Live at the Philarmonie Luxembourg – December 5 and 9, 2023
“I’ve lived my life at the borders. Between cultures. Between disciplines. Between musics. Between generations.” (Yo-Yo Ma – April 2019).
Angélique Kidjo & Yo-Yo Ma – “Sarabande Africaine” – December 5, 2023
There is always a magic surrounding Angélique Kidjo. I do not want to repeat myself talking about this amazing artist, her career, her musical achievements, and her dedication to philanthropic projects. Angélique always goes beyond the boundaries of cultures and music worlds, and this has allowed her to become the artist she is today.
She has performed at the Philarmonie here in Luxembourg several times, and every time she comes back with something new. This performance was no exception.
Less than one year ago, precisely in March 2023, she came here to perform “Le Mots d’Amour”, a concert celebrating the love that Josephine Baker, Édith Piaf and Claude Nougaro sang about. In that occasion, she was accompanied by the pianist Alexandre Tharaud,
This time, she came back with one of the most acclaimed and renowned musicians in the world, the great cello player Yo-Yo Ma.
Two different music worlds. Yo-Yo Ma is a classical trained musician who is not new in exploring other music genres. In 2011, he published the album “The Goat Rodeo Sessions” together with Chris Thile, Edgar Meyer, Stuart Duncan feat. Aoife O’ Donovan which won the Grammy for Best Folk Album and the Grammy for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical. In 2017, he decided to revisit the classical repertoire in a more contemporary way, through the album “Bach Trio” with Edgar Meyer and Chris Thile, an unlikely combination of mandolin, cello and double bass.
Angélique Kidjo is the quintessential “world music” artist. She has crossed so many genres and collaborated with so many artists during her career that sometimes it is difficult to keep up with her. Last November, she has also performed her 40th anniversary concert at the Royal Albert Hall in London. In this very special occasion, the artist was accompanied by her band, the Chineke! Orchestra and some special guests including Laura Mvula, Stonebwoy, Youssou N’Dour and Ibrahim Maalouf.
Together, Angélique and Yo-Yo Ma have developed a program which takes the baroque dance of the «saraband» as its point of departure, using it as a vehicle to travel through time and space. The Iberian and Arabic roots of the saraband will play a role here, as will the fact that the animist religions of the Congo revere a spirit by the name of «Zarabanda».
They are also both activists and philantropists. Angélique is UNICEF and OXFAM Goodwill Ambassador. Yo-Yo Ma, United Nations Messenger of Peace since 2006, has been expanding his efforts to expose young audiences to music and promote the work of the United Nations among young people. In 2019, he took his Bach project to the sister cities of Laredo, Texas, and Nuevo Laredo, Mexico playing the opening notes of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Suite No.1 for Unaccompanied Cello in a park next to the Juarez-Lincoln International Bridge, one of the crossings that connect the U.S. and Mexican cities.
Ibrahim Maalouf – “Les Trompettes de Michel-Ange” – December 9, 2023
Four days after Angélique Kidjo and Yo-Yo Ma, another amazing musician takes the stage at the Philarmonie.
Born in Beirut in 1980, Ibrahim Maalouf is today the most popular instrumentalist on the French music scene. His work in blending genres has been recognized throughout the world for more than 15 years.
During a concert at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 2017, he was spotted by legendary producer Quincy Jones. Following this meeting, Ibrahim became one of the artists that the American producer regularly promotes via the Los Angeles-based Quincy Jones Productions.
In November 2020, on his 40th birthday, he released “40 MELODIES”, a unique album featuring many exceptional guests such as Sting, Kronos Quartet, Marcus Miller, Jon Batiste, Alfredo Rodriguez, Richard Bona, Matthieu Chedid, Trilok Gurtu, Hüsnü Senlendirici, Arturo Sandoval, and many others.
In his career, he has composed music for films and for the documentary film “9 days in Raqqa”, directed by Xavier de Lauzanne, which was selected at Cannes Film Festival in 2020.
He has been collaborating in all fields of music, namely pop, jazz and so-called “world music”. Exceptional artists such as Sting, Salif Keita, Amadou & Mariam, Tryo, Matthieu Chedid or Angélique Kidjo call on him to enhance their works. Last November he was also among the special guests to perform at the Royal Albert Hall during Angélique Kidjo’s 40th anniversary concert.
