Review: Angelique Kidjo Concert at Denver Botanic Gardens

Angelique Kidjo

Femi Kuti

August 9, 2018

Botanic Gardens, Denver

I remember exactly where I was when I first heard “Crosseyed and Painless” in 1980. I was driving down Shields Street in Fort Collins, just north of Prospect Street when it came on the radio. I had heard the first three Talking Heads albums and thought the band was OK, nothing special, just typical Punk Rock of the day; although “Life During Wartime” and “I Zimbra” from their third album, Fear of Music (Sire, 1979) were pretty good tracks. “Crosseyed and Painless” hit me upside the head, punched me in the gut and took a Kamikaze dive straight into my soul.  The song wasn’t on the air for more than a couple minutes when I vowed, “I gotta get that album!” And I did. And I’ve been listening to it ever since. The album in question: Remain in Light (Sire, 1980) by the Talking Heads.

Jump ahead a couple of decades; I don’t remember where I was when I first heard it, but Cassandra Wilson’s version of “Miles Runs the Voodoo Down” (from Traveling Miles (Blue Note, 1999)) with Angelique Kidjo also on vocals came pretty close to provoking that same reaction I had to “Crosseyed and Painless.” Realizing Kidjo was obviously someone I should check our further, I eventually came across her version of Hendrix’ “Voodoo Chile” from Oremi (Island, 1998). This one did cause a full-blown “Crosseyed and Painless” reaction.

Imagine, then, my delight when word came down from on high that Kidjo was working on a song-by-song cover of the Heads’ entire Remain in Light album. And then, to crank the excitement up another notch or two, I then learned her tour in support of the album was coming through Denver’s Botanic Gardens, a delightful outdoor venue with great sound, great sightlines (if you or someone you know gets there early enough) and great ambiance.

Kidjo is from Benin and over the years, she has consistently incorporated significant African rhythms into her music. Remain in Light was an album that also drew heavily on those African rhythms, in particular, the sounds of Fela Kuti (father of Femi Kuti). So Kidjo covering Remain in Light is a match made in Groove Heaven (proving, incidentally, that Groove Heaven does, indeed, exist).

Thursday night Kidjo brought a five-piece international backing band: guitar, bass, keyboards, drums, and percussion. The instrumentalists (some of whom added backing vocals) were arranged around the perimeter of the stage leaving a spacious open area in the middle for prowling, prancing, and dancing by Kidjo as she brought Mama Africa and the Heads to life simultaneously.

She began her set with “Born Under Punches,” not a hit for the Heads, but one that displays the urgent, complex poly-rhythms of her home continent. The very next song was the one that started it all for me; “Crosseyed and Painless.” “Lost my shape/Trying to act casual…” The gut punch rhythms were right out of the original album except, if anything, more intense.

Next, she took a break from the music to discuss an important issue for her: forced marriage of young girls. Last year, she wrote and recorded a protest song on the issue, “Say No to Child Marriage.” Kidjo, a UNICEF goodwill ambassador put together this song with a number of other African musicians to help fight the still common practice of parents marrying off their daughters when they are as young as 12.  Her return to the music found her deviating for a moment from Remain in Light when she performed one of her own songs, “Cauri.” The pattern continued throughout the evening with songs from Remain in Light interspersed with original Kidjo songs and further social activism and attempts at increasing awareness of the typically narrow frame of reference of your typical American. A case in point was “Afirika” celebrating the beauty of Africa. 

But back to Remain in Light. Many of the covers on her new album have complex, horn-augmented arrangements. With no horn section Thursday night, the available rhythm section had to plow the deep groove on its own. The interplay between drummer and percussionist often bordering on a frenzy was a good start. The bass, guitar, and keyboards egged them on and added their own layer of complexity. The whole thing, executed with the tightness of a vice-grip, impelled the human body to undulating action.

A number of You-Tube videos of recent Kidjo performances from around the country include horn sections and backing vocalists on some of the Remain in Light songs. So the arrangements Thursday night were a bit different with more of a basic sound. “The Great Curve” on Remain in Light has multiple layers of vocals, layering countermelodies on top of melodies and different vocal parts moving in and out and through each other. Thursday night’s version was more modest in scope with Kidjo concentrating on the main melody and an absence of the counterpoint.

Her closer for the evening was “Burning Down the House” which was from Speaking In Tongues (Sire, 1983), the follow-up album to Remain in Light. But who cares? It’s a-burnin’ tune and Kidjo and band covered it with the urgent intensity it deserves. 

At one point toward the end of the program, Kidjo left the stage and waded into the audience while she continued to sing. As she came toward me, I tried to get out of the way to let her through, but she stopped right in front of me and sang an entire verse. What could I do except groove and undulate in that spot? After she completed the verse she moved on, but this raises an important question: Does this count as dancing with Angelique Kidjo?!? We assembled a special panel of judges to evaluate the issue and they have rendered their unanimous opinion: Yes! That counts as dancing with Angelique Kidjo! Clearly, I can die a happy man.

 

Femi Kuti

Before the hoopla surrounding Kidjo’s Remain in Light project, I was unfamiliar with either Fela or Femi Kuti and the influence of the elder Kuti’s music on Remain in Light. But it was no doubt that influence coupled with Femi Kuti’s African heritage and similar musical styles that made Kuti a great fit for an opening act.

 

Kuti decided not to follow the Kidjo model and bring the stripped down band on the road. Instead, he brought along no less than 11 backing musician. With him on vocals and alto sax, that made an even dozen players to lay down the Afro-beat.

Along with bass, keyboards, guitar, drums and percussion, the band included a four-piece horn section and three background singers that actually spent more time booty shaking than singing. Complaints, anyone? I didn’t think so.

Kuti spends even more time than Kidjo discussing social justice from many angles. Most of his songs addressed that subject matter too. He discussed his wish for just “One World,” he wanted equality, he wanted to stop the suffering of the people, he’s offended when religion is used for bad purposes, he railed against poverty and climate change, he asserted that evil people cannot know joy.

Kuti was a whirlwind on stage, never standing still, singing to all sides of the audience-surrounded stage.

 

He picked up his alto sax for several extended solos which featured circular breathing. Several times he went for three or four or five minutes playing without taking a breath. All at 5280 feet in elevation. Actually, just a few minutes of circular breathing is apparently far below Kuti’s real capacity. Wikipedia says Kuti holds the world record for a single note sustained by circular breathing: 51 minutes, 35 seconds; probably set at a lower elevation.

 

The music brought forth by the 12 piece band was rich, complex, urgent and ever-changing. With that many players, point and counter-point could be explored in all their varieties and nuances. Polyrhythms emerged, shifted, dissolved, evolved and revolved throughout the 75- minute set. Kuti’s father, Fela, is credited with creating the Afrobeat style of music. It influenced the Talking Heads in the ‘70s and ‘80s and, with Femi, that beat goes on.

 

Kidjo Set List

Born Under Punches

Crosseyed and Painless

Cauri

Listening Wind

The Great Curve

Pata Pata

The Overlord

Houses in Motion

Afirika

Once in a Lifetime

Tumba

Burning Down the House