CELEBRATE BROOKLYN: ANGELIQUE KIDJO PAYS TRIBUTE TO CELIA CRUZ

PROSPECT PARK BANDSHELL
JULY 29, 2016

Angelique Kidjo paid tribute to “La Guarachera del Mundo,” Celia Cruz at the Prospect Park bandshell in Brooklyn, as part of BRIC’s Celebrate Brooklyn series.

Joining her was the dynamic Pedrito Martinez, a master of Afro-Cuban folkloric music and a first-call rumbero who plays, sings, dances, and leads the Pedro Martinez Group.

The show opened with The Yosvany Terry Quintet, whose music “has helped redefine jazz as a complex new idiom” (NY Times), featuring pianist Manuel Valera, trumpeter Michael Rodriguez, bassist Yunior Terry, drummer Obed Calvaire, and vocalist Jadele Mc Pherson.

Unbeknown to many, Terry and Kidjo share a cultural connection. Angelique is a native speaker of Fon, which is spoken in her native Benin. In 2014 Terry released “New Throned King” (5Passion), which features music based on the songs and rhythms of the Arará people of the western Cuban province of Matanzas, who hail from the Dahomey kingdom’s Fon culture in Benin.

The performance reflected the power and the beauty of the Afro-Latin Connection. Angelique, who drew inspiration from Cruz as a child, performed Cruz’s hits, including “Cucala,” Usted Abuso,” and “La Vida Es Un Carnaval,” among others. Also, her interpretations of Celina Gonzalez’s “Santa Barbara” and the Afro-Peruvian tune “Toro Mata” were breathtaking. This, while spinning like a top and joyously declaring Love, unity, and respect for all.

Kidjo’s heartfelt tribute to Celia Cruz was one of the year’s most powerful and uplifting performances. Congratulations to the artists who lent their talents to the event and BRIC, a leading presenter of performances in Brooklyn.

As the audience filed out of the park, the question on everyone’s mind was, “Might Kidjo record a tribute to Celia Cruz?” If a poll were taken, the answer would be a resounding “YES!”

ABOUT ANGELIQUE KIDJO

Angélique Kidjo, (born July 14, 1960, Ouidah, Dahomey [now Benin]) Beninese popular singer, known for her collaborations with internationally prominent popular musicians and for her innovative blending of diverse musical styles.

Kidjo was born into a family of performing artists. Her father was a musician, and her mother worked as a choreographer and theatre director. At age six Kidjo began performing in her mother’s theatre troupe, and, as a teenager, she sang with her brothers in their rock–rhythm-and-blues band. By age 20 she was a professional singer. She recorded her first album, Pretty, in 1988.

In 1983 Kidjo moved to Paris, where she encountered a vibrant musical community and myriad musical styles with which to experiment; in Paris, she also met Jean Hebrail, the French producer, composer, and bassist whom she later married. Her first years in the city were spent studying jazz and performing with various local groups. After teaming with the Dutch pianist Jasper van ’t Hof, she sang with and co-wrote songs for his jazz group, Pili-Pili.

After several years Kidjo left Pili-Pili and recorded Logozo (1991), which featured the American jazz musician Branford Marsalis and the African artists Manu Dibango and Ray Lema. With songs addressing issues of global concern—such as homelessness, the environment, freedom, and integration—Logozo was an international success. Kidjo increased her international appeal through her later releases, including Fifa (1995), in which she and more than 100 other musicians performed songs in English, Fon (her native language), Yoruba, and French.

Like her earlier releases, Kidjo’s subsequent albums were exercises in musical fusion, melding an array of genres, including jazz, hip-hop, zouk, Zairean rumba, samba, salsa, funk, gospel, Cameroonian makossa, and various Beninese traditions. Her sixth solo album, Black Ivory Soul (2002), was a dazzling excursion into Brazilian musical forms that deftly blended a Latin sound sensibility with traces of traditional West African rhythms. Oyaya! (2004) included a collaboration with American musician Dave Matthews, and Djin Djin (2007) featured numerous luminaries from the international popular music scene, including Peter Gabriel, Josh Groban, Carlos Santana, and others. Õÿö (2010) was an album of covers, and Spirit Rising (2012) was a collection of live tracks. Eve (2014), a tribute to African women largely sung in Beninese languages, won a Grammy Award for the best world music album, as did Sings (2015), a collaboration with the Philharmonic Orchestra of Luxembourg.

In addition to her recording career, Kidjo was an outspoken advocate of education and health care for women and children. In 2002 UNICEF (United Nations Children’s Fund) named her one of its goodwill ambassadors. She was elected one of four vice presidents of the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers (Confederation Internationale des Sociétés d’Auteurs et Compositeurs; CISAC) in 2013. Kidjo also released a memoir, Spirit Rising: My Life, My Music (2014).

SOURCE

Siler, Sandra – Encyclopedia Brittanica