Wednesday 27 March 2019

Storytelling: The Son of the Buffalo Woman

Tonight, back with the Crick Crack Club! This was a performance by Jan Blake, at King's Place - and da boss having liked a clip of hers that he saw previously, he took the spare ticket I accidentally booked. Promised to be a good night. And a much-needed break from reality.

A couple of buses would get us to King's Cross - a short walk. We headed off in good time, got a drink from the downstairs bar, where the concert was - the house white is quite floral, as I found. And when doors opened, I insisted on front row central. As usual. :-) Well, we were literally first in. The stage housed drums, and other instruments of more dubious provenance. And when they finally took the stage, it was a bit late - which is just fine, of course. No MC-ing, for once, no Crick Crack slogans - just Jan Blake, straight into it.

She had a drummer on stage with her, who accompanied her to a prepared checklist of cues. This time was an African tale, set in Mali.. and as the drums set a river of sound for us to drift on, she spun a yarn of a prophecy about a Malian king who had to marry an ugly woman, and how that woman was found, her mother's buffalo wrath killed, and she was brought to marry the king. And then.. we were into a break.

I'm used to Jan Blake - she's guaranteed terrific, music or no. But music is always a plus, making it easier to immerse yourself in the story. And hey, she was on form tonight - happily, the crowd were in fine voice, keen to sing along (or ululate). Da boss? "Blown away" - that's a direct quote. Seriously, it's quite hard to describe what these events can be like until you experience them. Delighted to have another fan!

The second half was even better, if possible, as we learned the son's story, and he started out on what she told us was an epic quest! ..which she didn't have time to tell us about. Watch this space, I guess, with tantalising hints of further instalments at some unspecified time and place. Oh man - and we were lucky enough to run right into her on the way out, and do the fan thing. Another hit for Crick Crack..

Tomorrow, our team has our monthly social. This time, we're off to Tas.

On Friday, The London Art Song and Opera group advertised the opera, Andrea Chénier, at St. John's Waterloo. Hell, they don't make it easy though - if you want the special offer (quoting "MEETUP"), you have to ring. And, as I discovered, when you ring, you will not get an answer. No, you have to leave your name and number and they'll get back to you. When I discovered that there was no way to do this "live", I rang them very late on Saturday night - would you believe, they got back to me on Sunday morning! which was when I discovered that the offer includes a free drink and programme, and that they - ahem - post the tickets to you (!). I'm still waiting for mine to arrive. If it does, that's what I'm doing on Friday.

On Saturday, back at last with Chronicles, for the last of his walks - this one sounds interesting, being about Rebellious London. And that'll be the last new walk on my list.. so many good walks advertised around London, but I've pretty much done them all by now!

On Sunday, Let's Do This is off to a kaleidoscope exhibition at the Saatchi gallery. And so am I.

And on Monday - with nothing on Meetup (are people getting tired?), I'm off with my "cheap ticket club", first time in ages, to a concert by Ekaterina Semenchuk & Semyon Skigin, at Wigmore Hall.

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