Local roots reggae purveyor Prince Royal opened this evening of world beat. 24 year old Royal is from St. Catherine Jamaica and his vocal delivery bears this out. Fronting his band Souls of Zion, a mixed race bag of reggae acolytes who provided the backdrop for Royal's skank. Two keyboard players, sax, drums, and blue-eyed guitar and bass were deft in the craft. Royal's singing and stage movements reminded me of Winston Rodney, leader of Burning Spear. Every so often, Royal would say "dub-wise", and the crew would spin out some echo and reverb-laden " space" that called to mind the diddlings of Scientist or Lee Perry. It seems that the key to authentic reggae is how little the English speaker can discern from the Jamaican accent-drenched delivery of the toaster ( I got things like " me muddah and me faddah), with this in mind Prince Royal fits the bill. Jah.....Rastafari.
Mauritanian singer Noura Mint Seymali has been lighting up the world music charts in recent years. Raised in a musical griot tradition, Noura has a booming singing voice. With her husband on modified guitar, brother on bass (apparently the original bass player had visa problems getting to the US, natch), and drummer band wrangler from Philly, this group spun some traditional music steeped in desert blues, and psych. Singing in her native tongue, many of the tunes had a call and response nature, either with her husband or the crowd. It was fascinating to see the universal nature of music with Noura urging the crowd to mimic her vocals. The near capacity crowd was either comprised of Yale's Mauritanian Song and Dance Appreciation Society (sic), or fans eager to get a glimpse of this original artist from across the globe. Pretty sure the latter.
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