Angelique Kidjo

Djin Djin (Razor & Tie)

By Jonathan Shipley
Published: May 23rd, 2007 | 8:57pm

I challenge listeners to Kidjo’s enthusiastic new album, Djin Djin, not to tap your foot to the infectious beats, not to have a little smile on your face hearing her accomplished musicianship, not to even get a little boogey on, hearing the likes of Kidjo team with musical luminaries like Peter Gabriel, Ziggy Marley, and Alicia Keys.

Kidjo’s music can be best described as the catch all “world music,” in that she was born in Benin and resided in Paris before living in New York City. It’s a healthy musical gumbo of Afro-funk, reggae, samba, jazz, some gospel, and salsa, all sorts of musical treats combined into a singular voice that can only be hers. Ever since her 1988 debut, Pretty, she’s worked with a vast array of musicians, from Branford Marsalis (who also contributes to Djin Djin) to Cassandra Wilson, Joe Galdo of Miami Sound Machine to Carlos Santana (also a contributor to her latest), and it’s only made her stronger as a musician and more well-rounded as a singer.

Djin Djin highlights that fact, in spades. “Salala” is a warm African-tinged love song on which she couples with Peter Gabriel. With “Sedjedo,” Kidjo teams with famed reggae artist Ziggy Marley. “Pearls,” an earnest Sade cover, is one of the more intriguing collaborations on the album. It begins like a summer day’s quiet rain before intensifying into a beautiful full-blown squall teaming Kidjo with Josh Groban and Carlos Santana adding his signature guitar work.

There are certainly songs on the album stronger than others, but that’s to be expected when there’s collaboration between varied musicians. Some work, some don’t, but there’s a musical satisfaction even in the clinkers in that the artists are trying new things, pushing boundaries. For Kidjo, world music is right — a world without boundaries. That’s what Kidjo accomplishes with this and her other albums. Now I have to get up from my computer and do a little dance to her take on Rolling Stones’ “Gimme Shelter.”