Antibalas & Zap Mama at the Byham Theater 2/4

Friday, January 16th, 2015 // Blogs,General

ANTIBALAS & ZAP MAMA

PERFORMING FIRST-EVER UNIFIED NATIONAL TOUR

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 4 | BYHAM THEATER | CULTURAL DISTRICT

Pittsburgh, PA— The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust presents two world music trailblazers in concert on Wednesday, February 4, 2015 at 7:30pm at the Byham Theater, located at 101 Sixth Street, downtown Pittsburgh.

The concert will bring together the premier afrobeat band, Antibalas, in a collaborative tour with Zap Mama, Marie Daulne’s international polyphonic vocal group, that returns for their first US tour since 2009.

Antibalas, founded in 1998, evolved out of the same Brooklyn-based musical nucleus as Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, and emerged onto the world music scene around 2000. After years of heavy international touring the band rose to greater prominence in 2007 for its role in the musical direction of the Broadway musical FELA!

About the Artists

Antibalas (Spanish for “bulletproof”), is a Brooklyn, NY based big band inspired by the golden age of West African and Afro-Caribbean musical styles of the 1970s as well as the jazz and improvised music traditions of their native New York. Members of Antibalas are sought-after session and touring musicians, regularly recording and performing with a spectrum of artists including the Roots, TV on the Radio, Jovanotti, Arcade Fire, Allen Tousaint, David Byrne and St. Vincent, Angelique Kidjo, and Betty Lavette.

Zap Mama, is an all-female troupe of afropop vocalists based in Europe who first created a sensation in the US world music scene in 1991 with their critically-acclaimed self-titled release on David Byrne’s Luaka Bop label. Marie Daulne, known worldwide as the creative force behind Zap Mama, redefines the word “vocalist” by creatively expressing sound and storytelling through tone and pure voice. Melding afropop and with American and European urban music using ethnic polyphonic vocal structures, Zap Mama is a world-music revue that can transport the listener around the globe in the course of a song.

Tickets and info: http://trustarts.culturaldistrict.org/production/43189/zap-mama-and-antibalas