We almost bailed on the Halle / Salif Keita concert in Prospect Park Sunday. I'm glad we didn't, Halle, a Bronx native of Iranian decent, was great, someone I'll be listening to again soon. Her name means "halo around the moon" but if I didn't know I would have guessed it meant "sun shining through pouring rain" because that's what happened between 6 and 7 that evening while she played. I wish I had footage of the moment when the rain started and nearly everyone sitting in the chairs in front of the stage opened their umbrellas at once.
I wasn't so organized however, and since we were short a few umbrellas, my backside got soaked. I wasn't the only one, though. When I went into the restroom there was a line of people drying off their backsides under the hand dryers.
The weather had completely cleared up by the time Salif Keita played, dressed in blue and white silk, to an audience clearly thrilled to hear his highness. I'm not calling him that sarcastically. As I read in the program, he is a member of Mali's royal family, who would have preferred he hadn't chosen the path of the griot.
Since he's an albino, I'm glad he's from Mali and not Tanzania, where 19 albinos have recently been slaughtered for their body parts, which are believed to have magical properties.
2 comments:
Cool photo of the rain alomost looks like a layer (photoshop talk!)..i can just imagine the umbrellas opening up in synchronicity.
Does anyone know who the mystery guitarist was at the Salif Keita show? Woman in about her 50s, gray hair--she was hoisted on stage and blew away the crowd completely!
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