MEGA CONCERT WITH DAMON ALBARN AND AFRICA EXPRESS IN PARIS!

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Yesterday, on August 5th, during the music event “Festival Fnac Indétendance”, Africa Express, the musical collective led by Damon Albarn (Blur, Gorillaz), performed during more than five hours with a lot of great artists. I shot most of it but didn’t have enough tapes! (I missed the last songs with everybody on stage!!!).

 Damon Albarn

This big free concert (more than 5000 people were there!) took place at the Place de l’Hotel de Ville (an historic public square in front of the mayor’s office in the centre of Paris).A lot of peopleMy buddiesAmong the artists who performed that evening/nigh, there were Amadou & Mariam, Catherine Ringer (Rita Mitsouko), Roots Manuva, Ebony Bones, Kano, Bashy, The Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, The Kooks, Miss Dynamite, Sister Fa, Speech Debelle, Konono n°1, Magic Numbers, Rachid Taha, Patrick Wolfand (of course) Damon Albarn.

 Sister Fa and Speech Debelle

Ebony Bones and her crew (below)MRoots Manuva (left) - Mariam and Damon (center)Here are two videos that I’ve just edited featuring Damon Albarn, Sister Fa, Speech Debelle and Ebony Bones (more stuff to come).  

On August 3, 2009, Africa Express, in association with Puma Creative, will release ‘ Africa Express presents…’ a CD/DVD collection of African music.It includes unreleased songs by Amadou & Mariam, Tinariwen,

Baaba Maal and Femi Kuti alongside numbers by the likes of  Oumou Sangare, Tony Allen, Staff Benda Bilili, Rokia Traore and Rachid Taha. The tracks have been selected by artists such as Bjork, Franz Ferdinand, Elvis Costello, Massive Attack, VV Brown, Fatboy Slim and Damon Albarn amongst others; reflecting their interest and love of African music.

Some links:

http://www.africaexpress.co.uk/

http://www.myspace.com/amadouandmariam

http://www.myspace.com/ebonybones

http://www.myspace.com/sisterfa

http://www.myspace.com/speechdebellemusicFrédéric Ambroisine (Aug. 6th, 2009)