The embarrassment of riches of world music in New Orleans continues Friday and Saturday evenings when the grand opening of the permanent installation of musical architecture in the Bywater known as The Music Box Village features the great Martiniquan musician Dédé Saint-Prix performing as a featured guest with L’Union Creole, Bruce “Sunpie” Barnes’ Creole diaspora project, along with Seguenon Kone, the incredible percussionist from the Ivory Coast.
The Music Box Village is the locally loved and internationally celebrated project that has been roaming the city and beyond since 2011. Artists, architects, inventors, and builders have created new interactive, playable structures in its permanent location at 4557 N. Rampart Street.
Bruce “Sunpie” Barnes (pictured at top) needs no introduction to local readers. The bandleader, harmonica player, accordionist, and musicologist will take audiences on a journey through Africa, Europe, the Caribbean, and Louisiana highlighting the music, dance, and language that unite Creole peoples into a unique diaspora.
Dédé Saint-Prix played at the 2016 New Orleans Jazz Fest. He is a legend in Martinique. During a period in the late 1980s, his version of zouk, a highly danceable, modern Caribbean genre, was the biggest thing going in the Francophone world.
He is a flautist, saxophonist and bandleader and his set at Jazz Fest was mesmerizing. He had two traditional percussionists, one who played a horizontal bamboo drum and the other a djembe-like drum, along with a modern electric band and two female backing singers. Saint-Prix played a wooden flute and a sax for short bursts in the midst of orchestrating the band. His set was my pick of the fest at TVD and lived up to my expectations in the biggest way.
Seguenon Kone is a versatile musician, choreographer, and dancer from the Ivory Coast. He is a master of the traditional West African arts of drumming, dance, masking, and fire-eating. Since moving to New Orleans, he started two bands, Ensemble Fatien (a blend of New Orleans jazz and African rhythms) and I’voire Spectacle (a traditional drum and dance troupe). His performances are a combination of percussion and dance as he whirls about while playing his traditional wood xylophone and other traditional African instruments.
The Music Box Village was founded by Delaney Martin, Swoon, Taylor Shepherd, and Jay Pennington and has had over 80 worldwide artistic collaborators to date with over 300 musicians performing among its “musical houses,” including Thurston Moore, Wilco, Solange Knowles, Mannie Fresh, the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Arto Lindsay, and Andrew W.K. to name just a few.
Show times on Friday and Saturday, November 4 and 5, are at 6:30 and 8:30 PM. Tickets are $20 advance and $25 at the door.
