It’s been a while since my last visit to the gorgeous Howard Assembly Room when I saw an amazing act from Mali. Tonight we moved across Africa to Zimbabwe, the home of Mokoomba, a six-piece band which plays everything from rock to a cappella. I also think that we could solve the energy crisis by wiring them up to the National Grid.
The band turned professional in 2008 and have been touring extensively ever since, visiting all parts of the globe, garnering great reviews wherever they have been.
The venue, which is infinitely flexible in its seating arrangements, was devoid of all furnishings for this gig, with the only people seated on the ground floor were those who were wheelchair users and had a special section allotted.
I had been allocated a perch in the gallery which gave me a brilliant view of the proceedings but was not great for taking photographs as, as well as being a fair distance from the action, the atmospheric lighting distorted the colour balance. I am not complaining here, the incredible lighting and sound engineers did their usual top class job and gave a club vibe to the room. Actually, it is so long since I have been in a nightclub, it could have been nothing like. The throng on the dance floor were obviously well impressed and so I will take my lead from them.
I must say that now my knee is all but recovered I was more than a little envious of the audience on the lower floor who were throwing shapes all night, except for during the a cappella song which was the only downbeat rendition in the set. As the band are from Southern Africa it was not surprising that their music was reminiscent of the backing tracks from Paul Simon’s Graceland album. I can think of no finer praise.
L to R. Trustworth Samenade, Guitar and Vocals; Donald Moyo, Keyboards and Vocals; Mathias Muzaza, Lead Vocals and Percussion; Ndaba Coster Moyo, Drums and Vocals; Abundance Mutori, Bass and Vocals and Miti Mugande, Percussion and Vocals.
There was very little chat during the performance and so I am unable to name any of the songs except for Nzara Hapana, the one whose video is on Opera North’s website. If you go to https://www.operanorth.co.uk/whats-on/mokoomba/ and click on the link it will give you four minutes of total joy and show you why I love my job!
Should you want to see what is coming to Howard Assembly Room please go to https://www.operanorth.co.uk/event-tag/har/ and pick something challenging.
Tyke It To The Limit 