THE NEW ORLEANS GOSPEL STARS

The Arriaga Theatre will turn into New Orleans for a night thanks to The New Orleans Gospel Stars, a 14-piece ensemble featuring an organ, a rhythm section and wind instruments, coming to Bilbao to present The Streets Of New Orleans a journey through the musical history of doubtlessly one of the most iconic cities in international music.

A production of the Greats of Gospel representing a community culture where free expression and beauty go hand in hand. The moving voices of the Gospel Stars, with their perfect fusion of captivating harmonies and powerful rhythms, are rooted in the best Afro-American musical traditions, giving their concerts a spiritual dimension where the music becomes a metaphor for life, combining beauty, feelings and fun.

The New Orleans Gospel Stars pay a heartfelt homage to a city where there is always music in the air. It’s the birthplace of Jazz, Spirit of Gospel, the House of Rhythm & Blues. The city boasts streets named after songs, and neighbourhoods full of stars and legends of 20th century popular music: Louis Armstrong, Mahalia Jackson, Fats Domino… The concert programme recreates old gospel hymns, including a selection of big hits with roots in the city and, for the first time in a gospel programme, it will give visibility to a sub-genre that everyone identifies with New Orleans: the Jazz Funeral which, as the local saying goes, “people are dying to get in.” This style, played solemnly on the way to the cemetery and boisterously on the way back to the city, hails back to the spiritual songs that congregations sang in church. So, we’re all set for a vibrant slice of tradition music from New Orleans, a return journey from its origins in Congo Square to the present day parades with special stops along the way for melodies that we’ve all sung along to at some point: What A Wonderful World, Just A Closer Walk, When the Saints Go Marching In, etc.