Days like today are what you live for if you’re a fan of
world music and/or a reluctant Angeleno, hoping to justify your existence, or
at least the higher rents of LA, vis a vis the Golden Triangle (that’s northern
Thailand I’m talking about, not the greater Beaumont area). How often, on some random Thursday, do you
get your choice of the Sierra Leone Refugee All-Stars, Bombino, or the Garifuna
Collective? And this isn’t even the
weekend ferchrissakes! And they’re all
for free, unless you count parking fees. That may apply most seriously to the Sierra Leone guys,
who’re playing out at the Skirball, difficult of access by public trans. Only problem there is the security check,
reminiscent of the El Al counter in Munich .
Better eat those brownies first, just to
be safe. If you don’t know, they’re war refugees
from Sierra Leone—Britain’s equivalent of Liberia—who chose to make the best of
a bad situation, and who, over the last decade, have produced some of the world’s
best music.
Bombino is playing second bill to Hanni El-Khatib out at the
Santa Monica Pier, which should pose no security or other problems. He’s a Tuareg musician from Niger , unlike
most of the popular Tuareg groups, who are from Mali/Azawad/whatever. It forms an interesting contrast, too, for a
tribal group that historically has never recognized boundaries, bolstering my
opinion that many of the Mali
groups are simply Tinariwen knock-offs. Whatever
the truth of that hypothesis, Bombino is certainly not simply that. His performance this morning on KCRW was
ample proof of that. Interestingly, he
communicated to the English-speaking audience, not through his second language
of French, but through his third language of Hausa, a Hamitic language, thanks
to Rocky Dawuni of Ghana. I love
it. That’s the strangest mash-up since my
own chats with Kampuchean Ch’hom Nimol in Thai. Yes, that really happened.
Speaking of linguistic mash-ups: last but not least, there’s
the Garifuna Collective in MacArthur
Park Central America . That
they did, speaking an Arawakan language with significant Carib loanwords, and
looking as African as our collective history. Once there, some have even mingled traditions
with resident Kekchi Mayas. I witnessed
it myself. Many others have become kick-ass
musicians, led by the example of Andy Palacio, r.i.p. These guys—and gals—are good, too. Decisions,
decisions…
A few years ago I’d’ve been trying to figure out a way to
see them all, but… I’m younger than that now, living in the moment, too cool
for school, yeah right. I once went to
as many as five different shows and venues in one evening, separated by at
least ten miles. Now the best I can do
is sneak away from Grand Performances downtown and mosey on over to Pershing
Square to see how yesterday’s one-hit wonders are faring today. I did that last week when Palenke Soultribe got
too heavy for me; Smithereens still rock btw.
The Tubes will be there this Sat, might slip away from the Water Court after
El Gusto finishes up. Mia Doi Todd is at
Levitt Pasadena tomorrow Friday. She’s
way underrated, and highly recommended for anyone who likes taut lyrics with
breezy melodies. Chicano Batman is there
Saturday. I love LA.
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