High-Energy Zap Mama Offers Multicultural Mix

“To zap,” says Marie Daulne, the originator and lead singer in Zap Mama, “means to switch channels or cultures.”

And the brilliantly innovative international group’s performance at Veterans Wadsworth Theatre Sunday night was a definitive case study in how to switch, blend, mix and match the music of different cultures.

The heart of the concert was the a cappella singing of Daulne and a quartet of African European female vocalists, supplemented--for the current tour as well as on the group’s new album “7”--by an instrumental rhythm section.

It is singing that is utterly unique, a melting pot blend of musical influences ranging from street-corner harmonizing and African chant to reggae, soul and pop (including an intriguing cover version of Phoebe Snow’s “Poetry Man”).

Although the addition of guitar, bass and drums provided useful rhythmic vamps, it was Daulne and her singers who brought the music to life with an amazing array of appended sounds: vocalized clicks, pops, grunts, warbles, animal calls and assorted indefinable noises.

Spinning, dancing, singing, doing an occasional cartwheel, Daulne, a slender Belgian/African performer, joked and bantered with her overflow, enthusiastic audience in a performance that was appropriately rich with African spirit and Western theatricality.

The best, most appealing aspect of Zap Mama’s performance, in fact, was the manner in which it vitalized its music by returning it to its roots without sacrificing its contemporary urban qualities.

The essence of Daulne’s inspiration, and the joy of Zap Mama’s presentation, rested in the enlightened recognition that music does not have to be a separate art, that it can have a powerful impact as a companion to dance, ritual and the dramatic expression of the inner spirit.