the music scene kicks off again

Now that Ramadan is over, and with the curfew lifted earlier in the year, there is rather an explosion of live music happening in Dakar.  People sometimes ask me why I am staying in Dakar, which is more expensive than somewhere down the coast and with all of the disadvantages of a big city (noise, traffic, pollution, crime, etc) - and the availability of live music is the main reason why.

So last weekend I went to my usual hang-out - Le Relais - to see Pape & Cheikh, playing traditional Senegalese folk music.  The singer's voice has gone a little croaky as he's aged and he sounds better now than he did on the old music of their's that you can buy.

The downside of live music here is the timing of the concerts, never starting before midnight and in this case as there was a support band, Pape & Cheikh didn't come on stage until around 01:30 (and finished at around 03:15).  I passed the time beforehand in conversation with a man sitting at the same table - who turned out to be a very talented harmonica player.  He got up and jammed on one track with the (jazz) support band and totally transformed their otherwise quite bland performance.  We swapped numbers and I'm hoping that he might prove to be a useful contact.

Then this weekend there was a difficult choice to make, with Salif Keita in from Mali to give a gala performance (= dinner included, ticket price very high) at the Pullman Hotel, and Oumou Sangare, supported by Bassekou Kouyate (both also in from Mali), giving a gala performance beside the Renaissance statue, near to where I live.  Then there was Wally Seck, performing at a much more reasonable price at the National Theatre.  I felt I had to see one of the Malian visitors, and as I'd never yet seen Salif Keita perform live I took a deep breath and purchased my CFA 50,000 (US$93) ticket; fortunately I was able to find a buyer for 41 of my old CDs, which at CFA 1,000 each helped to defray most of the cost.

Thankfully also, being in the grounds of a hotel which might have had guests who wanted to sleep that night, the concert started relatively early and was over by 1am.  I wait to see who will play where this coming weekend, but for sure I will have another musical outing ... and another late night.  I was also pleasantly surprised this morning to learn that the St Louis Jazz Festival will take place later this month - whilst our COVID cases here now are negligible (33 new cases reported yesterday - out of a population of nearly 17 million) I still thought that they might cancel it for a second year.