1. Introduction : Festivals and foes
2. Music : herbs and spices
3. The B*O*M*B : Fred Wesley and the Funk Explosion
4. Back to earth
5. Conclusion

We have to admit it : we weren't really into festivals. The reasons ? Most are packed with hyphed bands, hyphed people and hyphed admission prices. Why oh why did we decide to go to Couleur Cafe anyway ? Because this festival has a mind of its own, wary of all media-hyphed pop bands. One can hardly say Fred Wesley or Candy Dulfer currently enjoy their two months of chart fame. If you want to be hyphe now, you have to put Moby, Moloko, Armand Van Helden and St. Germain on your list. Couleur Cafe does not focus on that, it places as much emphasis on its exotic atmosphere as on its music, so there is something in it for everybody.

What is special about festivals. How the fu** should we know ? This was the only one we ever been to. What is special about Couleur Cafe ? Well, it's multicolored for a start : all races from across the universe come together. All people, all ages and all absolute and intermediate sexes walk happily side to side : school girls, Harley davidson loving-tattooted (Love, Mary)-grey-bearded-jeans wearing people, couples aged sixty and over, hiphop dudes, freshly washed and neatly dressed just-out-of-the-office-people,... Needless to say, the Freestyle Freak Show fitted neatly in. Furthermore, as said before, the atmosphere is just what Couleur Cafe is all about : you can eat food from exactly 38 different countries (including Ivory Coast, Vietnam, Madagascar, Ghana, Greece etc.), everywhere there are African artists, South-American parades, shoe cleaners and live tribe rituals. When night falls and the place gets really crowded, you think you're in the middle of a Maroccon soek, a South-African Zulu village, a boat village near the Yellow River and the shopping centre of Lima, all at the same time.

Of course there is music. Both on friday and sunday, the line-up is very exotic (The Wailers, Afro-Cuban All-Stars) but on that very saterday, groove is in da house. So we got started with The Herbaliser. This British hiphop-band can crank out some live funky sounds, we can tell you that even after just two tracks. People who wanted to hear tales about Bristol underground were, at least not at first, neatly served. The Freestyle crew however saw and tasted great acid-jazz at its best. Too bad we had to move on, because RJ was waiting for us...

official Herbaliser website

The hell he was, he already started without us. One thing immediately catched my eye : no vocalist, but a very willing and able bass player. For his live show, Ronny Jordan funked up his otherwise ez and mellow jazz-funk tracks with more than just an ounce of fat. Teamed up with the keyboard player of Jamiroquai and a 'massive' drummer, this band made the live versions of tracks like 'See The New' (from 'The Antidote), 'So What' (id.), 'Show Me' (id.) and a lot of stuff from his new album 'Brighter Day' : the title track, 'London Lowdown' and 'Mystic Voyage', sound compelling and yes, quite funky. A nice extra was 'The Jackall' (from 'The Quiet Revolution') which is infinitely good in its original version, sung by Dana Bryant, but without a vocalist achieved only half of its effect, which is still quite a bit. When both the drummer and the bass player gave away a thriving solo, the full power of the excellent sound system had its way and our bellies were shaken with The Funk. Mmmmhhh...

official Ronny Jordan website

3. The B*O*M*B : Fred Wesley and the Funk Explosion

So we were satisfied and strolled towards the smallest tent for an extra with the ex-trombone player of James Brown. Turned out he also started without us. So we made our way through the crowd and choose ourselves a nice central position so to not miss out of anything. And that anything was something. With two saxophone plyers, a great trumpet player, Fred Wesley himself, the mysteriously smiling piano player, a pokerfaced bass player and drummer, this band filled the stage. Also due to the fact that being allowed to play in this band will take you, apart from having the funk, to gain some 60 pounds of weight. To sum up, they looked like they could kick some greasy butt. Like ours for instance.

As the band got more and more into it, so did the crowd. Some mellow songs gave way for more intimate moments but as Fred feeled more like it, all engines were set to full power. On the decent basis of smooth bass licks and excellent percussion, there were sax, trumpet or trombone solos which mostly came together in all four musicians playing the theme in another floor shaking finale of another great track. Sweaty bodies and an atmosphere which just screamed out for fun, I felt like this had to be the kind of stuff legendary performances in the seventies were made off. As Fred kept on pushing the crowd, everybody got down, seriously deep down. Jelling and applauding, dancing and freaking, every single one in that tent that night had a superb time. And everywhere there was the music : bass solos, shreakin' trumpet or pumpin' trombone, the band kept on producing far more funk than the average Belgian festival-attender could handle. So we just OD'ed on funk. We funked more than is politically correct, we went into the red zone, broke down the tent and jelled the band forward to new heights. And Fred ? Fred saw it was good. When the band finally left the stage, after playing two and a half hour (when just two hours were originally programmed) after a worthy finale, the crowd kept on calling, stomping and applauding for several minutes until Fred and his disciples just had to come back.

When you walk in Brussels nowadays and you suddenly here someone singing 'We gonna have house-party, house-partieeeeieeeiieee' or 'Boop to the Bap', you know he or she was there. When Fred blew off the roof. See ya next year.

official Fred Wesley website

It took us while to get back to earth, but when we did, that earth turned out to be far less exciting : Me'Shell Ndegeocello sounded more rock than soul, Tomas & Co tried to imitate the Belgian acid-jazz band Wizards of Ooze but those last ones would have done a far better job. Candy Dulfer was the last one to check out, but although this had to be the top act of the evening (along with the Asian Dub Foundation) and featured most light effects, people with high expectations and musicians, this was politically correct jazz-funk for sure. Somewhere between the lesser moments of Marcus Miller and 'Theme from The Bold and The Beautiful', this was far too predictable to be interesting. It sounded so sterile that I got the idea she must be an ex-nurse. Luckily there were some great fireworks to light a spark of warmth in our hearts after almost all heat was used up by Fred Wesley. But shortly after the fireworks, it was time to hit the road because Fred had really wore us down.

Well, to sum up this evening : 

Candy Dulfer will go into Couleur Cafe history as the girl who gave the people :
a) what they wanted, 
b) what they expected and 
c) what they payed for.

Ronny Jordan will go into Couleur Cafe history as the guy who combined his heavenly melodies with technical virtuosity and a funky upgrade.

Fred Wesley will go into Couleur Cafe history as the guy who just wants to have big, fat fun and while he's around, burns down the place.

official Couleur Café website