Page 332 - ASMF Marriner 100 Coverage Book

Rhiannon Giddens | Photo: Ebru Yildiz

Occupying its own unique space in the hybrid jazz/film/solo percussion realm, the
Arlington program on Friday, April 19, brings the superlative drummer Antonio
Sánchez back to town, in the role of film composer/live onstage accompanist for a
screening of Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Best Picture Oscar–winning Birdman. The
refreshing texture and pulse of a drum-based film score is one thing; to hear it
performed live and in sync is a rare experience (I heard/watched it at UCLA a few
years ago and was duly wowed).

One of the few so-called “world music” shows this season arrives in the high, deep —
and infectiously rhythmic — style of famed Malian singer Fatoumata Diawara, at
Campbell Hall on Sunday, April 7.

What to say about American treasure Rhiannon Giddens? Call the golden-voiced
banjoist, musicologist, and mold-breaker an African-Americana artist — with a
Pulitzer and a MacArthur “Genius” Grant on her mantle — at your own peril. Her
dimensions spread far beyond simple categorization, as we 805 dwellers have been
reminded within the past year, when she appeared as intrepid director/key performer