If on one hand I found some quietness and reflective time at the beautiful gardens of Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga as I walked out of the temporary exhibitions, it was in the streets of Lisbon that I came across the bustling of the musical manifestations held during the Lisboa Mistura (Lisbon Mixture) comprising different sounds from various countries.
I came across a group of young talented African dancers and quite an astonishing pupeteer along Rua Augusta but the moment I reached Largo do Intendente where a huge stage had been placed it was totally different, the rehearsing sounds of Alsarah and the Nubatones I had never heard of had me mesmerised. I was too tired to be back in the evening so as to listen to their live concert but was happy enough to have had the pleasure of listening to interspersed musical extracts for something like half an hour.
I would also miss Vieux Farka Touré's concert though I had expected not to miss Hugh Masekela's. For some fortunate the following day I went back Intendente as Hugh Masekela was doing a sound test and subsequent to that a small rehearsal. The fact that there were quite a few people around the stage watching his impressive humourous vitality as he danced to the sound of his rough voice and the pungent sound of the clarinet he kept on singing for what sounded like endless hours (it didn't last more than some fifty consecutive minutes).
I was completely fascinated by Masekela and the rehearsal was enough to have me decide upon going back home with the memories of those special minutes rather than having to wait for another two hours for the live concert, in which I would certainly be squeezed among hundreds of people and unable to hear my voice as I sang along with him "African woman".
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