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all aboard it was the ultimate jam session. one train, packed with 80 musicians making sweet harmonies as they travelled around the uk. take your seats for the africa express Words amar patel PHOTOgraphy simon phipps
drumming to a new beat: damon albarn, baaba maal and members of jupiter & Okwess International jam at leeds city station
1960s Class 47 locomotive pulls into a bustling station in Glasgow, Scotland. Decorated A with flags of more than 30 African countries and with red wrought-iron signs at either end, reading ‘The Africa Express’ in gold lettering, the train is an intriguing mix of the traditional and the modern. The doors open and out pops the most unconventional stream of passengers you’re ever likely to see. South African MC Spoek Mathambo, peeking out of his visor cap, is chatting with London grime MC Afrikan Boy, while leather-clad former Libertine Carl Barât strolls past, an axe strapped to his shoulder. To his left is Malian ngoni master Bassekou Kouyate and Amadou Bagayoko of internationally acclaimed duo Amadou & Mariam. Next to disembark are Malian singer Fatoumata Diawara, Jon McClure of UK band Reverend and The Makers, US-based Ghanaian MC M:anifest and Senegalese musical royalty in the form of Baaba Maal. There are over 80 musicians on board, representing more than 30 countries in Africa. No wonder AE’s cofounders – promoter/manager Stephen Budd and journalist Ian Birrell – are looking anxious. Theirs are the stress-induced expressions of teachers on a school trip. The plan, albeit a largely unwritten one, is to take this star-studded band of musicans across the UK in one week, stopping off at various cities – including Bristol, Carlisle, London, Middlesborough and Manchester – and conducting several pop-up shows on platforms and in factories, schools, town centres and clubs along the way. En route, they’ll be jamming, collaborating and feeding off each other in preparation for their epic evening shows. By bringing African music direct to the people, in some cases even to their homes, the founders aim to gradually shift perceptions of the continent. AE started six years ago, initiated by Blur frontman Damon Albarn, together with Birrell, Budd and Wrasse Records co-owner Ian Ashbridge, and aimed to spark dialogue between Western musicians and their counterparts in Mali. It was Albarn’s passionate riposte to the marginalisation of African artists, such as Baaba Maal, in the build up to Bob Geldof’s Live 8 in 2006. As well as Glastonbury, Paris and La Coruna, Spain, AE has rolled into Ethiopia, Nigeria and DR Congo. Back in Glasgow, Albarn – the troupe’s de facto conductor – steps off the train, sporting a blue British Rail t-shirt and looking a little jaded. Rumour has it that the party lost Barât and Gorillaz keyboardist Jesse Hackett