Cabaret Sauvage’s Black Summer Festival enchants Parisians every summer.  This evening, the auditorium shook to Ethiopian pop rhythms laced with funk.

Mahmoud Ahmed, 74 years old and counting, flooded the room with his almost supernatural energy.  His style? The kind of music that takes over your life and limbs. Wearing his national colors, his eyes squinting from his malicious smile while he worked his shoulders as only he can – many tried unsuccessfully to imitate the movement – but I won’t say who – the patriarch literally transported us into his universe.