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| On
the Road with Rupert |
| Rupert
at the WOMAD |
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Deuxieme Partie (II)
|
 On
stage, Monsieur Denis Péan is simply dressed and could easily be mistaken
for a businessman if you bumped into him on the streets. This is a man
who is obviously immersed in the music he makes. He tapped at the keyboards,
soaring away on remarkable solos and regularly stopped to accompany Richard
Bourreau on the violin and Guy Raimbault on the accordion with his emphatic
gesticulating, pointing off the stage into the sky as if announcing the
arrival of some extraterrestrial. This is a man made for the stage as
his assertive vocals punctuate or lead the harmonies of the Berber sisters,
Nadia and Yamina Nid el Mourid. All the while the relatively unobtrusive
Nico Gallard on percussion and the Carribean basslines of Nicolas Kham
Meslien lay the substrata of Lo’Jo’s music.
 And
since I’ve brought up the matter of the Mourid sisters I’ve just got to
tell you everything else. I sat there, totally entranced, transfixed by
the pulsing energy that the two of them exuded… To be honest, it was Yamina
I was ogling at. She is so 'yummylicious' that they should name a dessert
after her. She’s so hot I could have toasted marshmallows on her. She
oozes so much sexuality that they should bottle it and call it ‘Eau de
Yamina’. I’m sure you get the picture. Don't get me wrong, Nadia is as
womanly as they come but in an Earth Mother sort of way. When I closed
my eyes I could hardly tell the difference between the two as they shuffled
between lead and backup harmony. But I didn’t keep them closed for too
long as I didn’t want to miss any of Yamina.
 She
wove a spell over poor old Rupert and quite definitely didn’t even know
what she had done. She twirled, twisted, and spun around the stage just
as Rupert’s head twirled and spun around with her. Sometimes she banged
away enthusiastically at a drum or other piece of percussion and sometimes
she played at a soprano saxophone. Other times she just clapped counter
time ala flamenco style and whipped her shoulder length curls around as
much as is possible with tight curly hair like hers. The crowd, along
with Rupert of course, would whoop excitedly as Queen Yamina held court
at the Green with the colonial elegance of the Fort Canning Center glowing
behind them.
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