Guinean Kora player Ba Cissoko opened the evening, and led a four piece group with rumbling drums and heavy use of the Kora. Sékou Kouyaté was brilliant as he vigorously plucked a Kora electrified through wah-wah effects, entrancing with his solo playing and Ibrahim Bah’s percussive earth shaking bass sounds maintained a deep groove.

K’naan captivated the crowd with his intensely crisp flow and poetic rhymes, and doing things ‘the African way’ he told his journey from Somalia to the stage. K’naan’s articulate delivery and charm delighted the relatively subdued crowd, encouraging them into interact with his cries of “no one’s too cool to sing”.

Upstairs the acoustics of the Roundhouse were as shabby as the overpriced drinks in plastic cups, though the main auditorium was better. Rob Da Bank provided interludes for the live shows with dub for the dancefloor. The Roundhouse fails to convince me despite it being such an interesting space, I am sure it works very well as a venue for theatre but for live music it lacks the atmosphere that exists in other large London venues such as the Hackney Empire.

When the headline act arrived, Amadou & Mariam, the evening really took off. The Malian couple dressed sharply in black tunics with detailed red stitching, performed tracks from their most recent album Dimanche à Bamako, including ‘Beaux Dimanche’, ‘Coulibaly’ and my favourite track of the album, ‘Artistya’. It did not take long for the duo’s smiles to shine as their music rang out. Amadou’s guitar playing is fantastic, rich and soulful like the late, great, Ali Farka Touré although with an additional rock & roll edge that he expresses in his enigmatic solos. Mariam sang beautifully and generated well-being as she danced in her charming way. The couple’s lovely vocal harmonies add to the sense of their clear love for one another, optimised in the encore as Mariam stroked Amadou’s head through one of their older tracks ‘Mon Amour’.

Links:
Ba-Cissoko’s site
The Dusty Foot (K’naan’s site)
Amadou and Mariam