Charlotte Gardner hears a mash-up between East and West African, Baroque, jazz and modern music, composed and improvisedat London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall on 14 November 2024

Abel

Abel Selaocoe. Photo: Mlungisi Mlungwana

Sirocco: a hot wind blowing in from North Africa and, more recently, the name of the programme adopted by Manchester Collective for its ‘great storm of music from across the world’. In it, two violinists and a violist unite with cellist–vocalist Abel Selaocoe, electric bass guitar and African drums for ‘a love letter to music and camaraderie’.

Unsurprisingly, it wasn’t your average classical audience that packed into the Queen Elizabeth Hall for the London leg of their European tour. The result was strikingly diverse, joyously vocal and uninhibited, the audience willingly singing along when bidden, creating an exchange between hall and stage that was almost as lively as that between the musicians themselves.

The music itself was presented from the stage rather than via a written programme, and sometimes only retrospectively, which for seasoned classical listeners meant some fun repertoire-guessing – although you had to be sharp when it was such a mash-up between East and West African, Baroque (gorgeously delicately articulated Purcell dances), jazz and modern, composed and improvised. Calabash and djembe player Sidiki Dembele’s rapid virtuosity had the room enthralled.

Selaocoe himself was less star soloist than charismatic scene-setter, helmsman and linchpin, sometimes sitting out entirely, often singing while playing, dropping his voice into a cavernous belly-rumble one moment, then up into a crooning falsetto the next, eyes closed in rapt joy. Whether naturally your musical bag or not, this was infectiously good fun.

CHARLOTTE GARDNER