Pace Presents FATOUMATA DIAWARA At The Schimmel Center Tonight, 9/28

Pace Presents: FATOUMATA DIAWARA (from Mali) as a part of Pace Presents' World Music Series at The Michael SchimMel Center for the Arts. Doors and Lobby Bar open at 6:30pm and the show starts at 7:30pm. Tickets are priced at $35.

Tonight, September 28 marks Diawara's New York city premiere. Fatoumata Diawara just finished touring with Damon Albarn's Africa Express tour. Diawara has also performed alongside Oumou Sangare, AfroCubism, Orchestre Poly-Rythmo and Dee Dee Bridgewater. Diawara's Malian birthright and traditionally female- empowering Wassalou musical heritage both put her in violation of the Sharia law now in effect in Northern Mali that bans musical performance. This evening celebrates Diawara's first US album release, FATOU on Nonesuch Records.

The extraordinary story of Fatoumata Diawara's meteoric rise as one of the music world's most exciting artists begins with her joining a theatre company, performing the classical Greek role ofAntigone, starring in a string of successful films, running away from her home in Mali to France and finally finding her calling as a musician. The woman called "beguiling" has worked with some of Africa's most successful artists, including Oumou Sangaré, Cheikh Lô, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Herbie Hancock, Damon Albarn, Tony Allen, Flea and Bobby Womack. Diawara was raised on West African Wassoulou music; a style performed mostly by and about women and thought to be an ancestor of American Blues; she uses this style as the base for her own songs. At the center of her music is a warm, affecting voice; spare, rhythmical guitar playing and gorgeously melodic songs incorporating elements of funk, soul and jazz. Her September 28th Pace Presents show features a full band, marks Diawara's NY debut as a soloist and will highlight music from her latest CD on the World Circuit/Nonesuch label.