That’s Jazz

Phew! What an amazing few days in Saint Louis. If you’ve been following us resolutely you will have seen that we arrived into Saint Louis a couple of weeks ago, only to leave for a mini tour, before returning for the international Jazz Festival.

Staying put for a while and being part of something bigger has been a wonderful for a few reasons.

The music

The last time we really heard live music (other than the ubiquitous call to prayer) was back in Almeria, Spain, just before entering Morocco. That was back in early January. We had hoped to experience more live music on our travels but for countries such as Morocco and Mauritania, traditional music is mostly confined to the home or for special occasions. The best chance for us to hear it was to happen across some in public spaces (which barely happened) or to attend a wedding or funeral. Travelling through places as we do doesn’t give us much opportunity to make the connections neccesary to be invited to such occasions. Ramadan also reduced the number of events on the calendar.

Over the four days of the festival we were treated to a whole host of different music and a huge variety of performances.

On the first evening Kuba Stankiewecz introduced us to Polish composers and the day was rounded off by the lively and colourful Senegalese Orchestra Baobab who got the whole venue dancing. It was a great party atmosphere and start to the festival.

Day two began with the delightfully surreal Kurage Band who put on a fun-filled and wholly immersive spectacle. Japanese, Korean and Senegalese percussion with trombone and traditional Korean dancing got us off to a fantastic start.

In the evening, Momi Maiga and his band put on an incredible performance. The kora was an instrument I hadn’t heard before (of course Sam had…) but its versatility and Momi’s virtuosic playing was captivating.

Friday afternoon, we went back to our roots and watched the Ameth Fall school band. Young percussionists, trombonists, trumpeters, saxophonist and clarinetist performed a programme of foot-tapping tunes including Oh When the Saints. An audience of mainly school peers clapped along.

The late evening was memorable for its variety including Malika Tirolien’s jazz/R&B style followed by the Treme Funktet with their brass-heavy New Orleans music. Maybe this is as close as we’ll get to Sam’s dream of seeing Rebirth Brass Band live, unless we make it over to New Orleans on our bimble…

On the final night we were treated to a tuba-heavy evening, much to Sam’s delight. Firstly Thomas Leleu took to the stage, followed by a show by Livia Mattos a talented jazz accordion player and her tubist Jefferson Babu and drummer Rafael dos Santos. When the set finished she knew the crowd were calling for more and stepped off the stage to perform acoustically…to everyone’s delight. We got chatting after the show and learnt that another of her talents (being a circus performer) is to play the accordion whist riding a unicycle!

Back on the main stage the fantastic Bo van der Werf/Khadim Niang collaboration with a huge group of Sabar drummers, talking drums, a more traditional jazz band and an African vocal line up. The singers were particularly strong with one of the women slaying in a grime style, in Wolof. Quite the experience! The cross rhythms were insane.

The final act on the main stage was the Addis Ken Project. His vocals, sax playing and charming stage presence, and infectious dancing, stole the show. This culminated in him introducing a trio of local drummers from Saint Louis, one who we’d met a couple of weeks earlier, who took to the stage with great gusto.

Our festival ended with a late night performance by Vox Sambou and Sahed Sarr. Dubbed the Senegalese James Brown it was a foot-tapping/dancing experience well into the night.

The atmosphere

The Saint Louis we left a couple of weeks ago was quite different to the one we returned to. It had gone from sleepy off-season vibes to vibrant and rammed. It was especially buzzing on the Saturday night with the local folk all out on the waterfront too. Great fun! Here are some images of what we got up to during our stay.

The people

The music was great but what made it was—you guessed it—the people. We would have had half the fun had we not found such great people to spend our time with. For a few days we were back in a ‘community’ of people enjoying the live music. The festival was small enough that we kept seeing familiar faces. Many we would say hello to and chat with, and others became our Festival Friends throughout.

We were reunited with Maren, who was working in Saint Louis and we had previously met in Zebrabar. Being an American it meant that we could easily converse and find out more about Saint Louis and the people here. Maren also showed us the best spots for street food and drink, which were a real authentic treat. As a researcher working locally, Maren also speaks fluent Wolof, which blows minds and is hilarious and amazing to witness.

On day two we hailed a taxi and got in with two Korean ladies who were visiting the festival from Dakar. Having only just arrived they asked us where we were going in town and we mentioned we were off to see a Japanese/Senegalese/Korean band and this piqued their interest. We had time before the gig to share a cup of ataya by the river and find out more about them. They enjoyed the spectacle of Kurage Band too and were delighted to see some of their traditional culture in Saint Louis, including an in-joke made by the Korean percussionist that only they laughed at. Brilliant!

At the same concert we also met Andrew, a Brit who had travelled (for both work and pleasure) a lot in Africa. Together the five of us spent much of the festival together, sharing stories, food, and the joy of the music.

The connections we made during the festival are the things we most remember and a shout out to all the other wonderful people we got to know in Saint Louis. Maybe we’ll see some of you again during our travels. We really hope so!