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Concert Review
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Financial Times of London, Concert Review >>
Even though his set was late on a Sunday night, Angolan singer Bonga had the audience at New York City's Satalla nightclub dancing into Monday morning. It was a fitting celebratory note to end the club's raucous week-long Mondo Africa Festival, which featured a broad variety of African music styles, many with political overtones.
Bonga is a legend in his home country, where he was a football player and track star before mixing music and politics in the early 1970s. His classic debut album, Angola 72, modernised the centuries-old simba folk music tradition and became the soundtrack for the political upheaval resulting from Angola's struggle for independence from Portugal.
Amid the hard times and famine, the album was surprisingly tender and lilting - simba is close cousin to Brazilian samba and Cape Verdean morna (a style popularised by Cesaria Evora). The music is only enhanced by the Bonga's raspy vocals, which are simultaneously rough and gentle, able to project raw emotion that transcends the language barrier of Portuguese and Angolan lyrics.
There was no doubt that the voice still had its power on this night, vividly projecting hope, sadness and yearning as the singer performing several songs from his superb new album, Kaxexe. Highlights were the sunny and shimmying "Kaxexe", the upbeat "Samania" and "Nucos da Buala", which had a keening Caribbean feel to it. Playing a ribbed bamboo percussion stick called a dikanza as well as bongo drums, the singer led his four-piece band through an often upbeat 75-minute set. The musicians deviated from the linear grooves to emphasise the inflection and intensity of the singer's voice, but they seldom soloed on their own for more than a moment. The group played a sultry ballad every two or three songs that allowed the singer to stretch out and croon, wonderfully showcasing the textured nuances of his unique voice. But soon enough, it would speed up the tempo and the party would begin anew. Tel + 1 212 576 1155 More on ft.com/arts: Oliver Knussen conducts the London Sinfonietta and Roy Hargrove plays at the South Bank Centre, both in London
04/06/04
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