If you wanted to get a good overview of where American music’s heart and soul originated, the place to be on the rainy last day of February was at the Broad Stage, where Malian singer/songwriter Fatoumata Diawara and her band delivered a 90 minute set that encompassed the roots of jazz, blues and rock, with a mix of social pleas for the troubled nation.
Introducing the concert just accompanied by her guitar, Diawara sang in her local language and opened with a plaintive and earnest tune that spotlighted her warm and throaty voice. For the rest of the evening, the trio of Jean Baptiste/dr, Jal/b and Greg Emonet/g delivered clipped rhythms, lilting guitar riffs and relentless rivulets of grooves while Diawara sang songs of reconciliation between families, hope and prosperity for children, and for freedom for women living under the yolk of oppressive Al Qaida governments. A blues hued “Kele” had the vocalist deliver a staccato styled lyric to add to the rhythm, while she trilled, howled and yelped with the beat of a truck bouncing over a dirt road on “Bissa.” During the chunking guitar riffs of “Sowa” she sang about love for abandoned children while using he consonants as percussive accents. Defiantly optimistic on “Clandestin” as she sings and preaches about the poverty of opportunity in her home land, Diawara sang, chanted, danced and twirled while defiantly expressing optimism of the power of God and His love over government hegemony. By the time the concert ended with calypso-infected songs like the festive “Badondoba,” most of the sophisticated crowd at the theatre were on its feet and either dancing or joining in the singing for liberation of a nation and a peoples. The power of love through music was well testified, and for a first time to Los Angeles, Ms. Diawara made a lasting impression of where the music of our roots can take us in the future.
Upcoming shows at The Broad Stage include Anthony Wilson March 7, Kurt Elling March 19 and Hiromi’s Trio March 22