In July 2019, I had the immense pleasure of seeing and listening to Ibrahim Maalouf for the first time at Montreux Jazz Festival. He was one of the special guests at the concert/event celebrating Quincy Jones and the conclusion of the 53rd edition of the festival.
In recent months, the Philharmonie has given me the opportunity to attend concerts by some of the world’s greatest trumpet players: Terence Blanchard (whom I was also able to interview), Wynton Marsalis, and now Ibrahim Maalouf. Each of them, like every musician after all, has a special relationship with his own instrument. In this specific case, the trumpet is certainly a “working instrument”, but it becomes also a tool they live in symbiosis with. This is the reason why some musicians decide to give names to their instruments (B.B. King’s guitar name was Lucille, Lizzo’s flute is Sasha).
Ibrahim Maalouf did more than that. Together with with Adrien Jaminet, expert French trumpet craftsman/designer, he created T.O.M.A (Trompettes de Michel-Ange), a new brand of trumpets. The result is a type of trumpet which is easily adaptable to all music genres: classic, contemporary, jazz, salsa and many more.
T.O.M.A. is also the name of a new, work-in-progress project that Maalouf presented at the Philarmonie for the first time. In this new adventure, he is accompanied by nine musicians, five of whom are young trumpet players he discovered. T.O.M.A. is a music project which transcends all music genres, and the trumpet is the “instrument” to embark in this journey. All the 5 trumpet players use a T.O.M.A. trumpet, like Ibrahim Maalouf himself.
It is unbelievable how the paths of these three artists have crossed, even when not sharing the same stage at the same time. And their paths will cross again at this year’s World Economic Forum where they will be among the artists and cultural leaders to join Joseph Fowler, Head of Arts & Culture at the WEF. “By using the unique voices and creativity of these artists and Cultural Leaders I aspire to raise consciousness, contribute towards designing a more inclusive and sustainable world, and impact the way we think and act promoting cross cultural understanding and global citizenship”. (J. Fowler)
But music has no boundaries, and it creates connections, it reinvents, rebuilds, deconstructs, and, as an ultimate object, music unites. As Yo-Yo Ma said after his Bach Project played next to the Juarez-Lincoln International Bridge: “as you all know, as you did and do and will do, in culture, we build bridges, not walls”.
Angélique Kidjo & Yo-Yo Ma
«Sarabande Africaine»
Angélique Kidjo vocals
Yo-Yo Ma cello
David Donatien percussion
Thierry Vaton piano
Setlist:
Georg Friedrich Händel: Saraband (Suite für Cembalo HWV 437) (arr. Mike Block)
Bella Bellow: « Blewu»
Angélique Kidjo: «Kelele» (arr. Mike Block)
Angélique Kidjo: «Agolo» (arr. Mike Block)
Philip Glass: Ifè. Three Yorùbá Songs: II. Yemandja (arr. Michael Riesman)
George Gershwin: «Summertime» (Porgy and Bess) (arr. Angélique Kidjo, Jean Hebrail, Mike Block)
Traditional: «Nobody knows» (arr. Harry T. Burleigh)
Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson: Lamentations (Black/Folk Song Suite)
Antonín Dvořák: Goin’ Home (d’après la Symphonie «Du Nouveau Monde»)
Johann Sebastian Bach: Sarabande (Cellosuite N° 3 BWV 1009)
Malavoi: «Ti Citron»
Bella Bellow: «Zelie»
Charles Baudelaire: «L’Horloge»
Maurice Ravel: Lonlon (d’après le Boléro)
Ángel Cabral: «La Foule» (arr. Angélique Kidjo, Jean Hebrail, Mike Block)
Johann Sebastian Bach: «Aisha» (d’après le Largo du Concerto pour clavier BWV 1056) (arr. Mike Block)
Angélique Kidjo, Jean Hebrail: «Afrika» (arr. Mike Block)
Dorothy Masuka: « Pata Pata» (arr. Mike Block)
Ibrahim Maalouf
«Les Trompettes de Michel-Ange»
Ibrahim Maalouf trumpet
François Delporte guitar
Mihai Pîrvan saxophone
Yvan Djaouti, Manel Girard, Yacha Berdah, Nizar Ali trumpet
Mohamed Derouich guitar, bass
Julien Tekeyan drums
