Divas Performance Rich With Cultures

Global Divas Tuesday, Feb. 25, The Met

When the Global Divas took the stage at The Met Tuesday night, it felt like The Lilith Fair had gone world music.

While the show at The Met was a good bit smaller than the all-day event at The Gorge last summer, both programs found female musicians not only sharing their talents but doing something good for womankind at the same time.

But while the Lilith Fair - an enormously successful tour that featured the likes of Sarah McLachlan, Jewel and Tracy Chapman - was all about the rock and roll of North America, The Global Divas shared music from around the world.

Stella Chiweshe, Susana Baca and Tish Hinojosa brought to Spokane the sounds of Africa, Peru and the Mexican border. Their songs, rich in old cultures and yet still timely in the modern world, split the difference between the past and present and became a wonderful treat for a town that often misses the cultural boat.

Zimbabwe artist Stella Chiweshe opened the show with music rooted in traditional African culture. Dressed in a purple sequined robe and colorful headdress, she danced in bare feet and sang in an exotic voice part wail and part chant.

Nicknamed the “Mbira Queen of Zimbabwe,” Chiwesha played the mbira, a metal-pronged hand piano once forbidden to women. The instrument created a waterfall of sound that seemed part xylophone pluck and part a cacophony of water droplets. With two backup performers playing bongos and shakers, the trio wove intricate webs of rhythm that mesmerized.

Peruvian singer Susana Baca was the stand-out performer of the evening. Backed up by a four-piece ensemble, she celebrated her Afro-Peruvian heritage with a voice both elegant and sensual. The men performing behind her - playing everything from guitars to wooden boxes - laid down a surging cadence and accompanied Baca beautifully with their deep voices.

Singing in both Spanish and English, Texan Tish Hinojosa played what was a blend of American country and Mexican folk music. A performer who seemed less secure in front of an audience than the other two women, she still came through with a pure voice and touching folk tales.

All three artists and their nine backup musicians took the stage at the end of the show for a fantastic interweaving of voices, rhythms and cultures rarely glimpsed here.

The Debut Performing Arts series should be thanked for bringing such an enriching - and entertaining - show to Spokane.

, DataTimes