First came the rain, a torrential one who flooded the Island and the islanders, but also packed all available concert tents, which is how I found myself with a thousand crazy Frenchman under the tent where Cassius was playing... Good surprises, but the few Hungarians who randomly ended under there because of the rain were a bit astounded with the majority of Mr Baguette and Mrs Red Wine's clan. So it left us with two days of rain anyway - and having to queue on the muddy paths, fighting for a bit of dry soil or paved path.
Let's not be negative though - the atmosphere was absolutely amazing, people decorating their half-naked bodies with Mud, Sand, and beer, huge mud-fights, building mud-castles, improvising group-music on the big trash-containers, sitting on containers like lonely kings on their own Island...
Running for your (dry) life, for a bit of shelter next to a warm body, for music, for your favourite dance-groups, your favourite djs, and your favourite international camping area (Is is the Italians, the French, the Dutch, the Germans... the Kazakhs?), fighting to have your home-flag being raised in the central alley of the festival, to avoid or to melt in your 'home-gang' in the midst of thousand musical scenes - zene paradise...Zene is music, not zen. But peace we eventually find under the information tent, where the banner for "Menekült tábor" is raised, which means Refugee Camp. That's where information goes I tell you! And we ended up playing football with a plastic ball in there, in the hustle of lost people looking for shelter or leaving the Island just for the night and of scattered Sziget 2007 programs.
CESARIA EVORAhttp://www.myspace.com/cesariaevora
The diva was strong and brave to come and stop in Budapest, where a crazy Sziget gave her the warmest of welcomes, nevertheless showing some lack in terms of silence... The diva was a mother-goddess wearing blue, in a dress of total honesty and simplicity, but covered by a voice of such natural intensity. The sound of the Cape-Verde's language makes it all so complex, beautiful, and seemingly surreal, too good to be true.
After a 10 minute break when Cesaria, empress of her garden, stands looking calmly at her young public, with a withering public screaming with delight, Cesaria finishes her set sitting while her band finishes beautifully and she allows herself time for a Cigarette.
Two days later, Cesaria Evora was in Brittany for the Festival du Bout du Monde...
'Feliz ano novo' to you too, Cesaria...
ETIENNE M'BAPPEwww.myspace.com/etiennembappe
I didn't quite know what to expect of Etienne M'Bappe, much less how the Sziget crowd would react to his music, the jazz-tent being a strange and rare (but great) experience for such a mainstream but dynamic festival. I was afraid this music would be but a more humble re-creation of Richard Bona's great and very successful afro-jazz band. Etienne M'Bappe is also a bass-virtuoso with his own characteristics and techniques, but how is this re-created when it comes to sharing your inner music?
Mr M'Bappe was a more humble version of Richard Bona, finishing on a Reggae classic rather than on the bash-funk version of Stevie Wonder by Mr Bona, and stays more within his own music, whereas Richard Bona wonders off in Jaco Music... Moreover when I was satisfied with the whole sound, I could fully appreciate the groove and 'fresh' quality of this band, who is particularly enriched through the presence of two very young guns, Mister Jimmy and John Grandcamp, brothers respectively on guitar and drums. Jimmy Grandcamp was astounding, and the man was but 20 year's old at the time! He mastered the rhythms of Cameroon perfectly (or what I know from listening to the likes of Manu Dibango and Richard Bona...), and his venturing in Hendrix style solos growling over M'Bappe's soft and tender African lullabies was done with impeccable timing. He was definitely the youngest but biggest attraction in this original sextet (bass, guitar, drum, guitar II, saxophone/flute, backing vocal).
And then comes the bass... I don't know how M'Bappe's strings resist, but the fact his trademark is to wear thin gloves maybe explains it all nicely.
all in all, I spent the whole concert right under his nose, and it was quite astounding.
The public adored it - and the pinch of Cameroon salt in the sea of jazz is a great crowd-pleaser - or a least this concert confirmed so.
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