Youssou N'Dour and the Super Etoile de Dakar at the Town Hall

By GRAHAM REID

If you ever wondered why Youssou N'Dour's music moves people you just need to do the maths: for the first few songs on Friday night he had twice as many percussionists (four) as he had guitarists.

And even when the bassist and keyboard player came on, this was rhythm-driven music which had people dancing in the aisles after three songs.

With encouragement from one of those percussionists, the rest of the disappointingly less-than-capacity audience was on its feet for the fourth song, Baykat, and then swaying for the rest of the night.

Despite the absence of horn players familiar from his albums this was a night which rocked and danced, and the music - multi-layered percussion with rippling, repeated guitar figures over the top - touched all parts of N'Dour's career.

This included his famous 80s hit Imigres, the crossover 90s songs Seven Seconds and Shakin the Tree, Set, Djebane, and his aching ballad New Africa (hopeful, but also a catalogue of heroes and martyrs) delivered in that powerful tenor probably heard in Hamilton.

N'Dour's voice is an extraordinary instrument.

It twists musical phrases, milking them for nuance, soars with unwavering strength, and drops back for intimacy.

It's fair to say few understood any of his non-English lyrics but the emotions did the talking, as did his percussionists, who kept the rhythm and humour running hot.

With a female backing singer (who stepped out for the Seven Seconds duet) and a dancer whose shimmying hips seemed detached, attention wasn't always on N'Dour, who mugged and clowned, and danced or remained dignified as the song demanded.

And on this night of multi-culti enjoyment it would be remiss not to note the musically mature opening set by Moana and the Tribe.

With self-effacing humour (and comments which received huge applause when she asked people merely to acquaint themselves with the facts before advancing an opinion in our present race debate) Moana led her group through an intelligent, entertaining and thought-provoking amalgam of haka and waiata. And with a serving of pop-soul.

Her shoulda-been-hits Ancestors and Warriors were high points of a set that was persuasive on every level, and set the tone for a concert when an open-minded audience was prepared to think, then dance in the aisles.