Africa: Wild Weekend in NYC – Thandiswa, Seun Kuti, Magic System and More!

Greetings from Night 3 of the six-night “outdoor” portion of Montreal’s Nuits D’Afrique Festival. As ever, the festival is a firehose of great music, much of it new to us, wonderful encounters with old and new friends and…well, you can imagine.

Meanwhile, here’s a brief, photo-heavy report on our doings in New York City last weekend.

Thandiswa Mwazai There’s nothing like a summer weekend in New York City. Where else can you see top stars from Nigeria, Cote D’Ivoire, South Africa and Marseilles all on different outdoor stages? For free.

On Bastille Day weekend, the thrills began at Bryant Park where Carnegie Hall Citywide co-presented the inimitable Thandiswa Mwazai from South Africa on Friday, July 12. Her fans were there in force, and she gave 100%, blending jazz and SA roots and showcasing her extraordinary voice. Have a look:

Lollise

Lollise On Saturday, the action moved to The Lena Horne Pavillion for Celebrate Brooklyn with Lollise and Seun Kuti and Egypt 80. Lollise co-hosted APWW’s Botswana Dumelang, along with producer Morgan Greenstreet, who is also now her excellent drummer. The two took the big stage alone with just two pink sock puppets as foils. Later singer-dancers joined, but it was really a showcase of unusual Afro-rhythms and Lollise’s rich, confident voice. An art show with a beat. (I hope the sock puppets were compensated. They worked hard.)

Seun Kuti and Egypt 80 Fresh off the launch of his collaboration with Damian Marley, “Dey,” Seun was in excellent form, as you’ll hear in our interview Saturday afternoon at the site [stay tuned to Planet Afropop for that…] The upshot is this: Seun has been “internationalizing” his band Egypt 80, something he’s quite sure Fela would have approved of now that Afrobeat is a global music. New Egypt 80 musicians from Algeria, France and Martinique delivered all that you would expect from this iconic band. And there were some great new songs in the set.

The Consulate General of France knows how to throw a party! Bastille Day at Rumsey Field, Central Park SummerStage was an overflow affair. But folks for blocks around could hear the robust, joyous vocal prowess of Magic System. The four singing, dancing guys–looking great, by the way–were using playback, their songs carried the day, with everyone waving French flags and singing “Magic in the Air.”

IAM We had lost track of IAM, this ground-breaking rap act from Marseilles. In the early 90s when rap and hip-hop were blowing up in diasporas, this group had something special, deep easy grooves, sharp delivery, a particularly French North Africa urgency vibe. As with Magic System, it’s a deejay and four guys, now rapping and stalking rather than singing and dancing. But that same intensity was there, and this crowd was totally there for this group.

Singer-songwriter Laurie Darmon and deejay and producer The Avener also performed.