Apollo Music Cafe, April 1 & 2, 2011.  Moroccan singer, composer, producer, Malika Zarra is a musical enchantress who leaps effortlessly between seemingly unconnected languages and traditions in her music, both uniting them and utilizing each tradition to further enrich the others. Called “Morocco’s Jazz Jewel” by CNN International, the exotically beautiful artist with the velvety, sinuous mezzo-soprano voice has demonstrated a rare ability to communicate both powerful and subtle ideas and feelings in Berber, Moroccan Arabic, French and English and is now a much-in-demand headliner at nightclubs and festivals the world over.  Her newest CD “Berber Taxi” will be released on the Harlem-based Motéma Music label on April 12th.

Malika Zarra was born in Southern Morocco, in a little village called Ouled Teima. Her father's family was originally from Tata, a city on the Sahara plain, while her mother was a Berber from the High Atlas Mountains. During her early childhood, there was always music and dancing in the house and Malika sang almost from babyhood. After her family emigrated to a suburb of Paris, she found herself straddling two very different societies. "I had to be French at school yet retain my Moroccan cultural heritage at home," she recalls. "Like many immigrant children, I learned to switch quickly between the two. It was hard but brought me a lot of good things too."

Zarra was exposed to a wide variety of musical styles, and cites the Lebanese-born, Egyptian-based ud virtuoso/composer Farid el Atrache, and Algerian-French singer Warda (Al-Jazairia) as major influences. She also absorbed albums by Ella Fitzgerald, Bobby McFerrin, Thelonious Monk, Stevie Wonder and Aretha Franklin. "When I decided to learn singing, I started with jazz because I was attracted by the improvisation, which is also important in Arabic music," she says. Although her family was not in favor of her pursuing a musical career, Malika nonetheless attended classes at conservatories and jazz academies at Tours and Marseille. She eventually found her way to New York City in 1996 where she was encouraged for the first time to explore her Moroccan roots for inspiration.  Now an  increasingly important artist on the New York Jazz and World scene, Malika finds this city to be an irresistibly fertile ground for her musical vision.

Malika Zarra’s music is a postcard from the places she’s been, but more importantly it’s a vehicle to exciting new destinations, and her new CD “Berber Taxi” will take you to all of them.

http://www.malikazarra.com/
http://www.cnn.com/video/?/video/international/2009/08/29/av.1.malika.zarra.cnn