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First gig with West African Band

BaileyMan

BaileyMan

Supporting Member
Jan 8, 2012
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#1
This is a follow up to this thread. Thought I'd do a separate gig report here.

Getting Schooled - Prepping for a gig

Ashkenaz has a rich history in Berkeley as a multicultural, community music and dance venue. Having grown up in Berkeley I was fortunate to see a number of great shows there. This was my first gig there and it was an honor to play there and to share the stage with a multicultural band, in true Ashkenaz fashion. With members from Senegal, Guinea, Mali, Canada, and the US.

The staff were all wonderful. Friendly, accommodating, welcoming.

Our line-up consisted of vocals, balaphone, djembe, conga, guitar, drums, bass.

No matter how much I tried, I couldn't get any pics with the band. I'll have to rely on some action shots from friends to post here. Maybe they're camera shy...

Sound check...
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A couple of action shots...
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The drummer and me. When we talk about firing drummers on TB, he's NOT the guy we refer to. He's solid, organized, dedicated, takes and incorporates feedback.
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#5
I arrived on time for load in (i.e. about 30 minutes early). Traffic was in my favor. My wife and her brother came out with me. I was grateful for the roadies, even though i didn't have a whole lot of gear.

Since we were early, we unloaded gear and went and grabbed a bite to eat at a great little Thai place nearby.

After a little bite I headed back down to the venue. The drummer was just about done setting up. I met our sound man for the evening, Gabriel. A young guy who plays keys in a reggae band. I knew he'd appreciate a big, full bass sound. He was awesome and got better sound than usual for the club.

Our hostess, Ariel, was great and smiling the whole evening.

Max, who I think does booking and to some degree runs things at Ashkenaz, was also warm and friendly. Not the usual club promoter/owner vibe. Everyone was super happy to have us there and the vibes were just all around positive.

The evening started with a little acoustic set with our guitar player and conga player who also plays guitar and sings. They played some of his originals and it was a wonderful way to welcome people as they arrived.

We went on around 9 and opened with a great tune, that we call Africa. The original is Kandia Denké. It's a Mbalax rhythm. The snare hits on the one. The kick drum hits on the 2 and has a pickup beat on the 16th before it. The bass comes in on that 16th note pickup, but it sounds like, to my western ears, the one. So it took a bit of time to lock in the rhythm. It's one of those songs you just have to listen to and feel and not try to count. On top of that, the intro has a couple measures of 4 and a measure of 6 before the drums come in. So figuring out when i come in took some time. I got it though and 90% nailed it at the show. The only ones who would have noticed that didn't 100% nail it would have been some of the band. We sounded good and people were dancing right away.

We continued with some other quicker tempo, catchy tunes that kept the dance floor moving. It wasn't packed, but the crowd loved the music.

Ousseynou looked regal and amazing in a beautiful red African outfit. He used to dance with the Senegal national ballet, and he also showed off his dance moves.

Part of their cultural tradition includes audience members throwing / handing money to the singer. The bills started flying, 1's, 5's, 10's, 20's. The audiences generosity blew me away. One woman threw down 20 after 20 after 20.

People came up on stage and showed off some of their dance moves and it was awesome. Africans and White people alike were killing it!

Towards the end of the evening some music promoter who is apparently sonewhat know in this community showed up. He came strutting in with his son (?) who looks poised to keep his father's business alive for decades to come. Although the bug wig father didn't look like he was slowing down anytime soon. Wearing their dark sunglasses, the elder in fancy African dress, the younger in a stylish track suit, waltzed up on stage, enjoyed their time in the spotlight, showed a couple of dance moves, and passed out 10's to each band member before leaving the stage.

The party continued for another half hour or so before the house lights came back on.

Hopefully the drummer got some good video that he can share. Hopefully I'll be able to share it too.

Overall i felt really solid in my playing and was really happy with my performance. I received great feedback from friends and family about how tight the drummer and i were and about how well we held down the groove.

One of the things that I'm appreciating the most about playing music with these guys is that I'm able to be a part of something that brings so much happiness and joy to Ousseynou, the singer. He has not been able perform for quite some time for a variety of reasons and to be a part of another's happiness is a blessing.

So that's all for now. If i can get more photos from people I'll share them.

Thanks for following along!
 
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#8
Hey sounds great! What group is this?

I used to live a few blocks from the Ashkenaz, now I'm about 5 miles away. That place is the real deal, as both a cultural institution with world-class music, and also representing the old-school values of Berzerkeley/Bay Area before the tech money-grabbing/grubbing insanity of the last couple decades.
 
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#9
winston said:
Hey sounds great! What group is this?

I used to live a few blocks from the Askenaz, now I'm about 5 miles away. That place is the real deal, as both a cultural institution with world-class music, and also representing the old-school values of Berzerkeley/Bay Area before the tech money-grabbing/grubbing insanity of the last couple decades.
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Ashkenaz truly is a special place. Being a Berkeley native, it was really an honor to play there.

As for band names, I'm actually not entirely what we're landing on. This gig was billed as Ousseynou Kouyaté and Sekhou Senegal. It was also advertised on FB as Ousseynou Kouyaté and his West African Band. Some other names have been tossed around at rehearsals. Keeping your eyes out for Ousseynou Kouyaté will be your best bet.
 
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#10
So glad to hear about the show - may there be many more! Really happy to hear that playing with them has been such a positive experience on many levels.

BaileyMan said:
One of the things that I'm appreciating the most about playing music with these guys is that I'm able to be a part of something that brings so much happiness and joy to Ousseynou, the singer. He has not been able perform for quite some time for a variety of reasons and to be a part of another's happiness is a blessing.
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This is beautiful - so great.

BaileyMan said:
but it sounds like, to my western ears, the one.
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If I had a buck for every time I said some variation of this to myself while playing afrobeat...'this is MY one, I have no idea where anyone else's one is but this works for me and I'm hanging to it for dear life' :roflmao:
 
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