Preview
ANGELIQUE KIDJO
Friday, April 23
Jack Singer Concert Hall
(Epcor Centre)
A friend recently asked me, "What is world music?" After reflection, I replied "Angelique Kidjo is world music."
From Benin, west Africa (formerly Dahomey), Kidjo’s songs in her native tongues of Yoruba and Fon as well as in French and English, are a perfect example. Her music fuses the rhythms, instruments and procedures of African music with aspects of R and B and contemporary pop music.
Her upcoming appearance in Calgary coincides with the launch of her new release Oyaya! (Yoruba for joy), the third part of a trilogy that previously explored African roots in music from the United States (Oremi) and Brazil (Black Ivory Soul). The album joins African and French lyrics to music that draws upon musical traditions of the Caribbean Diaspora.
"(The trilogy) is about the strength that music can give us, what we can achieve with it," Kidjo explains. "That’s the great lesson and great legacy that slavery left for us. Because, for the beautiful music that we are listening to today and that we are playing today to exist, it had to come from such a horrible situation – to take from those human beings that used the music that they brought with them from their motherlands to heal, to keep hope, to praise life simply. It is something we have to look into and use on a daily basis, all of us. It is amazing that such beautiful music would grow up – R and B, pop music, salsa, calypso, merengue, ska and samba – from slavery as a legacy to us."
Kidjo travelled to Cuba in late 2002 to meet with some of the older Cuban musicians in preparation for her latest project. (It is coincidental, by the way, that the person who co-ordinated her contact with Cuban musicians there was another performer in the BD&P World Music series of the Epcor Centre, Juan De Marcos of the Afro-Cuban All Stars who played in this series last season.) According to Kidjo, the experiences there gave her strength and inspiration.
"You realize that music is really the thread of the memory of humankind. You saw old people that, once they picked up their instruments and started singing, were transformed into something else," says Kidjo. "You have the example of the Buena Vista Social Club, but actually going to Cuba you understand why the Buena Vista Social Club worked – it’s not something fake. It’s their life."
Ultimately, the music gives Kidjo the opportunity to share herself with audiences and give them something to live for. "I want them to be happy," says Kidjo. "I want them to dance. I want them to be strong, because we are going to be going through a lot of turmoil, but what can get us through is music. They have to hold on to music and be strong and not be afraid of living. There is no need to be afraid of nobody and nothing." |
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