[Text by Pamela Goddard] If you have a romantic imagination, especially on a day in early spring, the shape of Africa might appear as one wing of a butterfly. Afro-pop musician Angelique Kidjo has given African music just that kind of joyous flight. Kidjo brings this music of freedom to the State Theatre on Thursday, April 3. Local favorite Samite opens the show.
Angelique Kidjo comes to the State Theatre as a part of its World Music series. Dan Smalls, the State Theatre’s Executive Director, believes that diverse musical programming is essential to Ithaca. “Music is truly a global phenomenon and anything I can do to help bridge those distances is not only rewarding, but essential,” Smalls says. “The crowd at Ladysmith Black Mambazo was an incredible cross-section.”
Singing in French, English, and her native languages of Benin, Nigeria, and Togo, Kidjo embodies this multiculturalism. Angelique Kidjo also creates music that will move your body and mind. The symbol of the butterfly, carrying Africa in its wings, pervades her most recent music.
Kidjo is drawn to many kinds of music, but says that the first thing that touches her is the emotion in the voice, quickly followed by a sense of groove. “All the traditional melodies from Benin are very rhythmic,” Kidjo says. “The importance of the groove and the phrasing coming from Africa has influenced a lot of the music of the Americas, so it’s easy for me to be able to sing any kind of music.”
Angelique Kidjo grew up in Benin during the 1960s. She began performing with her mother’s theater troupe at age six. These performances mixed acting, dancing and singing, and spoke to the important traditional legends of this tiny West African country. “In Africa the music can’t be separated from the dancing, the costumes and the religious meaning,” Kidjo explains. “It’s like an opera or a movie. This is what my mother had tried to recreate in her troupe.”
Kidjo’s newest recording, Djin Djin, was recently awarded a Grammy for best contemporary world music album. Among others, Peter Gabriel, Carlos Santana, Branford Marsalis support Kidjo in music that ranges from Gimme Shelter to a vocal adaptation of Ravel’s Bolero. The rhythmic music of West Africa and Kidjo’s own original compositions are the threads that connect it all together.
“The traditional singers from my country had the biggest influence on my style today,” Kidjo says. “This time, I wanted to base my songs on the rhythms of Benin. They are really complex, so I brought percussion players from Cotonou to New York. All the other musicians in the studio had to adjust their grooves. It was important to me that all of these great musicians come with me back to my roots. I’ve learned that in order to give through music, you have to position yourself with other individuals from different cultures and find ways to discover that we’re actually not different at all.”
After four decades of performing around the world, Angelique Kidjo sees Africa reflected in her art. Music and social purpose just can’t be separated for Kidjo. As a spokesperson for both OXFAM and UNICEF, the singer has devoted much of her adult life to global charity work. “In Africa, music is the main element that links the community. It has a purpose,” Kidjo says.
She dedicated her Grammy award to her parents in Benin, to the African continent, and to “The women of Darfur, the women who are fighting every day to give their kids an education.”
Kidjo recently created her own charity, the Batonga Foundation, to extend that purpose to West African girls. Batonga’s main goal is to create a culture that values and supports the secondary education of girls in Africa. Batonga is a word Kidjo made-up as a school girl, signifying “the yearning in the hearts and minds of all African girls who dream of a better future.”
“The response, so far, has been really good,” says Kidjo. “But it is a lot of work and needs a lot of patience… not like the music business where everything can happen in a minute! If you’re trying to empower girls, it requires a lot of caution and supervision. I was blessed with a good education that allowed me to speak up and represent my continent. A lot of girls in Africa don’t have the same opportunities. If we help them, and they have access to higher education, I feel Africa will change a lot.”
Angelique Kidjo appears at the State Theatre on Thursday, April 3. For information, 607-27-STATE.