afriki

Last night, under the stars and moon, we ventured out to the Centre Cultural Franco Nigerien–otherwise known as the Say Say Eff En–to hear some music. All the French people were there, shocking me a little bit: Stefan’s teacher smoking a cigarette, Camille’s normally demure tutor in a sexy t-shirt.

Soothing, acoustic, listenable african music: thy name is Habib Koite. He was so charming, sang with a rich lovely voice and his band backed him up on all kinds instuments, new and ancient. He’s been on David Letterman (why not on one of the nights I watch?) played at Bumbershoot in Seattle and Rolling Stone magazine calls him "Mali’s biggest pop star." Peter pointed out that the band had so many different sounds, sometimes latin, sometimes reggae, but always with the talking drum and Koite’s beautiful guitar. Go listen to a little bit of Africa over at Amazon.

Imagine you are sitting under the little dipper and as the music goes on, the moon sets. It was a moment.