Zimbabwe Absurdity

Absence and Presence is a part mime part spoken word play about the death of the artist’s father whose body lay for 10 days before being discovered. It’s not a happy piece of work but it was superbly presented. I am looking forward to the next work by the same artist which is a mime based on the Apollo 11 mission. Hans Ludemann of Trio Ivoire did his own solo piano gig which was great and I even bought the CD. True to jazz form he did all sorts of trick damping the piano strings to get interesting effects. Probably the highlight of the day though, was a “recital” by three French musicians, piano, flute and tenor. It started off sort of ordinary and quickly became excellent with just the right amount of fun and humour. We all had so much fun that they went on for three encores! In the evening I was sitting in the Green Room, an “exclusive” bar and cafe area for those of us who’d become HIFA amigas (i.e. bought a membership early on) and for the artistes. I had got chatting to the dancer who’d done the Echo in the Dark dance and at last begun to understand what she did when Kerry, who runs the coffee shop there asked me if I wanted a free ticket to Luva, the singer from the Cape Verde Islands who was up next. Hey, bonus! I’d never heard of her before this but it was a great concert; good band, good sound and lights. The music is a fusion of African, Brazilian and other European influences and as one would expect with all that Latin input – fun!