| Product Summary | | Label: Cbs/epic/wtg Records | | UPC: 00696998579927 | | Release Date: 3/19/2002 | | Buy.com Sku: 60542437 | | Item#: MQRHTW | Format:  CD |
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(C) (P) 2002 Sony Music Entertainment Inc. WARNING: All Rights Reserved. Unauthorized duplication is a violation of applicable laws.
| Angelique Kidjo is not only one of the spunkiest, most electrifying performers in the pop world today, but she's also one of its most forward and creative thinkers, an artist whose mission has been to explore the relationships of diverse musical cultures. While she has steeped her music in the tribal and pop rhythms of her West African heritage, the Benin-born, Paris/Brooklyn-based Kidjo has crossed musical boundaries by blending a variety of styles, including funk, salsa, jazz, rumba, soul and makossa. On Black Ivory Soul, her ebullient Columbia Records studio debut and seventh album since launching her solo career in 1989, Kidjo explores the musical kinship between Africa and Brazil, specifically her Benin homeland and the city of Bahia. The CD features a festive percussive mix of African and Brazilian rhythms played by an array of top-notch African and Brazilian musicians. Dave Matthews also makes a guest vocal appearance on one tune. Except for vocal overdubs, it's the first time Kidjo has recorded live in the studio. Black Ivory Soul is highlighted by Kidjo's songwriting collaborations with Brazilian musicians Carlinhos Brown and Vinicius Cantuaria, among others. She also covers a buoyant Gilberto Gil number as well as a gorgeous ballad written by renowned French songwriter Serge Gainsbourg. As for the concept behind Black Ivory Soul, Kidjo says, "I believe music is the only way to heal pain and bring people together. It's a language beyond color of skin, country or culture. I want to inspire people to think about poverty, freedom and family on a deeper level.
"Her varied cultural influences come together in a beautiful ethnic tapestry..." Dan Aquilante, New York Post
| | Album Notes and Credits |
Notes & Personnel Info |  | Personnel includes: Angelique Kidjo, Dave Matthews (vocals); Romero Lumbado (acoustic guitar); Joao Mota (guitar); Dominic Kanza (nylon string guitar); Ahmir "?uestlove" Thompson (drums); Brenda White-King, Cindy Mizelle, Dennis Collins, Curtis King (background vocals). | | Recorded at Sear Sound, New York, New York. | | BLACK IVORY SOUL was nominated for the 2003 Grammy Awards for Best World Music Album. | | Personnel: Ang?lique Kidjo (vocals, background vocals); Dave Matthews (vocals); Vinicius Cantuaria (acoustic guitar); Joao (Tombo) Mota, Dominic Kanza (electric guitar); Romero Lubambo (nylon-string guitar); Mamadou Diabate (kora); Juliann Klopotic (violin); Bernie Worrell (Fender Rhodes piano, organ); Ira Coleman (acoustic bass); Michel Alibo (electric bass); Ahmir Khalib Thompson (drums); Cindy Mizelle, Brenda White-King, Curtis King, Dennis Collins (background vocals). | | Recording information: Cantate Da Cidade, Salvador De Bahia, Brazil; Obatala Studio, Brooklyn, NY; Sear Sound Studios, New York, NY; The Magic Shop, New York, NY. | | Photographer: John Sann. | | Arrangers: Jean H?brail; Ang?lique Kidjo. | | Angelique Kidjo's records have brought her plenty of acclaim, but they've tended to be very mixed -- some tracks exceptional, others remarkably ordinary. Black Ivory Soul, her exploration of the connection between her native Benin and the Bahian region in the north east of Brazil, might just be her most consistent and satisfying effort to date. She's toned down the R&B influence that peppered 1998's Oremi -- indeed, only the title cut is R&B, and that has a sweet Brazilian inflection -- and focuses instead on the job at hand. Working with talents like Carlinhos Brown and Vinicius Cantaria has obviously helped; "Tumba," for example, fairly crackles with crisp ax? rhythms that drive the song along, while"Ominira" and "Afrika" makes the distance between the two continents seem very small indeed. Kidjo gets rootsier here than she has in a long time, as on her version of Gilberto Gil's "Refavela," which offers an unvarnished look -- lyrically and musically -- at the ghetto, or the more introspective "Okanbale," where the rippling kora lines falling like water through the song. Kidjo uses her trademark lush harmonies throughout the album, and she's in great voice, even content to play second fiddle to Dave Matthews on "Iwoya," where the status of the guest star (and the English language vocal) seem like a calculated move to push one of the disc's weakest tracks straight to AAA airplay. But, happily, that's the exception, not the rule; on the whole this record's heart is in art, not commerce, even tossing in a spare, loving cover of Serge Gainsbourg's "Ces Petits Riens" to close things out, although it's quite out of place on the record. This time around, Kidjo seems to have followed her muse, not the money, and the results are, virtually, everything she's always promised to do, but never quite achieved before. ~ Chris Nickson | | For the Bill Laswell-produced BLACK IVORY SOUL, Angelique Kidjo's first album since 1998's OREMI, the world music diva explores the link between the Brazilian city of Bahia and her home country of Benin. Befitting her multi-cultural background, Kidjo worked with an impressive range of talent including Brazilians Carlinhos Brown and Vinicius Cantaria, Roots drummer Ahmir "?uestlove" Thompson and soul singer Cindy Mizelle. The result is an album's worth of music that's very much percussion-driven and peppered with plenty of irresistible grooves ranging from the life affirming "Tumba," (which is the name for congas in Benin), to the airy, acoustic guitar-dappled "Ominira" (Yoruba for freedom). | | Among the few English-language songs are the funky title track with its Fela-lite backbeat and the infectious "Iwoya," seemingly a stab at college radio airplay by way of guest Dave Matthews's vocal contribution. Kidjo also continues her penchant for unusual covers--this time out, Serge Gainsbourg's "Ces Petits Riens" is given a delicate rendering and Gilberto Gil's "Refavela" benefits from a sassy, percussion-soaked interpretation sung in the African dialect of Fon. BLACK IVORY SOUL is a glimpse at what the future of global pop looks like entering the 21st Century. |
Producer: Bill Laswell |
Engineer: Clark Germain; Dave Darlington; Jean Hebrail; Robert Musso; Cyrille Taillandier |
Musical Guests | | Dave Matthews |
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| | Associated Artists and Works |
| | Technical Info | | Release Date : 03/19/2002 | | Original Release Date : 2002 | | Catalog ID : 85799 | | Label : Columbia (USA) | | Number of Discs : 1 | | Studio/Live : Studio | | Mono/Stereo : Stereo | | SPAR Code : n/a | | UPC : 00696998579927 |
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| | Professional Reviews | | Mojo (Publisher)
(5/02, p.106)
- "...Her best album in a while...an attempt to fuse Benin with Brazil..."The New York Times 9 of 10
The music never left Africa behind. It was always in Ms. Kidjo's earthy voice, as it rebounded percussively off the band's rhythms, soared in incantations or suddenly flickered and leaped with the edge of traditional singing. It was in the lyrics, usually sung in African languages...carrying proverbs and messages about freedom, love and unity. - Jon Pareles
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