Senegal

The last weekend of the Edinburgh Festivals looms. Yesterday, outside the Usher Hall I met a man who'd seen 70 or 80 shows in the last three weeks. My own record of 6 shows pales into insignificance. Two weeks ago we were here in this same hall to hear Bach's St Matthew Passion conducted by John Eliot Gardiner : a sublime evening! Now we were waiting outside the Usher Hall for a concert by the very great Youssou N'Dour. In 2004, Rolling Stone described him as, "perhaps the most famous singer alive" in Senegal and much of Africa. The Usher Hall was packed. Edinburgh is a very 'white' city, so it was lovely that so many Senegalese were at the concert, arguably forming THE HEART of the evening. They knew the words of many of the songs and were much more prepared to get up and dance. The rest of us took a bit longer to get to our feet. What an evening of wonderful music,  and the sense of being engaged at many different levels.