Joyful Exuberance from Songhoy Blues

I can barely imagine a life existing in a country where music is banned by extremists. Bleak. Utterly shocking and heart-breaking that this can happen in Africa - and within the last three years.

On top of the ban, it’s almost impossible for me to visualise the struggles that those who have music flowing through their veins have had to endure to overcome that miserable oppression. But this country, Mali, is where tonight’s headliners Songhoy Blues have journeyed from. Albeit via a little helping hand from Damon Albarn who championed their sound with his Africa Express project.

Tonight, on a gloomy November evening in London, Songhoy Blues have reached the dizzy heights of the venue with the highest ratio of stairs to audience in the whole of Camden. Koko is buzzing with excited chatter, and the support for this tour, from young indie, ghostjazz masters, ‘Blaenavon’ ramps things up even more.

Without too much delay, and with the absolute minimum of fuss, the four Malian musicians take their places on the wide expanse of stage, all looking completely over the moon to be here. Their smiling exuberance and relentless joyfulness is incredibly infectious. I can’t spot a single person in the full to capacity crowd who manages to remain immune to it.

From the moment Songhoy Blues begin, the performance throughout is tight, polished, and it’s one of the few occasions I’ve seen a band knock out such an exquisitely well delivered 90 minutes without any visible set lists taped to the floor.

With their rootsy desert bluesiness, the band beat out one big tune after the next. Singer Aliou Toure chirrups in-between his soaring vocals with noises that could only be produced by someone brought up speaking the sing-song tonal language of the former capital of the Songhai Empire. I certainly couldn’t make those sounds – and I did have a try.

I also (down to all that contagious ebullience) attempted the dance moves that Aliou was demonstrating. It was hard not to get involved really, but it must have been a highly comical moment for the band to see the crowd moving (almost) as one, rocking from side to side, all flailing arms and concentrated brows. There was categorically no-one there able to outshine or even equal Aliou’s leaping playfulness with his immense wing span and his ‘peacock attracting a mate’ strutting.

The set finishes with the much appreciated ‘Soubour’ (which translates as ‘Patience’) - catchy, with sharp, prickly riffs, and full of funk, heart and soul. It’s evident that the four talented musicians of Songhoy Blues have had to exercise oodles of patience to get to where they are today. No wonder then, that they all leave the stage grinning like four Cheshire cats to rounds of rapturous applause.

COMMENTS

• Lindsay Melbourne
  Great photos Mary!