An Honest Jon's Chop Up! - Barbican, 5 July 2008
Featuring Tony Allen, the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, Damon Albarn, Kokanko Sata Doumbia, Lobi Traore, Afel Bocoum, Candi Staton, Simone White, Victoria Williams, Toumani Diabate
Damon Albarn apologised for the shortness of this 90 minute gig at the end, explaining that it was all they'd had time to rehearse. But the artists, drawn from West Africa and beyond with one thing in common - the Honest Jon's record label - managed to pack plenty in. It was hard to feel short-changed anyway, with a foyer set afterwards from Lobi Traore and the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble to fill out the evening.
With all of the 25 or so performers on stage at once, surrounded by flags of all the various participating nationalities, it was a party almost before it started. And Koko Sata more than anyone did her best to make it feel that way. When she wasn't accompanying her sugar and sandpaper voice with a virtuoso display on the kamelen n'goni, a sort of lute, she was up on her feet shaking her thing.
Kora master Toumani Diabaté amazed with a cascade of notes.
Lobi Traoré and his band threw in a display of back to front upside down guitar playing along with their African blues.
Taking things in a soulful direction, Candi Staton followed the classic I'm Just a Prisoner with a new song, Who's Hurting Now.
The temperature dropped a little for the whimsical folky interludes of Victoria Williams and Simone White, but they were both so brilliantly quirky they slotted right in.
For me the stars of the evening were the identically-clad brothers of the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, who raised the roof with Moondog's Rabbit Hop.
And not forgetting the organiser, Damon Albarn, who after an hour of Moog and melodica contributions to the other acts finally stepped forward to sing himself. ************************************************************************************ More photos here.
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