Celtic Connections review: Solo Cissokho & Fidil, with Fatoumata Diawara & The Michael McGoldrick Quintet - St Andrew’s In The Square, Glasgow
Opening the evening was flautist Michael McGoldrick and his quintet, joined by the young Malian singer Fatoumata Diawara, armed with an electric guitar and a huge smile.
They may only have met for rehearsals that day, but it all meshed surprisingly well, McGoldrick’s flute preluding a song with haunting lament phrases, or threading its way over Diawara’s rolling, West African guitar style while she sang with the persuasive lilt of birdsong. James Mackintosh, meanwhile, laid down a steady beat while Gerry O’Connor’s banjo appeared to revert with ease to its African roots.
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Hide AdSimilarly personable was the powerful-voiced kora player Solo Cissokho, in the company of the inventive young Irish fiddle trio Fidil, who assured us, by way of introduction: “We’re from County Donegal and he’s from County Senegal.” The splendidly turbaned Cissokho, from a griot minstrel dynasty, looked delightedly at home as he plucked cascades of notes from his harp-lute.
There were some full tilt Donegal reels, but the show-stopper was Solo’s solo, one might say, as he built up phrases, using a seemingly unfeasible number of fingers, into a hypnotic rhythm, then sang over it and produced dazzling bursts of improvisation.
Rating: ****