Africa Fête '99; Northampton Folk Festival; The Bobs
by Seth Rogovoy

(WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., Aug. 12, 1999) --

African soul in Noho

Wondering what ever happened to the slinky, melodic soul grooves of the '70s - those classic, sensual sounds of Marvin Gaye, Al Green and Stevie Wonder? It seems today that few American pop artists pay direct musical tribute to the heyday of soul. Rather, they seem stuck in the corporate-fueled niches of pop-soul bombast or non-melodic hip-hop.

But there is a current generation of musicians whose soul music, while infused with an organic authenticity all its own, caresses? the ears of listeners with the same sensuality of the soul classicists. And if you want to hear them, you ought to make your way over to Northampton next Tuesday, Aug. 17, when Africa Fête '99 pulls into the Pearl Street Nightclub at 6:30 (413-586-8686).

This year's traveling caravan of top African musicians includes Baaba Maal of Senegal, Oliver Mtukudzi of Zimbabwe, and Kulanjan, a collaboration between Malian virtuoso Toumani Diabate and American blues artist Taj Mahal, a native of nearby Springfield.

A listen to new CDs by all the artists as well as to an "Africa Fête 99" compilation CD made especially for this summer's tour promises lots of swirling, hypnotic riffs, pulsing, snakelike guitar lines, funky rhythms and great call and response-style singing, familiar to most Americans since first popularized by fusion efforts by Paul Simon and Peter Gabriel in the 1980s.

Africa Fête gives concertgoers a chance to go to the source of those fusion efforts, as well as to the source of black American music. Taj Mahal, for one, has long felt that the traditions of the African kora (a sort of harp-lute) and balafon contain the seeds of American blues guitar, and in his collaboration with Diabate on the brand-new album "Kulanjan" (Hannibal), that belief is vividly brought to life.

Baaba Maal has long been hailed as one of the great singers out of Africa or anywhere, and the dynamic, contemporary grooves of "Nomad Soul" (Palm Pictures) will cement his reputation as a modern, world-beat griot. While infused with political and topical themes, the mbaqanga-style arrangements, the warm vocals and gentle soul of Mtukudzi's "Tuku Music" (Putamayo Artists) should garner the Zimbabwean the sort of following that his better-known countryman Thomas Mapfumo has long enjoyed here (Tuku, as he is known, is a far greater star is in his homeland).

Folk in the Valley

If you haven't had your fill of festival folk yet this summer, you'll want to check out the Northampton Folk Festival at the Pines Theater in Look Park this Saturday, August 14. This new entry to the summer folk festival circuit debuts with a lineup to rival more established events such as the annual Falcon Ridge or Newport festivals. Heavy on the oddball-personality side of new-folk, the one-day event features Dan Bern, Vance Gilbert, John Gorka, Christine Lavin, Moxy Fruvous, Ellis Paul, Susan Werner, Cheryl Wheeler, Pamela Means and Willy Porter, among others.

Festival grounds open at noon; the festival includes food vendors and a second stage. Main stage performances begin at 2 and run until 9. Tickets are $25; children under 12 admitted free. 413-586-8686.

The Bobs close the circle

If memory serves me well, The Bobs were one of the first acts to perform in the first, full summer season of concerts at the Berkshire Performing Arts Center produced by then-owner Jonas Dovydenas.

How fitting, therefore, that the a capella group should be performing at the Center Theatre in Lenox this summer (this Saturday, Aug. 14, at 8, 637-1800), probably the final summer of live music the Kemble Street campus - soon to be home to Shakespeare and Company -- will see.

The Bobs are one of the pioneering "new wave a capella" groups that took choral-group singing and updated it for the rock era. Since 1981, the quartet has mixed satirical original compositions -- many of which contain barbed socio-cultural commentary and are arranged along the lines of contemporary pop recordings, with voices providing rhythmic and electronic-like effects -- with witty cover versions of baby-boomer classics by the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix and Talking Heads.

A band with no instruments -- a fitting valedictory, perhaps, for an emperor with no clothes?

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[This column originally appeared in the Berkshire Eagle on Aug. 12, 1999. Copyright Seth Rogovoy 1999. All rights reserved.]