World Voices

THE GLOBE'S BEST SINGERS ARRIVE IN S.F.

This fall, the San Francisco Jazz Festival closes with four revered singers in the “World Voices” concert series. All superstars in their respective homelands, Cristina Branco (11/11) Caetano Veloso (11/17), Youssou N’Dour (11/30), and Chava Alberstein (12/9) represent music’s ability to enlighten, entertain, and energize while transcending linguistic and geographic barriers.

Cristina Branco brings elegance and grace to the hard-won lessons of Portugal’s fado. A music infused with longing and sadness, drawn from Portugal’s history as a maritime power, the fado is an almost sacred tradition, where interpreters like Amália Rodrigues are given regal titles like “Queen of Fado.” Branco has reshaped that tradition, drawing power from Rodrigues’ example while adding new instruments and finding inspiration for her songs in the verse of Portugal’s finest poets. This combination of exquisite singing and brings out the romantic in all of us.

Hailing from the music-rich land of Brazil, Caetano Veloso is an icon of modern Brazilian Popular Music (known more familiarly as MPB). A founder of Tropicalismo, the late-’60s musical explosion that merged bossa nova with American psychedelica, Beatles-inspired pop, and socially aware lyrics, Veloso has grown into one of the most acclaimed singer-songwriters in the world. A masterful showman, his last appearance at the Masonic was a stunning sold-out trip through the American songbook; now he returns with a new rock-inflected sound and a passel of great songs from his latest album, Cê.

Named one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people in 2007, Youssou N’Dour is perhaps the most important African artist of his generation. The GRAMMY-winner’s high-octane mix of Senegalese mbalax, hip-hop, funk, soul, and Afro-Cuban rhythms has set millions dancing. N’dour is also a passionate humanitarian, associated with efforts to secure Nelson Mandela’s release, Amnesty International, UNICEF, and the recent Live 8 shows. N’dour is famed for his incendiary live shows, and this month’s Festival performance takes place in the wake of his new album Rokku Mi Rokka, which the San Francisco Chronicle calls “world music that truly can be heard, loved and understood around the globe.”

No less passionate, Israel’s Chava Alberstein is a folk singer whose career has spanned 40 years and almost 50 albums. But “folk singer” is a limiting term for someone who encapsulates so much of her country’s cultural history. She has won six Kinor David prizes (Israel’s GRAMMY equivalent) and The New York Times calls her “a thoughtful songwriter with folky roots, peaceable instincts, a voice filled with compassion and an earnest desire to improve things.” This is a rare chance to see one of Israel’s most deeply appreciated artists right here in San Francisco.

Also, don’t miss the panoply of world voices (and costumes) on one impressive stage when the all-female choir Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares perform at San Francisco’s Grace Cathedral in a Sacred Space concert. This unique pairing of sound and space produced a breathtaking evening the last time the Bulgarians came to town and this special winter concert should prove to be just as illuminating.