More Concerts + the President!

This is going back quite a bit now - from the first night of Matt's visit.  He got here Sunday, Dec 26, very early in the morning.  He slept a lot during the afternoon, but then we went out that evening to listen to a concert at the Renaissance Monument.  The first group was the African Jazz All Stars, and we both agreed that they were kind of disappointing.  Not super sharp, and not particularly interesting, musically.  But the crowd loved them. 



Then we heard Sekou Diabaté, from Guinea - he is one of the founding members of the Guinean band Bembeya Jazz National, one of the most important bands to come out of Guinea in the 1960s.  He totally ROCKED.  He is an incredible guitarist and a vibrant performer.  The whole audience was going crazy, from little kids to the elderly. 

AND... we saw the President, Abdoulaye Wade!  This was a different day, when we went to the Renaissance Monument to hear the legendary Hugh Masakela.  Here's the Prez entering with some of his entourage:

 

Here's Hugh Masakela (famous trumpter from South Africa - he was actually married to Miriam Makeba for a very short time, a long time ago).  He put on a really amazing show - he definitely knows how to get the audience going.  My favorite song was actually a spoken poem about the train that takes workers from all around South Africa and bordering countries to work in the mines - he acted out all of the sound affects and it was incredibly moving.  He didn't hesitate to speak his mind in front of the President, to speak of the problems Africa faces.  But he also had a great sense of humor, and one song was about what it means to be an African woman, and he would prance around pretending to be one (I have to say he really had the gestures down) - all of the women in the crowd loved it and sang along and laughed.