{"id":19559,"date":"2019-04-11T09:00:12","date_gmt":"2019-04-11T09:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/2019\/04\/11\/first-listen-angelique-kidjo-celia\/"},"modified":"2019-04-11T09:00:12","modified_gmt":"2019-04-11T09:00:12","slug":"first-listen-angelique-kidjo-celia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/first-listen-angelique-kidjo-celia\/","title":{"rendered":"First Listen: Ang\u00e9lique Kidjo, ‘Celia’"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Felix Contreras<\/a><\/span> <\/p>\n

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\n Angelique Kidjo’s Celia<\/em> is out April 19 on Decca Records.<\/p>\n

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Laurent Seroussi\/Courtesy of the artist<\/p>\n

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Laurent Seroussi\/Courtesy of the artist<\/p>\n

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Ang\u00e9lique Kidjo<\/a> now has a pair of albums that are essentially covers of other artists, but interpreted with an African sensibility so majestic as to render the originals almost as source material.<\/p>\n

On 2018’s Remain In Light,<\/em> Kidjo made the implicit African influences of Talking Heads’ original vision explicit<\/a>. Kidjo didn’t channel New Wave, or even rock and roll, as a starting point; instead, she used West African polyrhythms to reinterpret the band’s take on then-modern life in America. It was one of my favorite albums of last year.<\/p>\n

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Courtesy of the artist<\/p>\n

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Celia comes out April 19 via Decca Records<\/a>. <\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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Somehow Kidjo had the time to record a second tribute album, this time dedicated to an individual artist.<\/p>\n

Celia<\/em> refers to Celia Cruz<\/a>, perhaps the most well-known vocalist to come from Cuba during any era. The ten tracks span several decades of Cruz’s career, from before she left Cuba in 1960 to her groundbreaking recordings for the celebrated Fania Records label in New York in the 1970s, to “La Vida Es Un Carnaval,” the 1998 song that became her late career hit and anthem. Kidjo’s reinterpretations rearrange the molecules of songs that many of us know by heart. The results are glorious.<\/p>\n

The tongue twister “Cucala” becomes a rhythmic pattern for both guitar and hand drums as Kidjo sings the Spanish-language lyric that is an ode to joy of dancing. It’s a brilliant take on a song that I honestly thought couldn’t get any better.<\/p>\n