Last night I drank too much beer and danced on a beach to live Canadian-German rock and yéyé 45s at the Glaz’art Plage. What a great place.

It was said that it didn’t feel or look like Paris, what with these youth in interesting outfits – Parisians generally don’t do costumes – cheering on a crowd-surfer who lost his short-shorts and underwear in the fray. But at the same time we were very much in Paris, beside the Parc de la Villette, watching fork lightning-infused storm clouds all around us as the sun miraculously kept shining.

There are few things better than outdoor concerts, especially ones by crazy motherfuckers like King Khan. But add an afforable barbeque, free-flowing headachy beer, sand everywhere and pétanque à volonter and you have the makings of a great evening.

So I’m moving a little slowly today but it was worth it. It’s nice to have these kinds of nights in Paris. Not all Paris dancing has to be done in a dark room behind a burly bouncer at the door, and not all indy bands must be seen at the Maroquinerie. There exists a sunnier, gentler Paris where mod kids in flip-flops slurp beer and let loose to rock’n'roll.

King Khan and The Shrines – How Can I Keep You Outta Har

BBC Sound System are a Senegalese hiphop group based in Paris, France. Their 2003 release, Na Banko, resurfaced in my collection lately thanks to a random shuffle.

Once again I’m reminded how Wolof is a great rapping language.. so angular, filled with rhyming sounds.

Unfortunately it’s not much more than a collection of sounds to my ears; with every passing day my Wolof disappears, word by word. I can still make a Senegalese person laugh when I hear the accent in Paris and respond with a Wolof joke, but that’s about it these days.

Anyway, just a quick post this morning.

BBC Sound System – Kalama

I mentioned in my last post that I’d seen a Julia Sarr and Patrice Larose concert recently. In continuing with my promotion of the excellent No Format releases I’ll post some music from their album today.

Julia Sarr used to be a backup singer for Youssou N’Dour and is now embarking on a solo career. She lives in Paris with her teenaged son who she, very cutely, describes as being in his “yo yo” phase.. but she still loves him.

I admit to not knowing her music before I saw the show. My friend, Olivier, invited me to the Satellit café for the show. Since I had been so impressed with Mamani Keita on the No Format sampler I immediately agreed to come. I finally got to meet Laurent there, the No Format label creator. Nice guy.

Right from the start Julia Sarr put on an excellent show. She was relaxed on stage, cracking jokes between songs and acting generally cute overall. Her voice is what really did me in, though. Not only is her Wolof slowly and smoothly spoken (so I can understand bits!) but I find her tone sounds just right to my ears. Beautiful stuff.

You can hear it for yourself. I’ve included two tracks: my favourite, Yitte, and another that better features Sarr’s stunning voice. I also love the references in the second to Dakar neighbourhoods.. la nostalgie, tu vois.

All No Format albums can be bought online on their website: http://www.noformat.net/

Patrice Larose & Julia Sarr – Na mana
Patrice Larose & Julia Sarr feat Leity M’Baye – Yitte

I’ve been seeing some great African music concerts in Paris lately. Aside from upcoming Ethiopiques and Kekele shows I’ve been all over town seeing things these last couple weeks.

This is largely thanks to the work of Laurent who runs the No Format label pretty much single-handedly. He’s been actively promoting his new albums that include, among others, Mamani Keita, Toto Bona Lokua and Julia Sarr and Patrice Larose.

Today I’ll feature some music from Toto Bona Lokua. The group name stands for Gerald Toto, Richard Bona and Lokua Kanza. Many of you probably already know Richard Bona – he’s huge in France, anyway – but the others are relatively well-known and talented musicians as well.

Their No Format release is one of the more creative African albums to come out of the huge Paris African music scene in a while. Combining modern and traditional instruments with great harmony.. and an overall impression that they’re just having a lot of fun in the studio.. makes for a truly original work.

Make sure to listen to the end of today’s track for the little bonus. And thanks, Laurent, for continuing to release great stuff. I’ll see you at the next show..

Toto Bona Lokua – Lisanga

A few weeks ago at 2005’s last poker night Olivier passed me a good mix from Vibrations magazine featuring music from No Format, a small, high-quality label out of Paris, France.

One track in particular caught my ear for African sounds. It’s appropriately by another Keita, given yesterday’s post, but with quite a different sound. Mamani Keita is a little-known female vocalist from Mali who works with musicians both at home and abroad. She has a cool fusion sound of Mali-West-Electro-Folk that I quite like.

You can buy her last album at Calabash. Or, if you can wait, you can find today’s track on Keita’s soon to be released album that will be available at the No Format site in a month or so.

Mamani Keita – Djekafo