I'm in Heaven since yesterday. I've been to the BEST concert of my whole life. After the excellent Marcus Miller concert two days ago, the extremely prolific, multi-genre "surfer" Ben Harper has made one hell of a performance I will never ever forget.

The event took place at L'Olympia, my favorite Paris scene by far. I arrived there with Mitch, a DocIsland fellow and a very close friend of mine, about half an hour before the beginning of the concert. A little bit later, wy wife and a couple of intimate friends joined us. It was very important to me to share this event with very close and special people. And believe it or not, these are the same people I've been with to Ben Harper's 2003 concert in Bercy, a huge Paris scene. That previous concert of an artist that I've learned to love and respect since 1997 and his hit song Jah Work was my best one. And now it's my second best.

A little bit after we took our seats, After a quite boring opening, we were left to wait for Ben Harper. I must admit that I was quite worried that this gig might be bad since Both Sides Of The Gun, Ben's latest album, isn't very good in comparison to his excellent previous records such as Diamonds On The Inside, Welcome To The Cruel World and Burn To Shine, my favorite Ben's studio album to date. However, given his 2003 performance in Bercy and the cheerful tone of Mitch, I let go of my worries and I was right about doing so.

40 minutes later Ben Harper and his Innocent Criminals supplemented with a very good guitar player entered the scene and started with a sublime Live version of Oppression. Instantly, they went into perfect communion with the public. And for more that 150 minutes, Ben Harper took us to Heaven playing Folk, Funk, Pop, Rock, and Reggae songs. Everything was top of the notch. Best among the best were the Live versions of Black Rain, Jah Work (with a perfectly fitting reprise of Bob Marley's Exodus right in the middle), Like a King, I'll Rise and Woman In You. These last three songs made me cry warm tears and feel gooseflesh. On a few songs Ben called in a wonderful strings section that added an appreciable touch. And the accordion used on When She Believes took this song to unknown heights. On a couple of songs (including I'll Rise), Ben sang without a microphone. I told you! It was a communion.

The "hit" song Better Way ended the concert beautifully. I hate the studio version save for a couple dozen seconds where Ben plays an incredible lap steel solo. But the Live version is completely different. I really start to think that Both Sides of The Gun has some serious production/arrangement flaws because the songs played Live during the concert has nothing to do with their flat-sounding studio counterparts.

All in all, it was a memorable gig and certainly the best concert I've been to so far. That's why I bought tickets for Ben's October 2006 concert in Bercy first thing this morning.

Thank you so much Ben Harper! You are truly one hell of an artist.

I've been to a Marcus Miller concert tonight with Mitch and Jethro, two fellow DocIsland members. The concert took place in Le Bataclan, a pretty nice Paris scene.

Marcus Miller is one of the most amazing Bass players in the World. He has contributed to more than 500 albums while releasing about half a dozen under his own name! He is also a very capable composer/producer. Actually, I started noticing him and looking for his musical "fingerprint" after listening to Tutu, an album he composed for Miles Davis.

The concert was awesome. Marcus Miller showed up with an excellent set composed of a sax player, a drummer, a keyboardist, a trumpeter and an harmonica player. The band played 2 hours in a row Jazz and Funk songs including reprises of songs from Stevie Wonder and Miles Davis. From time to time, I looked sideways and saw my friends wearing an expression of utter pleasure or amazement. And needless to say, I am sure I had the same. I've heard the slap technique of Marcus on his studio records and it is flabbergasting, But seeing it live is just crazy. All I can say is WOW!

The only thing I feel sad for is that group of stupid people with a heavy South French accent that made every effort possible to make their presence felt. These people have no respect whatsoever for Music. They were shouting non sense and at one point they started comparing Marcus to Zinedine Zidane. Don't look for a relationship. There isn't. It was difficult to forget their existence and focus solely on the events taking place before my eyes.

Last but not least, if you want to know more about this incredible artist, check out his website. It is very well documented and easy to navigate through.

Afrobeat is a musical genre created in Lagos, Nigeria, in 1968 by the incredible multi-instrumentalist Fela Kuti and his bandmate Tony Allen, an awesome drummer.

Afrobeat is a wonderful mix of Yoruba, Funk, Jazz and African percussions. It is appealing to the fans of all four above-mentioned genres. The lyrics featured in Afrobeat songs are often political message carriers.

The story of this genre didn't stop with the death of Fela Kuti, also known as the Black President, in 1997. Tony Allen keeps producing great songs and Fela's sons, Femi and Seun are very good (though the latter still needs to produce an album).

The following are, in my humble opinion, must-have Afrobeat records:

Fela Ransome-Kuti and Africa 70 with Ginger Baker Live, Fela Kuti
Available from eMusic.


New Tones, Nomo
Available from eMusic.


Shoki Shoki, Femi Kuti


Lagos No Shaking, Tony Allen


No Accommodation For Lagos - No Discrimination, Tony Allen
Available from eMusic.


Music Is The Weapon Of The Future, Fela Kuti
Available from eMusic.


The Best Of The Black President, Fela Kuti


Jealousy - Progress, Tony Allen
Available from eMusic.

During the eighties, I became a big fan of Break Dance and the Music associated with it. I even practiced some myself with my classmates and neighbours at that time. And you can imagine how I feel now when I see Break Dancers and the level they reached today. It's simply amazing and it you happen to be in Paris and would like to see some of it, go to UGC Ciné-Cité Les Halles around 8-9 PM.

"Great" you might think ... "but what's the relationship with Herbie Hancock?". The answer is very simple: Rockit, the song Herbie released in 1983 and its video clip. I have sharp memories of watching the video on Moroccan T.V. as a youngster with my brother Aziz. And this is how I was introduced to Break Dance. Later on, I watched movies such as Breakin'.

Herbie Hancock is one of the most important Jazz pianists of the last forty or so years who earned many awards. He was part of Miles Davis "second great quintet". Even if he is kind of "avant-garde" and a huge experimentalist, his music is accessible. What I'd like most about him is the way he uses elements of other musical genres into the very fabric of his Jazz grounds which allows him to produce incredible stuff. His sense of groove is also immense. Just check his records during the 70's era such as Sextant or Head Hunters. Be it Funk, Acid Jazz, plain Jazz, Electro or even Pop, Herbie's signature is unmistakable.

If you haven't checked his work yet, it's high time to do so and if you love many music genres as I do, you'll keep seeing Herbie's songs popping here and there.

While I consider all the albums I've listened to so far (I own around ten not counting his work with Miles Davis) to be great, I advise you to check out the following albums first:

• Takin' Off
  
• Future 2 Future
  
• Sextant
  
• Head Hunters
  
• Future Shock (which contains Rockit)
  

For more information about Herbie Hancock, check out his Wikipedia entry and his website. And for the Rockit video clip, check this Youtube.com page.

Some of the regular readers of this blog asked me what's happening to my monthly Wonderful Songs posts. My bad. I had a lot of work in the past weeks and I hadn't taken the time to publish the three past issues of Wonderful Songs. Hopefully, this will be fixed shortly.

Please be patient.