What a beautiful performance by Meklit Hadero and her ensemble on Tuesday night at Dollhouse Productions. Really, if you’re anywhere close to where Meklit is performing, you need to check her out.
Meklit’s live show was a bit jazzier than I anticipated, even when she was performing songs out of Ethiopia. Her voice has a richness and depth that easily matches the studio versions. If she had taken a different turn, Meklit might have cultivated that voice for Broadway, maybe even for opera, but she seems right at home in the collage of sound that one might expect from a perceptive artist with roots in Africa and an upbringing in the U.S.
There’s an uncynical joy to Meklit’s music and to her whole being. She radiates that joy, and it’s impossible not to be swept along by it. Her backing musicians certainly seem to b feel it and feed it.
Meklit Hadero recently launched a Pledge Music campaign for pre-orders of the new album We Are Alive, which will be released in March. The TED fellow was also recently interviewed on the organization’s blog: Celebrating the cultural in-between: Fellows Friday with musician Meklit Hadero.
I took some photos. Regrettably, I was not able to get to Dollhouse in time for the opening acts: Leslie Adele and Danni Cassette, but there was such a great, loungy vibe in the air when I arrived, they must have been good. Two pics here, with more after the jump.
