Africa
theartsdesk at the Gnawa Festival, EssaouiraTuesday, 06 July 2010
Come the end of June in Essaouira on Morocco’s Atlantic coast, up to half a million festival-goers team the narrow, traffic-free streets of the medina, its two huge open squares, and numerous courtyards and riyads around town, for what must be the... Read more... |
Bassekou Kouyaté & Ngoni ba, BarbicanFriday, 02 July 2010
Many press releases from now up until Christmas are sure to begin with the words, “Fresh from wowing the crowds at Glastonbury…”, but that’s not going to stop me using them now with reference to this great Malian band. This is because we world music... Read more... |
White MaterialFriday, 02 July 2010
Isabelle Huppert has always had a wandering soul, ever since she cropped up as a strawberry blonde cowboy’s moll in Michael Cimino’s fabled folly, Heaven’s Gate. That was 30 years ago. Middle age has by no means withered but certainly has hardened... Read more... |
Afro-Cubism, the real Buena Vista follow-up video previewMonday, 28 June 2010Afro-Cubism is the fruition of the World Circuit label's original intention for Buena Vista Social Club album, which was to have been a stellar collaboration of musicians from Mali and Cuba. In 1996, the African contingent of Bassekou Kouyate and... Read more... |
Welcome to Thebes, National TheatreWednesday, 23 June 2010
“Tragedy reminds us how to live,” declares Moira Buffini’s democratically elected heroine, Eurydice. It’s a reminder the playwright herself and her latest work, Welcome to Thebes, is eager to provide. Following on the well-worn heels of last season’... Read more... |
New Music CDs Round-Up 9Saturday, 29 May 2010
This month's most delicious sounds found by our reviewers include a return to form by jazz pianist Keith Jarrett and bassist Charlie Haden, new electronica/grime from Rude Kid, impressive debuts from Villagers and Hindi Zahra, and the latest from... Read more... |
Victory on the Fourth PlinthFriday, 21 May 2010
From his tall column in Trafalgar Square, Admiral Lord Nelson won’t be able to glimpse the new work on the Fourth Plinth, since he faces the other way. But of all the works that have occupied this space – from Marc Quinn’s Alison Lapper Pregnant, to... Read more... |
Fela Kuti, The One Who Emanated GreatnessFriday, 14 May 2010
With Fela Kuti's old band playing Brighton this evening fronted by his son Seun and on the same bill as Tony Allen, the drummer who co-created the increasingly influential Afro-beat sound, it seemed a good excuse to revisit the first interview I... Read more... |
Brian Eno on Fela Kuti and the Brighton FestivalFriday, 14 May 2010Brian Eno’s on the phone. He’s been up all night. But he does want to talk to theartsdesk about his Afro-beat concert in Brighton as part of the Brighton Festival he is curating which this evening sees Seun Kuti - the son of Fela Kuti, who has... Read more... |
Love the Sinner, National TheatreTuesday, 11 May 2010
Religion, and a sense of the revival of belief, is such an important part of everyday life in the wider population that it is one of the stranger facts about contemporary theatre that so few plays tackle this subject. In fact, the last new British... Read more... |
Aida, Royal Opera HouseTuesday, 27 April 2010
David McVicar's new Aida production had an opening mise en scène of such unashamed ugliness, a revolving main feature (a wall of scaffolding) of such audacious featurelessness, a wardrobe of such brazen tastelessness (think Dungeons and... Read more... |
Interview: Rokia TraoréTuesday, 27 April 2010
Rokia Traoré has always seemed most comfortable creating at trysting points, darting between different worlds without ever quite belonging to any one of them. The daughter of a Malian diplomat, as a child her favourite locations were airports, “this... Read more... |
