Looking Back at a Memorable Year of Divas and Delights

What a year it was! The Southland was a cornucopia of world music in 2000. It actually began, appropriately, in far wider fashion, via the millennium coverage on PBS, with its amazingly colorful sequence of music from every part of the globe. It was an impressive tribute to the great diversity that exists in the 80% or so of the world’s music that is not American or English pop or European dance rhythms.

Fascinating as it was, however, the telecast had its downside. Despite its bright contrasts, there was an undercurrent of pop and electronic sounds in some of the groups. And that’s worrisome, suggesting the potential for an international cultural homogenization that could overshadow the richly textured pleasures of traditional music.

Interestingly, the holiday celebration last month at the Music Center offered an entertaining counter-argument--at least locally. It was fascinating to watch the attractive collection of choirs, dancers and individual performers, from every area of the Southland’s multicultural arena, displaying the unique sounds of their societies.

Once past the televised burst of global millennium energy, the Southland’s world music stages last year were largely claimed by divas--often in extremely convincing fashion.

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None was more remarkable than Googoosh, the legendary icon of Iranian pop music who had been in retirement for decades and returned in triumph via an extraordinary performance at the Great Western Forum in August. Singing for more than three hours, bathing in affection that flowed in waves from a packed house, Googoosh reciprocated with her own gestures of affection, often with tears in her eyes. It was, by any measure, the Southland’s world music highlight of the year.

In September, three stunning Brazilians put in appearances within a few weeks of each other. The most extraordinary was Daniela Mercury, who set a standard at the Hollywood Bowl for what the Summer World Music series at the venue could be. The Bahian was a whirlwind of action, dancing and singing with elegance and style, interacting with her audience and--like Googoosh--giving of herself with great emotional generosity.

Elba Ramalho, at the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre, also offered a Bahian take on Brazilian music, but from the eclectic perspective of a veteran of the country’s complex musical currents of the ‘70s and ‘80s. Marisa Monte’s Royce Hall program was far more international, and much of what she did could easily have passed as American pop had she sung in English rather than Portuguese.

And the divas just kept on coming. In addition to Mercury, the Bowl also featured the iconic South African Miriam Makeba on a bill that also included the dynamic Cuban singer Albita.

The Celtic world was represented by a pair of high-voltage violinists (or, as they would probably prefer, fiddle players). Eileen Ivers, at UCLA in October, moved easily between traditional music and the more pop-styled pieces she performed during her run in the hit “Riverdance.” Natalie MacMaster, more of a traditionalist, was also a powerful visual performer, step-dancing across the stage of the Hollywood Bowl in the August heat, simultaneously whipping off fleet-fingered jigs and reels.

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Marta Sebestyen’s May concert with Muzsikas at Schoenberg Hall was a reminder of the potency of her voice--one of world music’s natural wonders. And the program, which explored Bartok, Hungarian folk music and the connections between them, was a welcome affirmation of the values of folk tradition.

The Bulgarian Women’s Choir Angelite, at El Camino College in October, further affirmed those traditions in a collective sound that offered a kind of mass echo of the essence of Sebestyen’s sound.

Two African singers, Oumou Sangare (at the Conga Room) and Rokia Traore (at LunaPark), offered differing takes on their native Malian music. Portugal’s elegant Misia, performing at Royce Hall in November, displayed fado singing as a living, vibrant form, adding new instruments and new poetry while retaining its passionate cultural essence. And Italian singer-dancer Alessandra Belloni, in a series of seminars and performances in October, displayed a rich tapestry of Mediterranean roots music.

And there were still more.

Germany’s Ute Lemper is light years away from traditional folk music, but her April performance at Royce Hall was a revelatory display of European cabaret, a form that in another 100 years or so may well be considered the folk expression of the 20th century.

Later in the year, on the same stage, Israeli singer Chava Alberstein presented Yiddish material also heard--during the height of Germany’s cabaret era--in the Jewish ghettos of Europe and now largely relegated to the history books. Her performance was a stunning affirmation of the need to sustain endangered cultural expressions.

Beyond their appealing individual skills, these artists’ performances were especially beneficial for the manner in which most remained in firm contact with their fundamental musical roots. As the real millennium year begins, we can only hope that 2001 will bring a similarly engaging series of world music encounters.