The San Francisco International Arts Festival ti Present the World Premiere of DAUGHTERS OF THE DELTA

The San Francisco International Arts Festival will present the World Premiere of a new suite of music titled, Daughters of the Delta performed by Michelle Jacques and her eponymous music ensemble, CHELLE! and Friends.

Celebrated joyously in Michelle Jacques' signature New Orleans Big Band style, Daughters of the Delta is an anthology that honors African American women composers and musicians hailing from Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The project acknowledges seminal figures whose body of work became the backdrop to the Great Migration as Black people moved out of the South during the Jim Crow era. The project sets out to honor those that came before and preserve important yet often overlooked perspectives and experiences of Black women through the New Orleans style.

Michelle Jacques said of the research that went into creating Daughters, "The program includes materials inspired by Becky Elzy and Alberda Bradford recorded in the early 1930s when they were already acknowledged as the living repositories of spiritual music from the 19th Century."

Ms. Jacques also observed, "Another featured artist is Lil Hardin, sometimes known to history as the second Mrs. Louis Armstrong (and the woman who created the branding and image that made him a superstar), but Lil was also an accomplished composer, musician and bandleader in her own right. Her music and that of women such as New Orleans native, Lizzie Miles were part of the musical fabric that buoyed the spirits of Black folk during the successive waves of the Great Migration. Their legacies should have a place in a 21st Century dialogue."

Exploring the genres of Spirituals, Gospel, Jazz and the Blues, and featuring original compositions and lyrics by Ms. Jacques and Cava Menzies with new arrangements of traditional songs by Brian Dyer, Daughters invokes the memories of these legendary ladies and invites their spirits into the house to be celebrated.

Presenting a festive combination of jazz, funk, soul, Creole, Cajun, gospel, Caribbean, African, Zydeco, rock an d the chants and stirring rhythms of Mardi Gras Indians; New Orleans native, and Oakland's own "Queen of New Orleans Music", Michelle Jacques and some of her very special friends take all of these influences and a few more, and stir them into a stewpot of musical gumbo that is sweet, spicy, aromatic and definitely intoxicating. CHELLE! and Friends create an unforgettable sound and the ensemble is made up of some of the most distinguished and accomplished musicians in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Learn more at https://www.sfiaf.org/2022_chelle_and_friends or 415-399-9554.

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