Angélique Kidjo brings African experiences to her craft

Saturday February 27, 2010

Source: The Los Angeles Times
Writer: Reed Johnson

The term clanked off Angélique Kidjo’s ear when she first heard it. “African American.” How could someone be American and African at the same time, she wondered?

“You think I’m stupid because I’m a little girl?” Kidjo asked the person who’d used the expression. She was 9 years old.

Speaking by phone recently, the Benin-born Afro-pop diva, who will make her Walt Disney Concert Hall debut with her four-piece band on Sunday night, laughed at the memory. In the years that followed, Kidjo would learn from her grandmother about slavery’s legacy and the strange cultural fruit that it yielded. Through her father’s influence, she would cultivate an appreciation for Nat “King” Cole, Aretha Franklin and other iconic African American artists.

Later, when she started performing and recording, Kidjo would re-interpret some of these artists’ songs, and interpolate the rhythms and textures of American jazz, R&B and funk into her own music.

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