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Bobby McFerrin: Bobby Meets African in New York.
By R. Pikser Bobby McFerrin, extraordinary musician and improviser, opened the 60th season at Brooklyn College’s Brooklyn Performing Arts Center. Mr. McFerrin, son of Robert McFerrin, Sr., the first African American to become a member of the Metropolitan Opera, and singer, music teacher and accompanist Sara McFerrin, is a seeker and appreciator of music in all places where it may be found. He is an instrumentalist, a conductor, and a singer who uses his body as a rhythm instrument as well as a vocal instrument. As we heard and saw on this evening, his great pleasure is to bring people together so that, whoever they are, from 4 to 64, they can make music and dance together. In just under ninety minutes, he created an entire community of warmth and sharing through his facilitation of the music. Mr. McFerrin is currently engaged in a project of travelling the world meeting musicians, some of whom may have worked together, some of whom are meeting for the first time, and making music with them. For this performance in Brooklyn, AfroPop Worldwide gathered Guinean singer BéBé Camara; Malian singer Abdoulaye Diabaté and his young son Toumani who plays the balafon; Malians Yacouba Sissoko who plays the big-bellied, 21-stringed kora; Miafa Diabaté who plays the spike lute, or ngoni, a kind of precursor to the banjo; and Idrissa Koné who plays the tama, a talking drum supported over the shoulder and played with both a curved stick and the hand. Jomion and the Uklos, a family of drummers and singers from Benin occupied stage left and seemed to be enjoying themselves exceedingly. Some of the music was organized around the tradition of call and response, but some was left to the pleasure and skill of the performers. Mr. McFerrin made sure that everyone had a turn. When he called for a few people from the audience to come up on the stage, whether to sing or to dance, people tore down the aisles and he made space for them all. Particpants ranged from a four year old to professor of music Jules Hirsh, retired from Brooklyn College, whose African riff charmed everyone. One performer specifically invited onto the stage was Joey Blake, a gnome-like man who sang and danced like someone from another world. An audience member who stayed in front of the stage was Harry Belafonte, whom Mr. McFerrin came down to greet and whom he succeeded in getting to sing a bit in spite of Mr. Belafonte’s recent stroke. This performance was unique. The musicians met for the first time at the sound check, and there were a few rough moments. But any imbalances in the sound levels or imperfections in the lighting paled beside the energy and the will of everyone there, audience as well as performers, to be part of the community of music. The evening was magical, and AfroPop Worldwide, which can be heard on WNYE, 91.5 FM, is to be thanked for bringing Mr. McFerrin together with the guest artists and with the rest of us. Bobby
McFerrin: Bobby Meets African in New York. BroklynCenter.org 
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