Bridging borders with India.Arie & Idan Raichel

Thursday July 07, 2011

from Sign on San Diego

Bridging borders with India.Arie & Idan Raichel
West will meet East (and beyond) when they perform at Anthology
By George Varga

India.Arie will have plenty of company when she performs Wednesday at downtown’s all-ages Anthology.

For starters, she’s sharing the stage with fellow singer Idan Raichel, with whom India.Arie began collaborating in 2008. Their joint concert with an 11-piece band is billed as “Open Door.” It’s designed to bridge borders and styles as the show’s two stars deliver a universal, “we are all one” musical message.

That message is reinforced simply by their pairing. India.Arie (real name: India Arie Simpson) is a 35-year-old native of Denver who espouses a spiritual approach to life but no specific religious creed. The dreadlocked Raichel, 33, is an Israeli-born Ethiopian Jew. He has devoted much of his career to collaborating with musicians from other Middle Eastern countries, and from around the world, performing songs written in Hebrew, Arabic, Zulu and Amharic.

Where Raichel is the bigger star abroad, it’s likely most of the audience at Anthology will be drawn by India.Arie. Her stunning 2001 album “Acoustic Soul” sold 5 million copies worldwide and established her as a gifted singer and songwriter. It was followed by 2002’s “Voyage to India,” which sold several million copies and earned her two Grammy victories.

Arie’s most recent album, 2009’s “Testimony Vol. 2: Love & Politics,” is a typically accomplished work, despite lyrics that too often feel like New Age-y platitudes. It features guest spots by, among others, Keb’ Mo, MC Lyte, Turkish vocal star Sezen Asku and Ivory Coast vocalist/percussionist Dobet Gnahore.

India.Arie’s work with Raichel is alternately soulful and overly sleek. Their songs promote positive, feel-good messages that can sound both uplifting and cloying, noble yet heavy-handed. Here’s hoping their concert here is more transcendent than treacly. Given their combined talents, it should be.

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