Festival International Nuits d'Afrique

Pete Douglas, the host of CJLO's The Live Wire Show (Saturdays, 9-10 am), reviews some of his favourite acts from the 27th edition of the Festival International Nuits d'Afrique back in July, and discusses the trials and tribulations of outdoor versus indoor shows, and parking in downtown Montreal during the city's summer Festimania.

I would like to begin by congratulating the management and staff of the Festival International Nuits D’Afrique on the festival this year, and special thanks to our World Beat music director Ms. Kelly Belfo for coming through for us once again!

The Indoor Shows

We have been spoiled by the festival with some great indoor performaces over the past couple of years, but I found the 2013 edition of Nuits d'Afrique was lacking in that area. Perhaps this occurred due to the lack of sponsorship this year, because when you look at the schedule of outdoor shows compared to the indoor shows, you may understand where I am coming from. However, two indoor performances—one at le Cabaret du Mile End, and the other at Metropolis—were some of the best of the festival.

MARIA DE BARROS

Maria De Barros' performance at Cabaret du Mile End on July 12th showed you an artist that has grown in many areas of her on-stage performance. She seems to be very much at ease than when I first saw her a few years ago. Her interactions with the audience in the different languages that she speaks went over really well with those of us who understood the Creole. Her singing was in fine form, and the band (as usual) was tight and well rehearsed.

To me, the beauty of it all was that the band members were from diverse cultures, and that was evident in their newer compositions. They seem to have married the different musical genres from their cultural backgrounds, and the result was a non-stop dance party. 

Maria and I were old Facebook friends long before the rest of the world discovered her; this was back when it was mostly musicians keeping in touch with each other about their up coming gigs. Fast forward to 2013, and there were quite a number of people waiting to meet and greet her after the show, which to me spoke volumes about her performance.

KASSAV'

At the Kassav' show, my acquaintance Ray Blaze asked me a certain question, and I quote, "Pete, where do they get their energy from?" The name "Kassav" is the Creole word for the cassava plant. The answer to his question about the energetic properties of that fruit, I simply don't know, but Kassav's show had energy.

Kassav, the creators of the musical genre zouk, remains one of its driving forces. Their show at the Metropolis on July 13th was just another great classical Kassav party. I could tell that they were a bit tired, but never the less, the energy was still there. The horn and percussions sections were given their time to shine and they delivered.

In all fairness, Jocelyn Beroard was the most energized of the main core of the band that night, and so the show in itself was nothing but magic.

The Outdoor Shows

I made one of the biggest mistakes when attending a festival at Quartier des spectacles on Saturday, July 20th. I went by car, completely forgetting that the Just for Laughs festival was on. By the time I finally found parking, Joyce N Sana were just finishing their set, so I missed them!

MAZAGAN

The next band on stage was Mazagan from Morocco. The band's high energy level had the crowd in a dancing mood that lasted the entire set. Their style of music is a mixture of hip hop and their natural African roots blended so well and made some really nice grooves. Their bass players had a nice steady groove that was not too over powering. The rest of the band members were just having a fun on stage, which spilled over onto the crowd in attendance. Although I am not versed into the hip hop thing, I must say that I enjoyed their show. Mazagan is a band that should be brought back to Montreal.

KADAN'S

Kadan's is a band made up of musicians from the islands of both Martinique and Guadeloupe in the French-speaking Caribbean. Their style of music is a mixture of cadence and zouk. Unfortunately for them, I had just finished watching the band Kassav' a few days earlier, and when I watched Kadan's for the first time, I was left with no other choice but to compare them with Kassav'.

I did not like the mix that the sound engineer gave them. Their style of music requires a heavy mix of the bass and drums. The vocals at times were strained. I could not always understand what was being sung or said. They tried their best to get the crowd going "Kassav' style", but in my view, the people were more receptive to them when they played their more traditional style of music. 

They said that this was their fifth trip to Montreal over the past few years. I have seen the name Kadan's before, but I never did read up on them. I will defiinitely go and see them again.