On Friday 12 November 2010, the concert Acoustic Africa was held at which three famous singers/guitar players performed: Habib Koité and Afel Bocoum from Mali and Oliver Mtkudzi from Zimbabwe.
On Friday 12 November 2010, the concert Acoustic Africa was held at Rasa in Utrecht. The theme was the rich African guitar tradition, and some great performers played on that occasion: popular singer / guitar player Habib Koité, dessert blues singer / guitar player Afel Bocoum, both from Mali and Oliver ‘Tuku’ Mtukudzi from Zimbabwe.
Koité and Bocoum are familiar to the Rasa audience, they performed there many times. The same cannot be said for Mtukudzi. He had his international breakthrough in the 70s in the band Wagon Wheels (with Thomas Mapfumo) and formed his own group Black Spirits after that. In Africa, Mtukudzi still scores hit after hit and he is a star in his home country.
The formation for this occasion consists of nine musicians: four guitar players, a bass guitar player, a n’goni African viol player, two percussionists and a mbira (thumb piano) player. There is not much room for all of them on the small podium, but it is rare to see all these musicians together at the same time.
The concert was a fun reflection of the different styles of the guitarists: melancholy desert music, desert blues and the up-tembo beat of the Zimbabwe chimurenga.
1. Adibara. (Bocoum).
2. Diafie. (Bocoum).
3. Muchatuta. (Mtukudzi).
4. Gomini. (Bocoum).
5. Neria. (Mtukudzi).
6. Ndipeino Zano. (Mtukudzi).
7. Takamba. (Koité).
8. Tozeza Baba. (trad).
9. Maya. (trad).
10. Tikihiri. (Bocoum).
11. Wassiye, (Koité).
12. Malizim. (Mtkudzo).
