The Africa 2000 at Bagley’s in London concert in 1997 brought together the best drummers and percussionist from Africa, Brazil and Cuba . A concert that left a young London dance audience speechless. Here a report posted on the internet by a Canadian who attended the show:
“The unquestionable epicenter of the evening, though, was Amampondo.
They begin carefully enough, testing the audience with two numbers to demonstrate their fresh roots. The band make their way onto the stage, blowing polyrhythms on huge kudu horns- fresh off the springbok - and everybody watching was so taken aback that we nearly forget to applaud. Then, silence is asked for while we're given a short rendition of some unnameable tune on the mouth bow, the groaning, buzzing instrument of the South African bush.
But all this is feeble National geographic material compared to the rocking machine that is the full-on Amampondo performance. Oh, I wish I could switch to music critic mode, and try to describe it , but where's the point in that? It would be like trying to describe the sun as a big bright ball in the sky. If you need to know what it's like, it's like a stuttering heart attack, it's like having your head stonewashed and preshrunk, it's like being stuck insideCylde Stubblefield. The stage is filled with big drums and people leaping all over the place.
Then just when you thought it couldn't get any tougher, Amampondo invite everybody else who's appeared on stage that evening to join them. Result: audience frenzy. Unconditional eardrum surrender.