All photos by Banning Eyre
This past week (October 8-12-25) New York hosted musical royalty from North and West Africa. First, the fifth annual Habibi Festival went down at Joe’s Pub with five nights of music from Southwest Asia and North Africa (SWANA). And Saturday, October 11, brought the long-awaited return of Senegalese mbalax superstar, Wally Seck, for a late night show at the Times Square Palladium.
Afropop Worldwide caught the Friday night Habibi Fest show at Joe’s Pub, featuring Iraqi-American, visual artist, singer, and songwriter Maryam Turkey and The Mohamed Abozekry Sextet from Egypt.
Maryam Turkey has a warm, silken voice and a delightfully unassuming stage presence. Backed only by a powerful drummer and an electric guitarist, quite capable of rocking out when called upon, she gave us a set that merged Arab classicism with minimalist rock. The songs were intimate and reflective, and, as she explained in a mid-show conversation, taken from her upcoming album, all music drawn from her experience as an Iraqi who has made her home in the New York City jazz milieu.
Mohamed Abozekry and his sextet were particularly welcome as they had been scheduled to appear in last year’s festival, but were prevented from coming due to visa complications. Abozekry is a phenomenal oud player, by turns, sensitive, introspective, fiery and virtuosic. His superb accompanists supported him through an invigorating set of Arabic jazz, a world where microtonal maqams and freewheeling jazz improvisation worked hand in glove together. The ensemble sound was perfectly balanced. The oud, an instrument easily buried amid percussion, brass and piano, shone through forcefully, its feathery tones commanding, even fierce, without losing any of the instrument's inherent gentleness.
Special mention to Camille Maussion’s wonderfully inventive tenor saxophone playing. This band has been on tour, and that certainly showed in their deep conversations and exquisitely polished grooves. Quite brilliant to behold. Habibi audiences got to see Abozekry’s group again on Sunday night.
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Wally Seck is the son of the late Senegalese legend Thione Seck, an Afropop favorite who never got his due on the international stage. Thione and his band Raam Daan delivered mbalax pur et dur, " pure and tough mbalax, " to their adoring Senegalese fans, and introduced Wally to the stage at a young age. Today, Wally carries the mantle. He's a musical giant in West Africa, and the crowd that filled the Palladium on Saturday night for his midnight-to-2AM show gave testimony to that.
This was no easy concert to stage. First of all, it was a one-off, just for New Yorkers this time, and it took a village to pull it off. A large coterie of Senegalese fans and supporters ventured through heavy Friday afternoon traffic to JFK to greet the artists, and a festive mood prevailed throughout the visit.
Twelve musicians flew from Dakar, and six others didn’t make it—once again, visa complications—and there was a scramble to fill in the gaps. The community went to work and found solutions. Our friend kora player Noumoukunda Cissoko, currently of Aba Diop and the Yermande Family, took the place of a missing guitarist. By show time, nothing was lacking.
Afropop has been pursuing an interview with Wally since his last visit in 2022. We finally got our chance, literally minutes before Wally took the stage at the Palladium. That pursuit is a story in itself, but another time… Stay tuned for the interview, short, but sweet, and hard-earned!
For all the challenges, the show was deeply satisfying. Wally’s band deliver mbalax worthy of his father’s, and his voice is wonderfully reminiscent. But he clearly has his own vibe, and many hits that the enraptured crowd could join in on. The absence of the band's two guitar players shifted emphasis to its percolating keyboard players. At times, the sound verged into an ecstatic roar reminiscent of Konono No1. Garage band mbalax!
The second half of the concert evolved into high-intensity griotism, with fistfuls of money passing from fans to the stage. Here, the event took on the feeling of ritual, with a feeling of intimacy that belied the grand setting and enormous crowd.
Much more on Wally to come, especially if Afropop is able to organize a planned 2027 listener trip to Senegal. (Watch this space.) If that happens, Wally will be part of the package. Meanwhile, here are some photos from a memorable night at the Palladium.
