Shout Out to Senegal: Ismaël Lô!

Senegal's Ismaël Lô performs during the 2012 Harare International Festival of the Arts (HIFA) in Zimbabwe.

He was soooo good; I can't believe I never saw him while living in Senegal!

To be honest: it made me really happy to hear some Senegalese music (it had been too long!):

Of all the concerts I've been to in my life, I've always seen cameras and phones held up to take photos and record.  

The Ipad was a first for me at HIFA...

Ismaël Lô was awesome.

In honor of my dear friend MH, who introduced me to this song after a moment of shock that I had never heard it:

Publish the Quest

Seattle, Washington, United States's Publish the Quest performs at the 2012 Harare International Festival of the Arts (HIFA) in Zimbabwe.

This guy was awesome.  We stopped counting the amount of instruments he played during the show somewhere around four or five.

Check out how they sound:

The keyboardist also played in the horn section, in case you remember the horns' appearance with Cape Verde's Maria de Barros.

This video is a little blurry, but it gives you a better feel for their horns' sound 

(which in case you couldn't tell, I love bands who can rock a horns section....!):

Zimbabwe's Edith Weutonga and the Emerald 7 joined Publish the Quest on stage.  It was awesome.  Check out how they sound:

For more information on Publish the Quest.

For more information on Edith Weutonga.

For more information on HIFA.

The Beyond Fantastic Maia von Lekow!!

Kenya's Maia von Lekow performs during the 2012 Harare International Festival of the Arts (HIFA) in Zimbabwe.

She brought her bass player and Blessing from Zimbabwe joined them on the drums.

She opened her mouth to sing and I was beyond amazed.  

This video of an acoustic version of Oysters doesn't do her remote justice.  

My jaw dropped when she first sang.  Amazing.

This is Maia singing in Swahili a song called "Where's my mother?"

It is about a young girl searching for her mother after the 1998 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya.

Two members of the German band Jamaram joined them on stage.

Check out their sound together:

For more information on Maia von Lekow---by far the most amazing performer I saw during HIFA.

For more information on Jamaram.