30th smf, day ten, 'nother night

It's been over a decade since Angélique Kidjo was in Savannah, for an earlier SMF performance.
Here at the Lucas, folks were waiting with open arms, including several of my friends who had seen her back in 2008.
I was there because of the cachet of the music she would be performing.
She had been captivated by it when she'd heard the songs in her early twenties in the early-1980's.
(She's five days younger than my brother Smitty.)
Just what was this album that captured her heart and inspired her mind?
The Talking Heads’ 1980 album, "Remain in Light".
She was living in France at the time and the African rhythms incorporated into the songs, and the slow staccato of the lyrics, were surely a salve for her homesickness.
She had resolved to one day bring her vision of that album to the world.
More than three decades later, that's exactly what she has done.

Tonight, we were treated to her vision, her track-by-track re-imagining of the songs.
African drums! Lyrics in native African tongues! Musicians from several countries in that trans-Atlantic continent!
Oh, and lots of dancing!
She had invited the audience to stand up and dance about halfway through the concert... and they did!
(I think that may have been around the time of "Once In A Lifetime", the only song I even knew.)

Hooray! More dancers, not just me dancing in the back to her rhythms!
Even better, everyone kept on dancing for the rest of the show!
Then, Kidjo came out into the crowd, dancing here, there, everywhere, before returning to the stage and inviting folks to come up there.
And they did, packing that space!!!
Woohoo!!!
And, after the last notes of the last song had faded, and the people were clapping for more?
Well, more is what we all received, in the form of an energized rendition of "Burning Down The House" - one of my favorites by the Talking Heads.
How very appropriate on this night of faulty air conditioning at the Lucas!
What a clever joke, n'est-ce pas?
At least, that's how I'm choosing to regard it!
(smile!)

Afterward, four of us spent about an hour together, talking about this concert and the one from 2008, catching up on each other's lives outside of facebook, reveling in a warm Saturday night!
Our thanks to the fine folk at Coffee Fox for allowing us birds to perch outside!
Kathleen, it was nice to meet you!
Amanda, I look forward to one day viewing your award-winning mini-golf documentary!
And Kristin, happy travels back to Indiana and much love to your little boy!
My, oh, my, another blessed night it's been!
i thank You, God!