Polyversal Souls band inaugurate 15th European Cultural Festival of Algiers

Germany "Polyversal souls" band gave Friday evening a concert in Algiers under the sign of mixture of funk and traditional music from Asia and Africa for the opening of the 15th European Cultural Festival which will last until 30 May. Led by drummer and composer Maximilian Weissenfeldt from Berlin, the band who were performing under the banner of the European Union proposed in the Algerian Radio auditorium, a musical journey combining urban rhythms of "Soul Music", jazz and funk with exotic sounds from India, Ethiopia and Ghana. This perfect blend, fruit of musical wanderings and meetings of the band leader was presented with an orchestration based on a powerful rhythm section (bass, guitar, drums and percussion) supporting brass (alto sax, tenor sax, trumpet, trombone and clarinet) and sometimes enhanced by a jazz piano and sometimes by a keyboard. Starting the concert by instruments inspired from "Raga", Indian classic and religious music and Ethiopian traditional music, the group then invited on stage a Ugandan singer based in Sweden, "Jacky", who immediately captured the audience. In traditional African dress, shed wowed the room with her powerful voice and energetic stage play in interpreting songs "Gospel" (church hymns) of West Africa or jazz standard songs of Billie Holiday. The band also invited to derbouka (Algerian traditional drum) Algerian Bouzid Chakib for a song with oriental sounds, specially composed for the concert, as explained to the public Maximilian Weissenfeldt. The concert ended with a piece entitled "Music Is An Invisible Joy", taken up in choir by the audience and played by musicians who left the scene to join the spectators.