Ken Boothe in Paris!

There were Jamaican veterans on stage this weekend. It is Earl 16 who leads the way, carried by the French band No More Babylon. Accompanied by Guillaume Briard's horn section, their very clean sound resonates throughout the Cabaret Sauvage. Earl 16, very much at ease and visibly delighted to be there, is all smiles. He launches into a strictly roots reggae show, far from his techno experiments, which lasts nearly an hour: his hits Freedom, Soldiers of Jah Army, Malcom X or Natural Roots, but also a few covers such as Mikey Dread's Dread At The Control. Sheila Hilton, very energetic, takes over. The audience enjoys it, but waits patiently for Ken Boothe to arrive... It is 10.30 p.m. when Mr Rocksteady takes the stage.

Acclaimed by the crowd, the man with dozens of hits knows how to charm his audience. Crying Over You and then When I Fall In Love show straight away that the crooner of reggae has lost none of his voice, with its restrained power. His rapport with No More Babylon is perfect, and the band from Toulon renders his most famous riddims flawlessly. "Without Love", Artibella, which he finishes dancehall-style, The Girl I Left Behind with its light piano notes, or The Train Is Coming, with Guillaume Briard's big sax solo. The lesser-known and very serious Christopher Columbus, a cappella, reminds us that Ken Boothe did not only sing odes to love. And poses a crucial question: "How could a man discover a land that was already inhabited?"

Soul tradition
Ken Boothe showers France with declarations of love: "Paris is the land of love. You are so lovely. Thank you for accepting us." He declares himself "honoured to be in our beautiful country", and even has the crowd applaud Gustave Eiffel, who "took all that time to build this lovely tower". "France is my kind of town," he sings before coming down to shake hands in the front row. The delighted audience gives him ovations after every song. And Ken Boothe, in return, spares no effort, as in the memorable Moving Away. The crowd erupts at the first lines of Is It Because I'm Black, with its spine-tingling intro. The power of the lyrics is fully felt a cappella. What a pity he does not give us the pleasure of the rest!

The list of his hits goes on. Are You Leading Me On, the (too) short version of Puppet On A String and finally Everything I Own. His biggest hit to date, for which he even allows himself a pull up, closes an hour of show in the great soul tradition. Baron Black of Big Family comes to call for the encore. Set Me Free a cappella precedes a tribute to departed artists: Bob Marley, Jacob Miller, Delroy Wilson, Dennis Brown, Phyllis Dillon, Slim Smith, Garnett Silk. And he sings Redemption Song, Tenament Yard, Dancing Mood a cappella. It is nearly midnight when Ken Boothe launches into the danceable Freedom Street, taken up in chorus by the audience. A chance for him to recall that soul music was born in the cotton fields, in the days of slavery. And to pay tribute, once again, to Marcus Garvey and Martin Luther King, both of whom "died fighting for peace".

He leaves the stage after a faultless performance to which the audience was far from indifferent, making us forget that we had to wait all these years to discover him in concert. And above all, Ken Boothe, joyful and generous, will have proved that the biggest stars can also be those who are closest to their audience.