Makumba Hong Kong; a birthday to remember

We discovered Makumba a few years ago on a trip to Hong Kong and in all honesty, on that trip, we spent most of our evenings there. I guess when you like Jazz and Blues without pretenses, then there is also no way around liking contemporary African music.

Of course there is the issue of the language of the songs often times local or french. Some say you cannot appreciate a song without understanding the lyrics, but I personally never thought lyrics are that important. There are actually plenty top songs of which I wished I did not understand them. It is however a lot of fun to listen to songs with music and rhythms that make you want to move from tip to toe, although the general trend appears to lie more around the middle or somewhat below. 

For all these good reasons my wife thought Makumba to be the best place for us to celebrate my birthday.  It was sort of a big one. Without going into too much detail; my age, is the only thing I have in common with, also August born musical individuals like Madonna, Michael Jackson, would he still be alive, and locally, Greg Lyons and Mario Serio.

My wife had contacted Amina, Makumba's lovely owner, manager, bartender 

 and omnipresent host, in advance and we basically had the red carpet rolled out for us. Immediately after our arrival Amina took us for a dim sum lunch. We would meet again at Makumba for African dinner, but not until after we had some dearly needed rest in the afternoon. Makumba had changed location. She is now in the Lan Kwai Fong area at 38 – 44 D’Aguilar street  right above Insomnia. She’s a bit bigger in size but it has not lost her character, thanks to the cool collection of African masks and artifacts.

Amine had already lifted a tip of the veil on the band change, mentioning a new percussionist. If the line up of African drums was any indication of what was to be expected he was going to be impressive.

Before the band started we were well taken care of by Rachel

 and DJ Gesco from Cote d'Ivoire treated us on the awesomely rhythmic music by Alpha Blondy, Baaba Maal, Youssou N'Dour , Gigi,  Tinariwen and the list continues. 

Many of the sparks of beauty we used to see at the Africa Fest Prospect Park Brooklyn or at Joe's pub around the corner from us back in New York. It is access to these, out of the ordinary, things that I miss about not being in New York. It is therefore great to have a friend with a club just 4 hours away where the music, live or recorded, is solid fun from Africa. 

After this cool DJ work , the band from Togo took over with an eclectic range of songs

Telama lead vocalist

Achlin,lead guitarist and vocalist 

Anasko Bass

Tobe, on drums

BIBI Cisse, the Master Percussionist (from Senegal)

As promised by the oh so many drums surrounding him and a little bit announced by our friend Amina, the drummer was a first class entertainer who managed to get the most shy person on stage to dance the Bum Bum.

 And that’s all it is... on the beat of the drums you are to throw your butt skywards twice, Bum Bum.

Which if done fast is not an easy thing to do but especially in some cases an interesting thing to watch. Bum Bum!

Time flies when you are having fun and so it did that night at Makumba. Since we wanted to enjoy more of Hong Kong the following day, we called it a night at about 2:30 AM and strolled to our hotel on Hollywood. For Makumba though the night had just begun.

 

 

 

Bum Bum!

Noise? A white lie!!

One of the beautiful things about Artistry is that the small scale allows for things so cute...

 

 that you go home smiling and this is what happened to me tonight. After a lovely home cooked meal, I made my way over there to see White Noise.

This, what I understood from the singer, normally four piece band, was a duo now:

Didi Mudigdo on Keys. Who must be the man with the warmest smile in Singapore showbiz

and Juliet Pang on vocals

 The evening, as said, was small scale, two people, two sets, a two dozen audience and 24 new fans. That however made it intimate. It was short and sweet, so it leaves me with only one observations and a lot of curiosity. Curious about what the White Noise Quartet sounds like and an observation that women are starting to get the picture of Artistry and the ever changing wall decoration. Juliet too appeared to have adjusted here dress to the surroundings of the Artistry exhibit twigs tops and a cup of coffee. She got it down not only to the color but also to the twig pattern.

A bit stressed for time but eager to share this with you, I will leave it up to the pictures to say the rest. They tell a better story than I do anyway.