Re-scheduled from a no rain rainout in August, a trio of ambassadors made the trip north from Brooklyn. Led by griot guitarist Mamady Kouyate and aided by female percussionist and sleepy rhythm guitar/ van driver this group brought some high life to the deck for a Sunday afternoon show. Kouyate is skilled and steeped in tradition. The guitarist also manned a somewhat cheesy canned backing sequencer, whose purpose was to flesh out more sounds from a 10 piece ambassadorship, but came off like Eddie Van Halen playing Metallica karaoke from a Walmart setup. It would have been better to just have the trio play, as the backing sounds served up too much “sameness” for the songs. The happy vibe plays well, and I read that various iterations of the group hold down a Wednesday night residency at the ultra-hip club Barbes. In watching this group, I thought about early “happy” African music evolving in to socially conscious Afrobeat and it’s parallel to Ska moving to roots reggae. The “hey wait a minute” moment for colonialized people proved to be a potent inflection point for both genres.
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