rich Howse (a.k.a. Isax Injah) can sometimes get a little "smooth" for my tastes, but he balanced that out with some interesting touches, such as little lurches that sounded like turntable scratches and some echo-y dub squeals during "Ariengue".

A set like this was a good chance for the band to stretch out, with just five long songs in fifty minutes. That reached its zenith with "Sadebake" going past a quarter-hour, ending the set with an extended fiery groove.⁴

Listen to a track from this set here.

As things turned over, there was a quick acoustic mini-set from Fojeba. After that super dance party, it was a bit harder for a lone guy with a guitar to hold people's attention, but did manage to get some people clapping along. Besides his hard-hitting funky zouk sound, Fojeba is also a topical songwriter, and a couple weeks before the election, he made clear his preferences with a song about Jack Layton.⁵

Already being familiar with the Resolutionaries Marimba Band, I was looking forward to another chance to see their dance-friendly and decidedly catchy grooves. Powered by Chaka Chikodzi — plus some of the younger players he has mentored — rotating between three large marimbas, the music takes traditional Zimbabwean rhythms and kicks them up to dancin' speed with a funky rhythm section.

Once again, I was struck by the strong melodic sense here. Even though this grooves a-plenty, the marimbas really have a "voice", making each song something memorable you could hum along to. The crowd was a little slow to warm up to it, but once the irrepressible "Manhanga" started, they were clapping along and dancing.

Chikodzi is also wise enough to mix things up: before the marimbas kicked in for "Shauriyako" the rhythm section backed a hip-hop freestyle (though I didn't catch the rapper's name), and the slower rhythm of "Kurima" gave everyone a chance to catch their breath. Once they get rolling, the band really gives the impression that they could simmer along for hours with this stuff. This might be the hottest band out of Peterborough right now.⁶

Listen to a track from this set here.

From what I've seen of Theo Yaw Boakye, he's not one to turn down an invitation to help out a good cause. So even if it looked like a couple members of Afrafranto were unavailable, with the help of some fill-ins Boakye had no problem putting together an entertaining set.

Most notable was the absence of guitar hero Pa Joe, so though there was a capable replacement, it was no surprise that the guitar was accented less for this show. The slack in sound was made up by a pair of keyboardists as well as a trumpet player. The presence of the latter also implied a shift in tone from the more barebones palmwine that the band has previously specialized in to more of a classic highlife sound.

With this sort of lineup, it's no surprise that it took a couple songs for the band to warm up. But once they were firing on all cylinders the set sounded closer to the non-stop groove that the band is known for — not quite the effortless segueing from tune to tune that they can do at their best, but there were a few tidy and seamless transitions here.

And though this was still danceable, it was mostly a simmering and mellow mid-tempo set of slinky rhythms, well-suited for the later part of the night. You could almost close your eyes and imagine you were in a Ghanaian nightclub where things were winding down after a sweaty night of partying. While thoroughly enjoyable, this might not have been the band at its most powerful. But it was still quite intriguing to see them working at some different ideas — some of which would subsequently be incorporated into their regular bag of tricks.

Listen to a track from this set here.

A night like this was a powerful reminder of how important Afrofest — and Music Africa behind the scenes — is at uniting the various local African music communities. It was a triumph that the community rallied to ensure that festival went ahead last summer. As of yet, there's no word on the specifics on Afrofest 2012 — the website confirms that planning is underway, but venue and dates are still unconfirmed.⁷

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¹ If that wasn't an overt enough tribute to the legendary Miriam Makeba, Mathiang also covered her songs "Hapo Zamani" and "Malaika" during the set.

² And, indeed, that would turn out to be the case, as I'd later hear.

³ Roberts' bassist is David Woodhead, who would also be notable to many readers of this blog as the father of local indie mainstays Airick and Daniel Woodhead.

⁴ With his new album Internation just out, Roberts will be playing the Lula Lounge on March 20, 2012.

⁵ Fojeba will be playing the Main Hall at The Tranzac tonight (February 24, 2012). With his full band (including, last I saw 'em, some of the same folks in Roberts' band) and horns and everything, it's a funky and fun time.

⁶ And in a piece of well-timed news, the band has just released an album (called, quite accurately, Marimba Explosion), which is available on their bandcamp. It sounds like an energetic representation of their live set.

⁷ And in the meantime, the last of Music Africa's Black History Month celebrations will be at the Gladstone Hotel's Melody Bar tonight (February 24, 2012), with a "Young Stars Night" promising some Afro jazz and Hiplife styles. Free, 9 p.m.