CalPerformances presents Afropop Spectacular featuring Bassekou Kouyaté and Krar Collective
2014-10-11
Zellerbach Hall Auditorium
U.C. Berkeley, Bancroft Way at Telegraph Ave, Berkeley, CA
8:00 PM, Saturday, October 11, 2014

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[8:05 PM lights down, announcements]

1. [8:m PM] ?
2. [8:m PM] ?
3. [8:m PM] ?
4. [8:m PM] ?
5. [8:m PM] ?
6. [8:m PM] ?
7. [8:m PM] ?
8. [9:m PM] ?
9. [9:m PM] ? (aud dancing onstage)
10. [9:m PM] ? (aud dancing onstage)
    [set ends 9:16 PM]

[9:31 PM lights down, announcements]

1. [9:m PM; w/o Amy or Mustafa] ? (instrumental)
2. [9:m PM; add Amy & Mustafa] ?
3. [9:42 PM] ? yamaku
4. [9:56 PM] (Abou solo) » ?
5. [10:05 PM] (Mustafa solo) » ?
6. [10:24 PM; w/o Amy or Mustafa] Poye 2
7. [10:36 PM; add Amy & Mustafa] ?
   [set ends 10:48 PM]
    
   Encore
8. [10:48 PM] ?
9. [10:51 PM; BK & Amy off] ? drum song
   [show ends 11:01 PM]

Bassekou Kouyaté

• Bassekou Kouyaté: ngoni, lead vox (t06);
• Madou Kouyaté (program says Abou Sissoko): medium ngoni, harmony vox, tama (t09);
• Moctar Kouyaté: calabash;
• Mustafa Kouyaté: bass ngoni, harmony vox, yabara (t09);
• Amy Sacko: lead vox, yabara (t07);
• Mahamadou Tounkara: yabara (AKA shekere), tama (AKA talking drum), harmony vox.

Krar Collective

• Genet Asefa: lead and harmony vox, percussion, dancer;
• Grum Begashaw: drums, whistling, harmony vox;
• Temesegen Zeleke: krar, lead and harmony vox.

First set: very trancey one-chord groove music. Krar is an ethiopian harp, and Temesegen Zeleke had two. For every tune except his solo segment, he played a modern instrument that appeared to be made from a modified electric guitar. Hard to tell how many strings that one had, but I'm guessing somewhere between 12 and 20. It seemed also as if there were different pickups for the front side strings compared to the back side strings – one set was clearly being run through a flanger, wah-wah and other effects. Made for pretty trippy sound. Zeleke's solo tune was played on an instrument with far fewer strings – six or seven? – and that one appeared to be homemade too. In this case, some sort of musical love child between a chair back and a squat flower pot. Strange but cool. Didn't sound appreciably different, but that's probably due to the fact that both are working off electronic pickups with metals strings – not too many variables different between them. Grum Begashaw's drum set-up was quite similar to a doubled timbales rig, but with smaller, coffee-can sized inner drums, and with all of the drums being about twice the depth of timbales, with accordingly deeper tone profiles.

Second set from Bassekou Kouyaté and his family was also darn good, offering a bit more timbral and tonal variation than the program offered in the first set, not that the groups ought to be compared, since they offered totally different styles of music, but being juxtaposed, it's hard not to start playing compare and contrast. Still, with instrumentsation based on traditional folkloric instruments, the overall effect of the Kouyaté band was also somewhat trancey. It was darn near impossible for me to understand enough of the vocals from either group to make any sort of stab at a setlist, rats!

You can buy Bassekou Kouyaté's latest album online from Bandcamp – I know I will!

Back to the previous event! ☸ Up to the 2014 yearbox! ☸ Up to the 2014 event list! ☸ On to the next event!