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Concert Preview
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New Yorker, Concert Preview >>
The Great African Ball, coming to the Roseland Ballroom on April 29, is to other parties what the Tour de France is to other bicycling competitions: longer, bigger, and more entertaining. The Senegalese singer Youssou N'Dour started the ball in 1999 to give African nationals a chance to home, at least for one night, while letting curious Americans experience an African party. This year's ball will star King Sunny Ade, a legend of Nigerian juju music. Ade is appearing for the first time ever with Prince Obi Osadebe, a master of the slightly more upscale highlife style. In Ade's music, talking drums creat a bubbling river that the multiple guitar players navigate with clean, clipped phrases. The entertainment also relies on audience "spraying," a tradition that involves sticking money to the performer's body, usually the forehead. The ball isn't one of those grim events where the dancers hang on until the drugs wear off; by 4 A.M., when the show is scheduled to end, everyone may just be getting a second wind.
--Sasha Frere-Jones 04/25/05
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