The show brought together Dobet Gnahoré (from Ivory Coast), Habib Koité (from Mali) and Vusi Mahlasela (from South Africa) who, after fifty concerts together, including around thirty in the U.S., stopped off to delight the festival crowd in Angoulême. Over the last eight months, the three performers - all solo music stars in their own right - have acquired some interesting automatisms on stage, born of their impressive three-edged complicity. From the opening minute of their concert to the rousing encore at the end, the trio served as a model for how collective creation should proceed. No-one tried to grab the limelight, no-one attempted to dominate the others musically, but each gave of their best, while managing to conserve their own artistic personality and pooling their individual talents. What’s more, Dobet, Habib and Vusi appeared to derive as much pleasure from their performance as the crowd, exchanging smiles and radiant glances with one another throughout their show.

And while we’re on the subject of highlights, let’s hear it for Les Bantous de la Capitale, the veteran Congolese orchestra due to celebrate their half-century in two years’ time. The group’s concert in France was a real event, marking the Bantous’ welcome comeback on the live circuit. In fact, this bunch of sprightly 70-something friends had called a complete halt to their musical activities for several years, but the call of rumba proved too strong in the end! The desert blues from the all-female Tuareg group Tartit was also a stand-out act and the tribute to the late Guinean saxophonist, Momo Wandel, staged by his former musicians, was a moment of pure emotion.

Haitian Highlights

However, with three compatriots flying its musical flag, Haiti proved to be the best represented country at "Musiques Métisses" this year. Belo, winner of RFI’s "Découverte" award in 2006, championed his homeland in style, playing ragganga (his own unique mix of reggae, ragga and the Haitian carnival music known as rara). Belo was still on top form, despite, four days earlier in Dakar having just wound up an extensive tour of West Africa that had taken him to six different countries. "A brilliant experience!", he enthused backstage, "The tour wasn’t all about music, either. I came to understand that Haiti is actually a bit of Africa located in America!" Belo’s tour proved to be an inspirational trip, too. Arriving in Zinder, Niger, after fourteen gruelling hours on the road, Belo felt so at home that he ended up writing four songs there during his brief stay.

Playing at Angoulême, Belo hooked up with his childhood friends, Brothers Posse, a group his brother used to manage and from whom he acknowledges he learnt “a great deal.” The Posse, initiated by Don K-To and Bobby Star, literally stormed the stage at Angoulême, never letting up the pressure for a minute. Whipping up a vibrant mix of mizik rasin, rock and pounding Jamaican beats - their famous "roots, rock reggae" fusion - Brothers Posse won over a host of new fans. Back home, the group’s popularity has been boosted by their recent campaign against local gang warfare. In the run-up to the last elections in Haiti, at the end of 2006, Brothers Posse launched the Artists for Peace movement, giving free concerts in no-go neighbourhoods where they called for an amnesty on automatic rifles.

Belo has been closely involved in the Artists for Peace movement, too, as has the group Racine Mapou de Azor who brought the house down at Angoulême last weekend with their infectious voodoo vibes. The group’s master drummer Lénor Fortuné - aka "Azor" - perpetuates Haitian trance tradition. But although he manages to instil the group’s songs with a contemporary protest edge, his eyes blaze with a passion bent on summoning up ancestors from the spirit world. Rousing stuff indeed!