Reviews of Concerts

African Heart

Most impressive of the participating Austrian Bands was Sigi Finkel's new "African Heart" group with three Senegalese percussionists, a smashing show with bill topping qualities.

Sax-wizard Sigi Finkel proved with his band, how effective traditional Senegalese rhythms can be fused with jazzy melodies. Finkel was the conductor in an alternate game - no doubt: In this music two different cultures met each other to create a new way of playing.

The band built its tension from suggestive rhythms and hypnotic melodic lines: Enthustiastic applause for Sigi Finkel & African Heart.

...Phantastic performance of the bandleader ... infectious rhythms. Standing ovations of the more than 800 people in the sold out University hall.

A group of African and European musicians who create a new style based on traditional drumming and singing combined with European and American influences. ...The band was very well received at the big St. Louis Festival.

...And then a thunder storm came up in the shape of Sigi Finkel & African Heart who gathered impetuous applause of the more than 1000 festival visitors. The crowd started dancing and didn't want to let the band leave the stage.

Sigi Finkel & African Heart proved to be a furious and energetic mixture of African percussion with traditional song and western Jazz sounds. Six musicians succeded in exciting the public with jazzy horn lines, virtuoso bass and especially the precisely and fiery played drums. Both musical cultures joined to create an energetic and almost extatic variant of Afro-Jazz.

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