EIF music reviews: Beyond Tradition | Senny Camara Ensemble
Musicians and instruments from three different cultures brought harmony on stage in Beyond Tradition, while an additional performance from Senny Camara offered a surprise Afro-Celtic fusion, writes Jim Gilchrist
Beyond Tradition ★ ★ ★ ★
Senny Camara Ensemble ★ ★ ★ ★
The Hub
Take three diverse, characterful stringed instruments from three different cultures, not readily to be found sounding together: that was Beyond Tradition, this year’s second concert featuring musicians from the Aga Khan Music Programme. Yasamin Shahhosseini from Iran playing oud (the Arabic lute), Lebanon’s Farah Kaddour on the long-necked buzuq and Senegalese singer and kora (or harp-lute) player Senny Camara were three women exhibiting mastery of music traditionally the preserve of men.
They opened with improvised solos, Shahhosseini’s oud deliberations emerging from silence in microtonal phrases and flurries before taking on rhythm; Camara also played a tentative prelude before a bright cascade of notes coalesced into a rhythm over which she sang in clear, calling tones; while Kaddour’s buzuq rang out in more metallic tones, flitting between intense strumming and deft flights of notes.
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The trio then combined, oud shaping a taut melody, joined by buzuq then kora, to establish a groove, the three instruments responding to each other before quietening for Camara to sing over the gentle drift of these disparate strings as they answered each other in cross-cultural colloquy.
An enthusiastically greeted encore opened with Kaddour rapping out a beat on her instrument and kora steering in to accompany Camara’s warm vocals. As observed in a previous review, programme notes on repertoire may sound a bit old-school, but any enlightenment as to what is being performed can only facilitate greater communication.
If Camara’s playing had at times been overshadowed by that of her fellow performers, the evening’s second Hub concert saw her take the stage – regally attired – to lead her own ensemble of violin, electric guitar, bass guitar and percussion. Establishing a gently swaying tempo on kora, she began to sing, vocals taking on power as Sylvain Rabourdin’s violin and Thierry Fournel’s guitar took responsive solos.
Sometimes riding a catchy West African riff, elsewhere the ensemble generated a floating accompaniment to Camara’s ringing or gently staccato kora, as well as her songs – a plea for humanity in Niit, or the beneficence of Yéné Nala, infused with warmth and at times yearning. The effect could become lulling, hypnotic almost.
Audience members not already won over by Camara’s infectious bonhomie must have succumbed to her band’s encore, as guitar and violin came out with the strains of an old Irish standard, Brian Boru’s March, Camara playing and vocalising gleefully in this surprise excursion into Afro-Celtic fraternity. Jim Gilchrist
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