Two-way cultural pollination.
Just outside the Palm Door, a steel drum band from Trinidad marched down Sixth Street in the rain Friday night. It proved the perfect prelude to a dual showcase that was “all about the waist,” as Congolese-British comedian/emcee Eddie Kadi put it.
Two-way cultural pollination was very much in evidence as one walked from the indoor African music stage to the outdoor Caribbean stage. Sets changed, but the rhythms never ceased and the connections between traditional West African sounds and its diasporic offspring were always in sharp focus.
