Paris, France – Rachid Taha will be touring the United States and Canada in July. The tour coincides with the July 1 North American release of The Definitive Collection, which hit England in April and will appear in France in October. The tour will start off on July 5th in New York at Central Park’s annual outdoor SummerStage concert series. On July 7th and 8th Taha will perform in Ottawa and Toronto respectively, at the Cisco Ottawa Bluesfest and the Phoenix Concert Theatre. He’ll give a July 10th concert at the Philadelphia arts haven, the Kimmel Center, before swooping west to California. There, he will perform on the 12th at Grand Performances, the non-profit arts institution in Los Angeles. The tour will conclude the next day in San Francisco with a concert at the 71st annual Stern Grove Music Festival.
Born in Oran, Algeria, Rachid Taha is known internationally for his politically-charged songs, rich musical fusions, and rousing live performances. Since the 1989 dissolution of Carte de Séjour, the French rock band he led for six years, Taha has made twelve solo and live albums. The most recent of these is The Definitive Collection (Wrasse), a Best Of album that features fifteen carefully culled tracks from seven of his albums prior to his 2006 release, Diwan 2. A limited edition of the European-released version includes a DVD of Taha’s recent Algeria tour, complete with English subtitles.
The tour will continue to nourish Rachid Taha’s respected place among North American world music fans. In re-releasing his cornerstone songs, ‘The Definitive Collection’ reinforces some of the musician’s most powerful and enduring themes. To bear witness, just listen to “Douce France,” Taha’s deeply ironic Charles Trenet cover, or “Ya Rayah,” the ageless masterpiece from his 1998 album, Diwân.
Buy the CDs:
- In North America: The Definitive Collection, and also the recent Diwan 2
- In Europe: The Definitive Collection: +DVD, and also the recent Diwan 2
Author: World Music Central News Room
World music news from the editors at World Music Central