Dengue Fever next in SummerMusic

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Dengue Fever
Chhom Nimol, pictured with her Dengue Fever bandmates, complements the band's driving Cambodian-American sound with a luminous vibrato that adds exotic ornamentations to her vocal lines, and hypnotic stage moves based on traditional dances.

SummerMusic 2009 is scheduled to continue July 25 with indie rock band Dengue Fever and conclude Aug. 14 with a newly announced act, Zap Mama, led by Afropean vocalist and songwriter Marie Daulne.

Zap Mama replaces the previously announced Rokia Traoré, according to the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts, which is producing the SummerMusic series for Summer Sessions. Traoré canceled her tour, said Jeremy Ganter, the Mondavi Center’s associate executive director.

The SummerMusic concerts on the Quad are free and open to the public. They start at 7:30 p.m., with the Quad opening for picnics at 6:30 p.m. Alcoholic beverages are not permitted.

July 25 (Saturday) — Dengue Fever, the Los Angeles-based band that sounds like “a Cambodian pop rock psychedelic dance party!” — according to the band’s My Space page. A new documentary, Sleepwalking Through the Mekong, follows the band on its recent journey to Cambodia where the band performed 1960s and ‘70s Cambodian rock ‘n’ roll “in the country where it was created and very nearly destroyed,” according to an online synopsis. In the documentary’s trailer, a band member says the music is based on California surf music, rewritten with Cambodian melodies. The band, hailed by the Los Angeles Times as “quite possibly the most original pop band in LA,” has produced three albums: Dengue Fever, Venus on Earth and Escape From the Dragon House. Watch and listen: myspace.com/denguefevermusic and sleepwalkingthroughthemekong.com.

Aug. 14 (Friday) — Daulne, born in the Congo and raised in Belgium, launched Zap Mama in 1990, and, over the years, it has morphed from an all-female, a cappella quintet (debut recording Adventures in Afropea I, weaving music from Zaire, Tanzania, Syria, France and Spain) into the creative vision of one woman surrounded by talent from nearly every corner of the musical landscape. Zap Mama’s latest recording is ReCreation, featuring a rhythm section rooted in a rich Brazilian vibe and offering everything the title suggests — a time to make a break, to renew and to play. “That moment when you are relaxing and enjoying yourself,” Daulne said in a news release, “is the perfect moment to create a new person within yourself — to heal yourself and let go of all the negative aspects of your life. In those times when you relax, you recreate yourself.” Listen: headsup.com/ecards/3159/industry.html.
 

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Dave Jones, Dateline, 530-752-6556, dljones@ucdavis.edu

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