Review: African Soul Rebels, The Sage Gateshead

Mar 5 2009 by Matt McKenzie, The Journal

BEING an Englishman, I try not to clap at gigs.

But the great Baaba Maal made me on Tuesday night, with his polite request for us to “Clap your hands, please” during his infectious “African party”.

Considering Baaba’s a bona fide African superstar, the Sage’s Hall One should really have been packed to its wonderful rafters on Tuesday. Not that it was empty, but more people should really have taken the opportunity to witness a true great at work during, the fifth of the Soul Rebels series, designed to showcase the best in African music. Fools, the lot of you.

The man who’s spent the past 12 months starring in the Africa Express concerts, alongside Albarn and Cocker, is a man who knows how to work a stage.

Far from low key despite his promised acoustic set, dressed in red and gold traditional dress, he is an utterly self-assured performer. His manner is bewitching, his voice is effortlessly entrancing; one of the truly great instruments of modern music. This is a music that speaks of the joy of life and its living.

The night’s other rebels were Extra Golden, but the tricky task of following Maal fell to Zimbabwe’s wonderful Oliver Mtukudzi, who managed it with aplomb. If not exactly feelgood music, his are certainly songs to make you feel like everything is going to be all right.