Oct. 24, 2004

 

Cultures melt together at Sahara festival

By Cary Darling

Star-Telegram Staff Writer

The name Festival in the Desert conjures up images of the Burning Man gathering, where urban desk jockeys go hippie for a few days in the great, sunbaked outdoors. But Festival in the Desert means far more than this.

Held literally in the middle of nowhere -- in the Sahara Desert, 40 miles outside Timbuktu in Mali -- this annual gathering of Mali and international musicians, playing for an audience of mostly nomadic tribes, represents a staggering feat of cooperation and coordination. That it's happening in a nation that has suffered recent intertribal struggles and drought -- on a continent where the government of Sudan is waging war on some of its populace -- makes it all the more remarkable.

Much of the 2003 version of the three-day festival is captured on the DVD Festival in the Desert (Harmonia Mundi/World Village, $23.98), French director Lionel Brouet's loving look at this amazing culture clash, where Robert Plant can wail rock 'n' roll-style for a crowd wrapped in traditional scarves and robes. And where the loudest ovation and most frenzied dancing greets Blackfire, an American Indian band from Arizona.

But neither Plant, who has flirted with world-music textures throughout his career with Led Zeppelin and in his solo work, nor Blackfire are the high points here. Those belong to such Mali performers as vocalist Oumou Sangare, the ensembles Tinariwen and Tartit, and, of course, one of that country's best-known exports, guitarist/singer Ali Farka Toure.

What's most striking about the music from this area is how much of it resembles American blues, from the guitar-playing (both electric and acoustic) to the vocalizations. It's a reminder of just how interconnected culture is and that American pop traditions weren't born in a vacuum.
Bringing it all together -- in more ways than one -- is the French band Lo 'Jo . Not only is this outfit largely responsible for helping stage Festival in the Desert, but its Afro-Arab-pop mix -- captured on its new live album, Ce Soir La (Harmonia Mundi/World Village) -- reflects the festival's cross-cultural perspective.

Unfortunately, Brouet's 52-minute film (not including 12 minutes of bonus footage on the DVD) can't begin to give an idea of Mali's political/social situation or even the music itself. Listeners are left wanting more, and they can find it with the Festival in the Desert and Tinariwen's The Radio Tisdas Sessions CDs, both on Harmonia Mundi/World Village.

But the Festival in the Desert DVD itself is a trip well worth taking, without getting sun in your eyes or sand in your shoes.