Mahotella Queens and Angelique Kidjo

Our penultimate night at the Vienne Jazz Festival and it is Mother Africa night. The Mahotella Queens have been together since 1964 and the three remaining members have a combined age of over 190! However their pulsating rhythmic set blew away all the years and they performed as though teenagers at their first party! With a small band (Guitar, Drums, Keyboards) their songs and dancing made a wonderful spectacle, and all too soon they were gone.

The second half of the evening featured a homage to Miriam Makeba by Angelique Kidjo and guests - Through interspersed narration it highlighted events and moments from Miriams life and featured her best known songs.

The two narrators (above) Angelique (below)

Sayon Bamba

Vusi Mahlasela

Rokia Traore

Baaba Maal

Asa

So to tonight our last night at this wonderful festival and what better way to end than Diana Krall and her husband Elvis Costello!

Vienne Jazz Festival 8th July

Our penultimate night at Vienne and the main show is one we have been looking forward to the whole festival. A tribute night to the great Nina Simone featuring Dianne Revees, Lizz Wright, Angelique Kidjo and Nina's daughter the singer Simone.

However before the main show we had the great pleasure of listening to the Mario Canonge Trio who come from Martinique. A piano trio very much in the Neil Cowley mould (hammering chords, lots of bass pedals) but with a distinctive afro Caribbean lilt to it. Extremely infectious music (just like Neil's) and played with great passion and fun. The sing along with dance actions had the sell out crowd out of their seats and up and down like yoyo's in an instant!

So to the main event. The four singers took turns to sing two songs each in rotation - each with their own distinctive take on Nina Simone classics. Lizz Wright took the sensual hypnotic route whereas Dianne Revees used her strong powerfull voice to full effect - the balance between the four singers was perfect. And what a band - well it was mostly comprised of Nina Simone's own band - percussionist Leopoldo Flemming having joined the band in 1958!

Angelique Kidjo

Simone

Lizz Wright

Dianne Reeves

Band and singers take a bow at the end

Tonight is our last in Vienne and we will be travelling onward tomorrow towards Perugia, stopping in Parma for the night to check out the balsamic, ham and parmigiano reggiano!!

Tonight is Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Centre Jazz Orchestra which will be our last report from Vienne - Umbria jazz festival has a great set of shows and hopefully with intenet access available where we are staying we will post our reports here.

See you soon!