Coffee color – under the sign of interbreeding

Brussels, July 1, 2002 - Old red-brick industrial docks, refurbished, along the canal, three large tents, and tables where it is good to eat", the festival Coffee color, 13th of the name, persists in a musical diversity of good quality and in its good-natured atmosphere which allows a beautiful family ballad of the weekend. On display, this last weekend of June, around thirty artists, with seductive tones.

(B2) To all lord, all honor, it is by Geoffrey Oryema that we have chosen to open the festivities. Dressed all in white, from pants to hair, passing by the little goatee, the Ugandan singer, exiled in France, produces a moment of magic when he appears. A task that is not easy in an open-air festival, especially since the stage assigned to it was located near the entrance to the site, so right in the middle of the passage. Speaking sometimes in English, sometimes in French, even in Acoli, his native language, the one who has been nicknamed the "African Leonard Cohen" knows how to captivate his audience. Mixing traditional instruments with the electric guitar and the synthesizer, which is no longer really original today, Oryema also sometimes knows how to break away from them to use what is most beautiful, his throat. Powerful and gentle, ranging from gut-shattering seriousness to a perceptible breath, his voice takes off when he revisits his old standards like “ye ye ye”.

Another genre, another atmosphere, with Wawadadakwa boys, a band from Antwerp (Belgium). This Antwerp street orchestra, created in 1997, does not create monotony. While on the other two stages of the festival, two "sizes" - the raï-rocker Rachid Taha, hardly incomprehensible that evening, and the national raggamuffin Tonton David - they manage to capture their audience. Their leitmotif is simple: "Polka, samba, house, jazz... any dance music is good to play." Starting on a slow jazz tempo, they can end on a frenzied Brazilian rhythm. But they are just as capable of intoning in the middle of a Latino base, a small tone of fanfare based on Beethoven's hymn to joy, assumed on the sax and taken up in heart and at the top of their voices by the delighted public. Their name is quite a program: Wawa (pronounce wow wow) like the dog, dada like the baby, kwa like the duck! The texts are therefore rather secondary. "We are rather looking for the sound of the words" admits one of the musicians. Also able to interchange instruments “it's a game between us, it allows us to keep the rhythm” or to reverse the roles “The five men on stage are at the same level. There is no leader. Everyone can sing or start a solo, when they feel it. Improvisation is collective more than individual”. (www.wawadadakwa.com)

The next day was placed under the sign of “Ritmo Caliente”. It would have been better to say Brazil. So much everyone had in mind, the final of the football world cup, and that this nation was represented by two charming ambassadors. The very sexy Daniela mercury, quivering with samba, on one side; Lilian Vieira, the singer of Zuco 103, on the other hand, did not fail to recall it by wearing the mythical green and yellow flag during their performance. On the other scenes, even if Manu Chao was not there, his shadow hovered. Many were the bands that could claim the fiber of the now legendary "Latin punk". Whether it's Chango, alias Luis Iglesias Alvarez, Manu Chao's friend from Liège and former Locos Mosquitos, or P18 the formation led by the former keyboardist of Mano Negra, Tom Darnal. In this harmonious whole, only detonated in fact Mory kante. Always faithful to his griot spirit, the heir of the “djéli du Mandé”, brought his Mandingo poetry to maturity. Covering some successes but also the titles of his latest album “Tamala (the traveler)”.

For the final day, Africa, reggae and Jamaica reign en masse. Under the big top, after Cesaria Evora, magnificent and beyond reproach, Miguels Collins, alias Sizzla, pushed the sound system. A little strong, probably to hide the weakness of the rest. If the floor of the Titan, the great hall of Couleur Café, resounds, it is more thanks to the enthusiasm of the dancers than to the musical quality. Presented as the symbol of a new reggae generation, and a pure product of the ghetto, it cannot be said that Sizzla is renewing the genre enormously. On the contrary ! His performance has all the (bad) cliché. Headgear à la Bob Marley, stage spots pushed to the maximum in green, yellow and orange, up to the guy who throws himself into the crowd... . While the soulless drums confuse the bass drums with a 2 HP engine that only wants to start with a hammer, the singer struggles to free himself from the “Liberty, equality, marijuana” triptych.

For the pleasure of the ears, it is better to migrate under the “Marquee” tent. It moves. Has 12 musicians on stage, with a solid horn part, The Internationals are part of the tradition of Jamaican heroes. Originally from Ghent and Antwerp, these Flemings do not however disdain the language of Voltaire to celebrate, not without humour, Mont-Blanc (pronounced with a little accent, it's charming). Mixing ska, jazz, R&B, they bathe everything in enthusiastic rhythms. Their "afrikan ska safari" is also a vibrant tribute to the grandfathers of the genre The Skatallites, with whom they performed in June in concert at the Botanique. Like their friends from Wawadadakwa, they produce honest music that is accessible to everyone. “Especially the women” cheekily assumes Denis the singer and guitarist, white cowboy hat screwed on the skull. (www.internationals.be).

And the party ends with a pleasure, " Transpercussions », the project of the Rwandan musician Ben Ngabo. The one who is better known, at least in Belgium, as the drummer of Helmut Lotti - a famous crooner in the flat country) had one objective: to show the harmony between different types of music, while keeping a rhythmic cohesion. In view of the result, and the eleven percussionists of various African nationalities gathered on stage, we can say that the goal has been achieved. Combined with songs and dances, the typical instruments of each region - the ingoma, the ngarabi, xylophones, djembes etc... - multiply tenfold. And in a few quarters of an hour, roundly struck, we accomplish a short journey through Angola, Congo, Mali, Senegal or Rwanda.

A concert just like Culture Café which, more than a music festival, represents a state of mind. Small stalls, dance classes, NGO or development cooperation stands, there is no shortage of attractions. And for food, the forty stalls on the aptly named “Rue du Bien Manger” satisfy even the most demanding guest. For a few euros, you can eat an excellent Dominican-style pork stew or Moambe chicken from the Congo, swallow a small blinis with smoked salmon and caviar or a vine leaf with yoghurt sauce, and in a few minutes go to the Caribbean to the African continent, from Russia to the time of the gypsies. Always excellent food, which is often rare in large crowds, to be enjoyed sitting at a table or standing while chatting with people passing by or waiting. For those who want, in addition, the pleasure of the eyes, they can visit the exhibition “Cool Art Café”, dedicated, this year, to “mobility”. “Ingenious machines”, non-motorized - mass-produced or tinkered with genius, coming from the four corners of the world and not only having an artistic purpose. From the Congolese scooter to the multiple rickshaws from Rajasthan (India), Java (Indonesia) or Cambodia, passing by the bush ambulance from Burkina Faso, there was something for everyone. "Our desire is to have a big party to communicate about the different cultures of the south, by mixing music, gastronomy and plastic arts" explains Patrick Wallens, its director. “A way of participating in a sharing of tolerance, of encouraging encounters, of setting out to discover the other. »

Nicolas Gros-Verheyde, in Brussels for RFi Music