When Alune Wade invaded +233 with his flavour
Hugging a four-string electric bass on stage at the +233 Jazz Bar & Grill in Accra on Sunday, October 13 2024, Alune Wade was eloquent on his instrument as well as with his verbal interaction with the highly appreciative audience.
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In the course of his two-hour concert, the well-traveled Senegalese musician exhibited different shades of his personality. He showed what an amazing entertainer he was with his band and backed effective cultural connections between Africa and the Diaspora.
He gave a thumbs up for Ghanaian musicians as he brought on some of them to feature with him and also played a mediator role by ‘settling’ the long-standing jollof battle between Ghana and Nigeria.
Alune Wade’s constant movement and dexterity on his guitar explained why he is highly-rated in Jazz circles around the world. He thumbed, pulled and slapped his strings, sometimes at a furiously fast pace and poured in a variety of Afro-drenched songs, including his famous ‘African Fast Food,’ that pulled the audience to dance.
Ghanaian drummers Nii Lantey (left) and Nii Armarh played with Alune Wade
The lively session saw the bass guitarist and his band, that included trumpeter Victor Ademofe from Nigeria, drummer Alix Goffic from French Guiana and saxophonist Harry Ahonlonsou from Benin, also enjoy themselves on stage as much as those there to hear them.
One of the gripping items in the bassist’s repertoire was a slow piece that sounded like a Muslim call to prayer. Ghanaian saxophonist, Bernard Ayisa who sat in on a couple of songs with Alune Wade, blew a haunting solo that gave the piece a sort of reverential feel.
Alune Wade said the song, rendered in Wollof and called ‘Mam Fallou,’ was inspired by an open-minded, well-respected Senegalese spiritual guide whose mission was to share his wisdom and help create happiness for others.
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“My mission is to share my most precious possession, that is my music,” the bassist said. “My passion is to use it to teach other people about what we have in Africa and what we have as Black people. Whatever you are doing, when you put an African flavour into it, the thing becomes successful.”
Alune Wade has been packing his kind of flavour into his music primarily by way of his four-string bass. He explained that it wasn’t the number of strings on a bass guitar that mattered.
“I used to play guitars with more strings than four but with just one string, a player can still make sense to an audience. You don’t need a hundred million strings on a guitar to impact an audience.”
Alune Wade and his band had as much fun as the audience
The man who has logged time with notable musicians like Joe Zawinul, Salif Keita, Bobby McFerrin, Oumou Sangare, Fatoumata Diawara and Paco Sery, positively impacted his +233 audience as he finished off with a rendition of Hugh Masekela’s ‘Bring Him Back Home’ song for Nelson Mandela.
He thanked the management of +233 for giving him and his band the chance to play at the venue and expressed a desire to be back in Ghana in the near future. Copies of his 12-track ‘Sultan’ album were available for sale at the concert.
As for how he ‘settled’ the Ghana-Nigeria jollof matter, Alune Wade simply told both sides to put away their jollof because the best is from the original home of the dish, Senegal. When he also jokingly claimed that Senegal was the home of Highlife, the audience responded with a resounding NO!