Review: Sidiki Dembele

“It looks like a pumpkin, innit?”, says Sidiki Dembele, introducing us to the calabash he’s just been playing, using his hands and fingernails to tap, thump and tickle out sharp then dull percussive sounds. From a family of West African griots (travelling musician storytellers), Dembele fell in love with the djembe when he was five, and gives a passionate summary of the goblet-shaped drum’s charms, explaining how it brings communities together with its positive energy. 

Dembele’s deep connection with African percussion is embodied as he plays. Sitting on a stool, his eyes are closed and he grins ecstatically as he leans far backwards. He’s been teaching workshops for years now and invites the audience in The Hub to call and response handclaps and African chants. Audience interaction makes up half of the performance, which means his percussive bursts can’t always gather momentum. I’d have happily listened to an hour of just him wigging out, building BPMs and inducing a Tuesday night trance. Instead his noble dedication to evangelising about the instruments means he patiently shares his showtime with our often tuneless, out of time efforts. (He says we’ve been an “amazing crowd” but I’d give us a lacklustre two stars.) His playing tonight is intoxicating, just dosed out too sparingly. 

Venue: The Hub

Time: run ended