SEE Magazine
Issue #393: June 14, 2001
Copyright © 2001. All Rights Reserved

Music SOUNDING OFF by Kirby Come up with a great series of concerts and the world will beat a path to your door. The second annual "World At Winspear" music series was announced last Thursday, and artistic director Josh Keller admitted his surprise that last year went so well. Without sounding overly pessimistic, Keller explained how world music is high risk, with a factor being lack of commercial radio support for the genre. Season opener Angelique Kidjo became a household name when she toured with Lilith Fair. Kidjo first performed as a six-year-old actor/dancer in her mother’s theatre troupe; before her twentieth birthday she was one of Benin’s few professional female vocalists. Difficulties with the political environment in her homeland prompted Kidjo to relocate to Paris, where she thrived in the city’s African music underground. She progressed to be one of the country’s top live acts, and was discovered by Chris Blackwell and signed to Mango. Kidjo’s style of music varies from afro-funk, reggae, samba, salsa, gospel, jazz and rumba. This dynamic, high energy singer appears at the Winspear Centre on Friday, Sept. 28. Zakir Hussain, considered the premier tabla player in the world, returns to Edmonton with violinist/vocalist L. Shankar. At the press conference, CKUA’s Cathy Ennis explained that Shankar created a double violin, and the only two players of it in the world today are himself and his protege Gingger, who will also appear, along with master percussionist T.H. Vinayakram. Hussain, Shankar and Vinayakram have played together for 25 years, starting out with guitarist John McLaughlin’s band Shakti in the mid-70s, and will be touring behind a new album, Eternal Light; the date here is Sunday, Oct. 14. On Sunday, Oct. 28 is onetime South African UN ambassador and singing legend Miriam "Mama Africa" Makeba. Returned to her homeland after 30 years in exile, Makeba has won as many peace and humanitarian awards as music ones. Her new CD, The Legend Lives On, shows the vocal range and power of this singer whose voice has been described as "deep as the Indian Ocean and sparkling as the diamonds of her own country." Dance troupe Noche Flamenca perform on Thursday, Nov. 22. Martin Santangelo, along with his wife Soledad Barrio, have apparently turned this six-member dance ensemble extraordinaire into one of Spain’s most authentic and successful Flamenco companies. Keller claimed folks were kvetching for klezmer, so he hired New York’s Klezmatics for Thursday, Nov. 29. This Jewish folk music group professes to be "part Greenwich Village, part global village" and they update the Jewish klezmer tradition with jazzy overtones. The band’s latest album, The Well, a collaboration with Israeli diva Chava Alberstein, was chosen as one of the 10 best albums of 1999 by media throughout the world. This show must hold a special place in Keller’s heart, because when he announced this one he said wistfully, "We do a Christmas show every year…"; then realized this was only the second year. This Celtic Christmas show on Saturday, Dec. 15, features fiddler Eileen Ivers, a Bronx native who mixes African beats and Irish Celtic sounds in her original material. Ivers got the job as fiddler for the score of the film based on Leon Uris’s best-selling book, Trinity. From there she was chosen to write the music for the stage phenomenon Riverdance. A bonus concert is being presented Feb. 9: jazz singer and Grammy winner Dianne Reeves is fronting the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra in a tribute to a Sarah Vaughan. Buckwheat Zydeco will wrap up the series come springtime. Full ticket subscriptions to the World at Winspear concert series are on sale now; four-show mini-packs and single seats will be on sale July 24 at the Winspear box office at 428—1414 or 1—800—563—5081.

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