UK Telegraph Reviews Baaba Maal's Performance at Meltdown Festival

Thursday June 18, 2009

Read the complete Telegraph review of Baaba Maal’s sensational performance at Ornette Coleman’s Meltdown Festival here

“There were times during this show when Baaba Maal and his band made music that was as beautiful, as glorious and as joyous as any that I have ever heard. Yes: it was that good – percussion, guitars, keyboards, voices, and, crucially, a tight-knit four-piece brass section were locked into a pulsating, hypnotic groove. For a moment, as his band – a mixture of African and Western musicians – created this rapturous noise, Baaba Maal, in his shiny gold suit, stood with his arms outstretched and grinned, as if to say: “Look! Behold my creation.” It was sensational.

The show began modestly with Maal, the Senegalese singing star who was appearing at the Festival Hall as part of Ornette Coleman’s Meltdown season, seated with an acoustic guitar, singing a typically plangent lament, with minimal accompaniment – percussion, electric slide guitar, his keening voice giving a hint of what was to come… “

Dakar Moon	3:15	Baaba Maal
Television	7:07	Baaba Maal

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