September 24th, 2010 saw the Detroit area come out for Sean Blackman’s multimedia performance In Transit, whose music came off of his recent album of the same name.  The performance was international in scope and included  musicians from  diverse nationalities as Brazilian, Senegalese, Armenian, Canadian and, of course, American.  The performance, a mesmerizing combination of music and dance, was always compelling and drew cheers from the crowd.

Among the highlights was “Siren Song,” which included the soulful vocals of The Reefermen’s James Wailin and Geneviève Marentette.  The interplay between Blackman and other musicians—Alioune Faye (Senegalese drums), Wendell Harrison (clarinet), Pathe Jassi (bass), Mady Kouyate (kora), N’dongo M’Baye (talking drum), Daniel Moreno (percussion) and Mark Sawarsky (percussion)—was excellent. Wailin’s and Marentette’s vocals were well matched and they sang well off of each other.  Wailin’s had the understated charisma of a seasoned jazz singer.  Marentette was deliciously sweet.

While the event might have had Blackman’s  name, he provided the other musicians plenty of room to shine and, on quite a few occasions, stepped back and let the other performers take off.  One of my favorites was Daniel Moreno, who whipped out all sorts of percussion and other instruments to create a subtle sonic backdrop against which the other musicians could blossom.  At one point, he used what appeared to be a small frame drum that produced amazingly lifelike rain sounds.

Throughout the concert, the performers were draped by images on a projection screen. There were scenes that depicted the world cultures that the audience heard in the music.  At times, the images took away from the performance.  However, most of the images were a perfect complement.  It was during the numerous points when images, musicians, dancers and singers blended together that the audience was taken away to the countries that were captured in each of Blackman’s compositions.

For those of you that didn’t snag a ticket to the sold-out performance, you really missed out.  I truly mean it.  The crowd’s support was easily detectable, especially when audience members would scream things out like, ” I love you, Sean!” While I have had the opportunity to check him out around town, I was pleasantly surprised at how much Blackman really shone.  The performances were things that just enveloped you that, for me, the worst part was when it was all over.

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Author: José A. Rodríguez

Photos: Marty Richard