|
|
 |
A Worldly Concert Series
|
| Click Here to go back. |
The Bulletin, A Worldly Concert Series >>
The Kimmel Center ripped out seats in the Perelman Theater to make way for its Global Grooves series, which kicked off last night. There was plenty of room for dancers who grooved to Algerian Rai-rock singer Rachid Taha, an Algerian-French fusionist and music globalizer.
The line-up of other bands this year include simmering Latin alternative-folkloric band Pistolera on July 17 and Balkan gypsy brass Latin-jazz mix of Boban i Marko Markovic Orkestar on July 24. Funk musicians from around the globe convene for Still Black, Still Proud: An African Tribute to James Brown on August 21.
Mr. Taha, who was born in Algeria and now lives in France, has also won artistic and cultural awards for promoting a message of peace and tolerance through his work. His music is banned in Arab countries, even though he is a master of traditional Moroccan and Arabic music.
Earlier this week, headlining at SummerStage in Central Park, The New York Times noted that Mr. Taha's music "has become a become a voice for Arab-speaking immigrants." Mr. Taha spoke by phone from Paris last week about his American tour.
We, in fact, had a hard time understanding each other and a translator over the phone in a three-way conference call, but we had several laughs regardless.
"Sorry for your French ... actually, I mean to say, I'm sorry for my English," he said.
Indeed, he was right the first time. I was very sorry for my inadequacy speaking French, which, as I told him, extends only to ballet terms.
Mr. Taha sounds put-upon when asked basic questions about so-called "world music," since he started his career as a composer-lyricist in the '80s. It is hard not to detect a hint of sarcasm when he describes his music: "My music is Couscous music, like Algerian food."
The singer hasn't been in the U.S. since 2001, and remarkably, he played seven cities that year after September 11. This will be his third U.S. tour, and in addition to Philadelphia, he will play New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, along with Ottawa and Halifax in Canada.
Mr. Taha tours extensively and says he promotes democracy in Arab countries, but that he has never played in one. Yet, one of the highlights of his show is "Ya Rayah" ("Party"), an Algerian song about emigration and being homesick.
Mr. Taha, who started recording in the '80s, goes for the musical punch - if not the sound - of British punk bands. One of his band's biggest hits has been "Rock El Casbah," a cover of The Clash's '80s hit "Rock The Casbah," which Mr. Taha keeps as a rock anthem, but infuses with Moroccan polyrhythms. Other hits include his song "Barra Barra," taken from his CD Made in Medina, which was featured in the 2001 film "Black Hawk Down."
Mr. Taha admires the music of Led Zeppelin - especially Robert Plant - and has a muscled rock baritone of his own. Mr. Taha's sound is tagged as "Rai," the commercialized hybrid of Arabic and western sounds, but aficionados site him as being more of an auteur who uses traditional music as just another element in the overall effect.
The singer is touring to promote his greatest-hits album in the United States, Rachid Taha: The Definitive Collection.
-by Lewis Whittington 07/11/08 >> go there
|
| Click Here to go back. |
|
 |
|
|
|
