Paris Insights - The Blog

Willie Colón
Photograph courtesy of Festival Ile-de-France

The 2010 Festival d’Ile de France music series ended on a hot note today with a packed audience roaring its approval for the performance given by Willie Colón and his salsa band.

The concert was scheduled to begin at 5:00 p.m. at La Cigale, an auditorium located in the Pigalle district. I arrived at 4:45 p.m. and could see the entry line stretching way down boulevard de Rochechouart. My heart sank at the prospect of not getting a good seat, as they were not assigned. First come, first seated!

When I entered the concert hall, it was worse than I had imagined! All of the seats were taken and the ground floor was packed with a standing-room only crowd. I made my way to the top balcony and stood in the aisle behind a row of occupied seats. By hoisting myself up on a ledge and clinging precariously to the back of a seat I could see over the heads of the spectators and get a fairly clear view of the stage. This awkward position did not seem to bother a great number of young spectators who were perched in the same way, but the acrobatic posture fatigued me and I had to let myself down to the floor for solid footing for most of the concert.

Nonetheless, it was a fantastic concert of Latin songs, sassy brass, incredible keyboard technique, and effervescent drums. Although Mr. Colón addressed the audience only in Spanish (he is American-born of parents of Puerto Rican descent), the majority seemed to understand him. When he welcomed the presence of spectators from Colombia, great shouts of acclamation erupted!

Thank you Festival d’Ile de France for your fabulous series of concerts this year. I attended three of them: Baaba Maal, Kahled, and this one, all of which I blogged about. Until next year’s festival!

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Maurice El Medioni (left), Khaled (center), Abdelhoued Zaim (right)
(c) Discover Paris!

The organization Festival d’Ile de France has been giving a spectacular series of concerts since September 5. I had the opportunity to hear Baaba Maal on September 11 (see my blog of September 12). Last Friday night, I heard Khaled and his friends at the Cirque d’Hiver. This concert was devoted to raï, a musical form that developed during the 1930s in the coffee houses and cabarets of Oran, in Algeria.

I was not sure whether I would even like this type of music, but, because the event promised a great line-up of raï stars, I figured that I had better get there to see for myself what it was all about.

The Cirque d’Hiver is a circus venue, built in Paris in 1852 and inaugurated by Prince Louis-Napolean . Today, it is still used for circus performances, as well as concerts. I imagine that France must have been a nation of small people at the time that the performance hall was built, because the seats are quite narrow and restrictive. My knees pushed against the back of the seat in front of me, and I had trouble placing my feet flat on the floor. During the show, however, I became so absorbed by the music that I largely forgot my discomfort.

As soon as Maurice El Medioni, the first performer to appear on stage, played his opening notes, a great roar arose from the audience, followed by shrill ululating. That high-pitched, trilling sound was an unmistakable signal that most of the spectators were Algerians or people of Algerian descent. It was also an indication that they knew that some wonderful music was about to be played!

Maurice El Medioni, a pianist born in Oran, is a specialist in Judeo-Arabian music. After he played the first number, he announced that it was a pure Andalusian melody. I found the music enthralling, even dreamy.

Cheba Zahouania
(c) Discover Paris!

Then, just as El Medioni began another tune, the star of the show, Khaled, appeared at the top of a grand stairway to the wild acclamation of the audience. For the rest of the show, he would dominate the stage, singing with three other stars as they appeared in sequence. If Khaled is known to Americans, it would be for his popular song Aïcha, which came out in 1996. He sang this number, but for the most part his songs were in the rolling, rhythmic style of raï that sounds, to my ears, like wailing. This wailing sound is the reason why I thought that I might not enjoy the concert, but here, with it being performed live, I listened with fascination.

The three other performers were Cheb Sahraoui, also born in Oran, who was the first raï artist to tour North America; Boutaïba Sghir, who sings popular styles of raï; and Cheba Zahouania, one of the great female voices of this musical genre.

Toward the end of the show, the orchestra—consisting of musicians playing drums, bass, keyboard, accordion, guitar, derbouka (a percussion instrument), and oud (lute)—performed a number of melodies. One of the tunes sounded just like Latin jazz—all that was lacking was the brass!

By the end of the show, spectators were swaying in their seats, waving their arms, and dancing in the aisles. It was a great musical performance!

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