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KALAMAZOO GAZETTE
Josephine Baker: A Life of Le Jazz Hot!
Concert Review
Thursday, February 14, 2008
By William Wood
TALENTED PERFORMERS RECAPTURE BAKER'S "LIFE OF LE JAZZ HOT"
What a way to make wind instruments hip: Employ them to tell the life story of a larger-than-life personality, Josephine Baker.
The members of the Grammy Award-winning quintet Imani Winds used every bit of their considerable talents, plus the help of a few friends, to capture the life of chanteuse and dancer Josephine Baker in a rousing and artistically complex performance Wednesday night at Chenery Auditorium. It was a Fontana Chamber Arts show.
Singer Maria Howell, dancer Rachael Ashley, film footage of Baker in the movies ``Siren of the Tropics'' and ``Princess Tam Tam'' and still photos of the Roaring '20s and war-torn '40s all created a swirl of energy that effectively pulled the 1,000 patrons of the show into Baker's past.
That past involved an era in which brown-skinned American girls weren't expected to amount to much. Somehow Baker saw beyond the racial confines of her East St. Louis home town, made a life for herself in Paris and took a stand for artistic freedom that resounds today.
The members of Imani Winds are apparently following in Baker's footsteps, as they have come up with a thoroughly compelling and accessible project that defies category.
The two-hour program, "Josephine Baker: A Life of Le Jazz Hot", was at its best when Howell, backed by Imani Winds, sang several cabaret numbers that Baker made famous, arranged by Imani French horn player Jeff Scott. Patrons left the show singing "Don't Touch My Tomatoes"; the willowy and dramatic Howell performed the song once in the show and once as an encore along with dancer Rachael Ashley.
The black-and-white film footage of Baker paired with original compositions by Scott was also thoroughly effective. The footage showed Baker as a comedian, and Scott's music was equally playful and fresh.
The talents of the Imani Winds members seemed boundless during the show, as impressionistic compositions by flutist Valerie Coleman and photos of American race riots and World War II conflict offered moods of frustration, sadness and dread.
The images depicted how, when she was growing up, Baker witnessed a race riot in her home town, which later led her to seek out a career in France. The war images were a reference to Baker's service in France as a spy for the Allies.
And the members of Imani winds also played foot-tapping jazz, moaning blues and hip-rocking mambo to tell their story of the brown-skinned dancer who surpassed expectations with talent, drive and a daring skirt of yellow bananas.
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