African, Brazilian, Latin and Caribbean music. Journalists from all over. Public of all allegiances and all dialects. The Village des Nuits d’Afrique bustled as we had hoped, last week, during the six months of its free portion.
It was Lamine Touré, founder of the Balattou club and co-founder of Nuits d’Afrique, who was all smiles last Thursday when La Presse met him. His festival continues to progress and unite. Its funding is more substantial. And most importantly: festival-goers are there like never before. Its general manager Suzanne Rousseau, like a wolf in the night, worried about the sound emanating from the speakers of the Parterre symphonique. Reassured after her reconnaissance lap, it was “just [her] impression”. Feverish and perfectionist people as we like them!
Today is July 20.
Thaynara Peri, a Quebecer with Brazilian origins, had the rudiments of Musica Popular brasileira to offer to the curious in front of the stage of the Tranquille esplanade which filled at 7 p.m. with a groove perfumed by the transverse flute, an instrument from another decade for some, but still relevant in Latin America. We even had a crazy and improbable finale of Smoke on the Water by English rockers Deep Purple. Amazing? Yes. Transcendent? Well…
Immediately after, head to the Parterre symphonique and the Radio-Canada stage where the ten musicians of the incendiary Colombian collective Bejuco sucked us in with their percussions, drums, contagious ancestral polyrhythms with scarves and towels waved at arm’s length, marimbas in support. Batea, their most recent record released in 2021, was an opportunity to twirl more than a pair of hips with the added bonus of a voice game that allows their music to breathe. Mind blowing!
They are three behind the kora player, percussion, congas, bass or guitar, the cadence is often vitaminized as desired, but it is when she is swimming in calm waters that her voice and her playing on the kora take us by the throat, her fingers harass the instrument with precision, the fruit of an absolute meditative concentration. Thanks to the two screens on either side of the Parterre symphonique stage, we saw a great artist at work. Each title was warmly received, the universal language that crosses cultures!
Adjacent to this stage, still in the grassy area, a smaller one has been set up to promote the intimacy of the duos. Called Cabaret Nuits d’Afrique, the small tent is in its place in the ambient tropical humidity.
Some take the opportunity to eat right next door at the Promenade des Saveurs: West African cuisine, Jamaican, Berber, West Indian, Mauritius, it’s the queue everywhere. Behind these makeshift installations, grills and stoves are working at full speed, a dozen picnic tables are popular with foodies, the bar right next door is, unsurprisingly, taken by storm, the field teams are supplying the diner with bags of ice cubes… the Nuits d’Afrique machine has been tested, no doubt about it!
Last Saturday, Valérie Ékoumè, the Frenchwoman of Cameroonian origin with her look à la Mariam (Amadou
A few strides and here we are in front of the main stage, where the Senegalese-Quebecer with the angelic and wounded voice Ilam rocked us with his mysterious melodies to the sound of an acoustic guitar and an effective, but discreet group. All the space is given to this voice which seems to evoke invisible demons. A nice counterpoint in this program after the beats of all kinds heard so far.
We take this opportunity to mention in passing a great initiative: those eager for novelty in world music will be well served thanks to the new lapercée site. ca which offers a collective laboratory with a range of choices of world artists, content to discover as well as a networking platform.
Cuban-Quebecer Rusdell Nunez y Su Sabor Concentra’o had the heavy task of closing the evening with an armada of cha-cha, rumba, reggaeton, salsa and other dance-friendly Afro-Cuban rhythms. Let’s say that we were closer to La Voix (in which he participated in 2014) than to large ensembles such as Los Van Van or Irakere. It was more of the sweet variety, but hey, if the world is dancing…
Sunday evening, the 37th edition of Nuits d’Afrique ended with the festive sounds of the Ivorian Meiway and the Zo Gang. We’re doing it again next year, from July 9 to 21, for this little festival that has become big.
