There were 13 of them, swathed in fabric and sprawled on patterned carpets. The musical titans of the Sahara: Abdallah Ag Alhousseyni of Grammy-winning desert blues outfit Tinariwen. Fellow Toureg guitarists, Ousmane Ag Mossa of Tamikrest, and Terakaft’s Sanou Ag Ahmed. The Tartit Ensemble from Timbuktu in northern Mali, beating tindé drums, clapping percussive rhythms, ululating to the rafters.
For denizens of that vast expanse of sand and rock known as the Sahara — a home to many, and a home to which many long to return — this was the equivalent of the Beatles, the Kinks and Rolling Stones jamming together.
It took a while to establish the hypnotic, loping groove but once they did, and with a male musician leaping up to dance, his robe sweeping the stage, they were compelling.
Then came solo performances by rising stars from nomadic communities across North Africa. Noura Mint Seymali, a Mauritanian diva with a voice made more theatrical by a guitarist with an effects pedal. Singer Aziza Brahim, raised in the refugee camps of western Algeria, and an artist who is still maturing.
The stand-out act, Nabil Baly Othmani of southern Algeria, peeling off trance riffs on his oud, weaving in reggae and funk and like the evening itself, bringing a forgotten conflict to world attention.
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