Many have criticized the term “world music” as simply a lazy catchall term for non-Western music. But Zap Mama’s founder and leader Marie Daulne embraces it—and with a musical style drawing on roots in Congo-Kinshasa, an upbringing in Belgium, and an infusion of American hip-hop and R&B, it is easy to understand why.
Zap Mama opened Monday night's show with a few tracks from their 2009 release, ReCreation, which takes Daulne’s world-spanning influences a step further, adding a Brazilian influence. “Vibrations” and “Do You Wanna?” settled the audience into a tight groove, while Daulne let the audience know “I’m gonna zap you to another place . . . .” And zap us to another place she did!
Within just a few songs, the drummer had unleashed some standout hip-hop drumming reminiscent of The Roots’ ?uestlove, the mood had mellowed out for an acoustic–guitar driven ballad, and the audience had been driven into a hilarious near-line-dancing experience during “Yelling Away,” an Ancestry in Progress track that guest-starred Talib Kweli and Common. Though they performed the song without either rapper, I’ll never forget the steps to the dance: “One step forward, move around. One step backward, boogie down. One step right, one step left, one step, one step, one step, one step.”
Daulne’s stage presence was spectacular throughout, and it is clear that she’s been performing for decades. Throughout the concert she made use of two microphones—one clean and one that ran through a number of pedals. Through the latter, she used a looping pedal to thickly layer singing, blowing on bottles, and beatboxing, frequently opening a song with her own groove and then bringing in her full band—consisting of a drummer, guitarist/keyboard player, bassist, horn player and two backup singers—to kick it up a notch.
Nearly every album selection was extended with either a vocal or percussion breakdown, or in one case a vocal/percussive conversation between Daulne and the drummer; it may have been the highlight of the night. Zap Mama closed the concert with Supermoon's “1000 Ways,” which is a great album track, but ten times better (and longer) live.
Much to the delight of the raucously applauding Paradise crowd, Zap Mama returned for an encore, bringing out G. Love to perform “Drifting,” a duet they recorded for ReCreation. They followed with “Bandy Bandy,” the band’s biggest hit from Ancestry in Progress, and then closed with a fantastic funk jam replete with James Brown-esque funk guitar and Daulne’s requests for “Hit me 1 time! Hit me 2 times! Hit me 7 times!” Before leaving the stage, Daulne demanded one last jam from the bassist and guitarist over which she offered the mic to the audience. A few volunteers surfaced, singing sweet riffs along the lines of “Thank you for coming to Boston, you all were amazing”—and I couldn’t have agreed more.
