All of This Was Brought to You by Cheap Oil (Balkan Beat Box, Antibalas, Summerstage/ Angélique Kidjo, Zola, Prospect Park Bandshell)

Just throwing up pictures and some quick thoughts.  I’ll tidy up later.  Or not. Otherwise it’ll be next weekend before I get to all this.

Balkan Beat Box (myspace).  These guys were incredible.  Brought a party on with them (including a bellydancer and an entire drum ensemble) and never stopped.  De-punk Gogol Bordello, add brass, up the dance beats, throw in the occasional rap and gogogo.  The horns all had remote mics, so they could run around and get crazy, too.

Balkan Beat Box – Bulgarian Chicks (feat V. Tomova, M. Alexiava) (mp3) (buy)

Balkan Beat Box – La Bush Resistance (feat. Tomer Yosef)(mp3) (buy)

They’re out of the country for a while, but will be at Southpaw on September 15th.  Tickets are here; highly recommended.

More pics here.

Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra (myspace).  I’ve seen the name everywhere since I’ve moved to New York, and they generally sell out whatever venue they play.  I was completely unfamiliar with Fela Kuti and “afrobeat,” but was expecting something a lot dancier than what I got.  It’s politically conscious funk-meets-jazz.  Songs are loooong, heavy on improv.

There were thirteen people, up there, including the horn section that backed TV on the Radio Friday night (Adebimpe returned the favor, here, as 14th man, singing some back-up vocals, doing some hand-clapping); the tenor sax player, Stuart Bogie, conducted.  Amayo, one of the ensemble’s two black members, handled most of the vocals.

I wasn’t too thrilled until mid-set, during a song called “Sanctuary,” when either they hit their groove or I finally found theirs; perhaps it was just the contact high.  But as Amayo barked at us about everything that’s wrong with America – a theme, today – the music got charged.  Bogie took the lead on a great song called “Indictment!”, barking out names of politicians and businessmen that should be behind bars and punctuating every declaration with big brassy bursts.  “If Martha Stewart could handle it,” he said, “Barbara Bush...”

Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra – Who is America Dem Speak of Today? (mp3) (buy)

More pictures here.

*

The show ended an hour later than I thought it would, which meant I was late to Prospect Park... and the place was stuffed.  Zola, the star of last year’s Academy Award-winning Foreign Language film Tsotsi was rapping and lecturing about controlling the arms trade in Africa – good luck, buddy, as long as there are hungry Russians – and I was thinking about going as there was no room to move.  Packed.

But I’m so glad I didn’t.

Angélique Kidjo (unofficial myspace) is an astounding performer.  Originally from Benin – which until a few minutes ago, I could not have found on a map – she studied in France, has ties to the U.S., Cuba, South America.  Members of her band came from Brazil, Switzerland, South Africa, California; she switched languages as often as she switched musical styles.  Salsa, calypso, funk, pop (and it always lacked, thankfully, that lame Europop glaze) and on and on.  All over the map, but always totally focused.  Zola came back out and they did a rap-blues-soul version of Jimi Hendrix’ Voodoo Child (Slight Return).

The woman has enough charisma for its own country.  Dressed rather conservatively in slacks, a jacket, and a tie... over a wifebeater, she was constantly dancing – sometimes ecstatically spazzing out.  Everything came off as loose, informal  She jumped into the crowd and went way beyond the VIP section.  Near the end of the show, she started pulling people up on stage.  All the children, she called for all the parents to send their kids up there... then demanded the adults come too.  There were at least 50 people up there, just dancing and dancing and dancing.

Thinking there wouldn’t be an encore – it was already after 11pm – I’d made my way out of the bandshell; of course, she came back out, and people were dancing around in Prospect Park Drive.

Angélique Kidjo – Voodoo Child (Slight Return) (mp3)(buy)

Here is an excerpt from the movie Lightning in a Bottle where Kidjo does Voodoo Child with Buddy Guy and Living Colour’s Vernon Reid; she comes on at about the 4:40 mark.

Okay, that was Saturday...

tags: tv on the radio  angelique kidjo  antibalas afrobeat orchestra  celebrate brooklyn  zola  balkan beat box  

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