BLACK UMFOLOSI @ Le National

By Andrij Radio (aka DJ Dreeko) - West African Hour - 07/15/2008

Black Umfolosi are an a capella group that hail from Zimbabwe. With five members, all incredible singers, the band’s style is similar to Ladysmith Black Mambazo with rich and warm harmonies. They also love to dance, and so they entertained the crowd at Le National with their various dance styles. Besides the music and the dancing, thes show also had another great virtue: the engaging presence of the band.  I’ve seen a lot of shows lately, at the Jazz Fest and at Nuits D’Afrique, and Black Umfolosi standout as the group that I saw which was most successful in developing a warm and intimate rapport with the audience. They talked of their homeland and of Montreal, and were extremely funny when they danced and sang, describing and imitating, through movement, humorous situations. Most groups see it as pivotal to establish a connection with the audience, and sometimes their efforts, and the audiences, can seem a little forced. But not so with Black Umfolosi, who seemed very natural and authentic in their affection. Their music, which featured strong voices surrounded by silence, encouraged a sense of intimacy.

Black Umfolosi started their set with a song about a steam train, acting out the movements of being on a train (including the conductor’s steam whistle pulling) and thus producing some very martial-arts style dancing. They followed this with a haunting song filled with sadness and hope about being alone in the darkness and crying all night, and being rescued by the love of friends. The lights on the stage were very dim, and you couldn’t see their faces, giving the song a very mysterious feeling. They then sang a song about Zimbabwe and it became apparent by some of the jubilant cries that went out that they weren’t the only people from there. They encouraged people to dance, saying it didn’t matter what style we danced, and then they made fun of the crowd, saying the Montreal way to dance was to cross one’s arms and tap one’s foot. I thought that was pretty funny, and I’m sure in Zimbabwe the crowd reacts a lot more physically, but their music really didn’t strike me as dancy at all, so I just danced in the Montreal style. Then they sang the old national anthem of Zimbabwe, to more cries of excitement from the Zimbabweans in the audience. When they announced a song about flirting with a woman, I noticed a fair number of women getting excited around me.

After a brief interlude, the band sang a song about summer, and each member of the group took a turn at center stage and danced in his own fashion. The crowd went wild for their dancing and the humour they conveyed through it. After this came a number of songs with interesting lyrics, speaking of parties in Zimbabwe, orphan lives and the instability of the current political scene. Starting to wrap things up, they bust out “The Lion Sleeps Tonight,” encouraging everyone to sing, and I was happy to oblige (it was my favorite song as a child). Just when I thought it was about to end, the group busted out some gumboot dancing, which is and amazing dance style similar to tap except with gumboots being slapped by ones hands to create a rhythm. They were all decked out in coal miner suits, since the gumboot evolved from coal miners in South Africa who would dance along to the work songs they’d chant.

All in all, it was a great show, and although the music was not very energetic, the onstage presence of the group was as good as onstage presence can be, with the dancing bringing a lively feel to the night. Black Umfolosi is not the kind of group you would see for dancing or partying, but a great band to sit back and appreciate on a more reflective, spectator level. I also noticed that the ladies went wild when the performers took their shirts off and I wondered if this was like the South African equivalent of a boy band. Five guys who just sing and do choreographed dancing together…Sound familiar?

Check out Andrij on the West African Hour every Wednesday from 12-1pm