Royal Albert Hall's desert drama

Dimi Mint Abba and Radio Tarifa
Albert Hall
***

Dimi Mint Abba, Mauritania's most celebrated vocalist, is one of Africa's great voices. Wrapped in a red shawl, she sat on a carpet between her daughter playing drum and stepson playing keyboard and plucked her harp-like ardin in filigree accompaniment to her dramatic voice.

The impact of her music was not helped by the fact that four of her band members were missing, as they hadn't been granted visas. Instead of the sinewy textures of desert lute and percussion, we had the keyboard with programmed beats, but still they created moments of desert drama.

The temperature of the evening rose with Radio Tarifa, named after the southernmost tip of Spain where you might pick up sounds from each side of the Mediterranean.

Around the gravelly, flamenco-style vocals of Benjamin Escoriza, the Tarifa musicians play reedy wind instruments, electric oud and North African percussion alongside flamboyant electric guitar. They represent in their music the ideal of old Andalus with religions co-existing in harmony.

But Tarifa are about to disband and half of Dimi's band were refused entry for fear that they might jump ship and try to stay. What should have been an inspirational evening seemed like a sad comment on our troubled times.