Those who attended Mamadou N’Diaye’s concert during the Nancy Jazz Pulsations (NJP) in 1985 must remember this Senegalese, composer of his country’s anthem. There were 2,200 people attending the stage performance of the man who played with Sting, the Rolling Stones and Bernard Lavilliers. The chief drum major of Dakar even had the luxury of beating the great Miles Davis, one of the star guests of this edition from the mid-80s, on the applause meter.
For his first concert in France, Papa Doudou did not come alone: he was accompanied by 46 musicians, as many men as women, for perfect parity ahead of time. “When we saw them arrive in Nancy, in their Dakar outfits, in October, we were worried. They were cold. They had to be dressed again,” Claude-Jean Antoine, alias Tito, president of the NJP, reported in our columns. No budget planned for this. But the owner of a store in Nancy provides the solution: he privatizes his brand for them and outfits the 47 Senegalese people for the duration of their stay.
The African musicians also left an unforgettable memory after the concert, by transforming the dressing rooms into a souk! Drums, bracelets, boubous, necklaces… Everything was for sale. A good fifteen native Lorrainers will leave with a drum under their arm, sold at an average price of 500 F (€76). A memorable evening in more than one way.
