Carthage jazz festival 2008

Carthage jazz festival 2008.(MOSAIC)
Stevenson, John
1027 words
1 July 2008
The Middle East
62
ISSN: 0305-0734; Issue 391
English


THE ECONOMICS OF jazz festivals make for the strangest of bedfellows. The occasional rap artist's bling often collides with swing. From an organiser's standpoint, it's about the juxtaposition of genres in order to put bums on seats and make a buck or two. Unsurprisingly, despite howls of protest from the so-called cognoscenti and the ubiquitous jazz police, the mix'n'match approach to festival programming does manage to hit high notes of appreciation.

Jazz a Carthage by Tunisiana is a great example of melody in diversity, dicing up a broad range of moods and metiers. The festival has become one of the must-go fixtures on the North African cultural calendar. It was staged at the Barcelo Thalasso Hotel in the smart Tunis suburb of Gammarth, on the picturesque Carthage coast. The music mix included jazz and world acts from Africa, the Americas and Europe as well as acclaimed locals like singer Miriam Labidi.

There was more of the world's music quotient on opening night, with the curtain raising on the Lisbon-based avant-garde duo of singer Maria Joao and pianist Mario Laginha. With their rich melange of melancholic Fado, Japanese Kabuki, traditional Mozambican harmonies, and furious Keith Jarrett-like piano improvisation, Joao and Laginha were an acquired taste, at times causing the audience to become restless and distracted. Dressed in a voluminous multicoloured woolly skirt, the lithe Portuguese singer's set included the poignant Cair do Ceu, and Parrots and Lions--which was well suited to her garish get-up.

Next up, was the headlining Brazilian singer/guitarist Gilberto Gil, accompanied by his son and fellow plectrist Bem, in an intimate unplugged duo. It's not every day that you attend a jazz festival featuring a Brazilian and world-music legend, who also happens to be his country's current minister of culture.

Almost 2,000 tightly packed patrons clearly enjoyed every moment of the Gils' set. Still wiry and youthful at 65, Gil's onstage charisma and ability to whip up his fans remains undiminished. Charmingly, and by way of fractured French, Gilberto Gil explained that Bahia was the birthplace of the samba of which there are many varieties. However, the Tropicalismo star was clearly not in his best voice for his first two selections, Maguino de Ritmo and Andar comfe. Indeed, he has recently announced that he will be having surgery to remove a growth on one of his vocal chords. One of the highlights of the Gilberto Gil set was a very personalised rendition of Bob Marley's Three Little Birds which went down very well indeed.

If you thought the Fado-jazz strains and reggaefied sambas were too much of a shoe-horned shove-in for a jazz festival programme, the following night was gospel and flamenco night.

Accompanied by supporting guitarist Juan Carlos Gomez on second guitar and percussionist Roberto Vozmediano, flamenco star Canizares romped through a selection of pieces from his most recent CD, Suite Iberia, such as Isaac Albeniz's Malaga and El Puerto, and originals such as Lejana and Lluvia De Cometas. All pieces featured great on-stage interaction and musical chemistry. Canizares, a cross between Paco de Lucia and Andres Segovia, betrayed his roots in flamenco and classical guitar, dipping into a formidable bag of technical skills

The defining act of the evening however was France-based Liz McComb whose 70-minute set left a strong impression on her enraptured Tunisian audience. It takes great gumption to present a 100% gospel repertoire to a largely Muslim audience, but courage and fortitude are among this special singer-pianist's many charms. Evidently influenced by the field hollers and chants of the Mississippi delta and the haunting lyricism of New Orleans' own Mahalia Jackson, McComb's opening number Sit Down Servant, found her ensconced at the 9ft Steinway grand piano where she produced evocative chords which buoyed a sonorous, incantatory vocal authority. Accompanied by drummer Larry Crockett, Larry Young-influenced organist Bertrand Richard, bassist Eric Vinceno, and percussionist Philippe Makaiya, McComb went on to minister to her audience with selections such as You can't hurry God, Don't let the devil ride and an excerpt from Duke Ellington's poignant Black, Brown and Beige suite.

Perhaps hitting the jazziest registers of the festival programme was the stirring performance of William Parker's Raining on the Moon sextet. Primarily performing on acoustic bass, William Parker has been widely touted as the heir-apparent to the legendary Charles Mingus, with his harddriving and intense walking bass style and his yen for thematic long-form compositions that embrace poetry and dramatic presentation.

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Parker's self-styled avant-jazz compositions, such as Sliver of sun, James Baldwin to the rescue and Window man featuring an eclectic mix of rhythms and melodies, proved to be a great hit with the audience.

Parker led a very cohesive sextet that included the front-line horns of Black Rock Coalition trumpeter Lewis 'Flip' Barnes, and alto saxophonist Robert Brown, vocalist/dancer Leena Conquest, pianist Eri Yamamoto and the extraordinary talents of percussionist/drummer Hamid Drake.

Robert Brown's alto sax lines were intensely lyrical, worthy in fact, of an epic poet, while Flip's Woody Shaw-like trumpeting acumen and reggae skank-and-chant provided great evidence of his versatility, apart from being infectiously entertaining. Conquest's ethereal contralto, which seemed to just hover above the heads of her audience, was the sixth instrument, a noteworthy talent among many. Her improvised dance steps and shimmies never failed to catch the attention of the appreciative crowd on hand. One of the many high points of the William Parker set was when the bassist put down his outsized instrument and placed his shenai into his mouth, accompanied only by Hamid Drake.

Parker's mastery of this shrill horn wove a magical spell, evoking Magrebi melodies, and demonstrating that a night in Tunisia doesn't necessarily have to be marked by bebop for it to be enjoyed by all and sundry.