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La Dame Blanche

April 15, 2023 @ 7:30 pm

Cuban singer, flautist and percussionist Yaite Ramos Rodriguez, aka La Dame Blanche delivers a powerful and compelling sound which summons the spirits. The smoke of an inaugural cigar prior to setting foot on set, a glass of rum left backstage, necklaces, white flowers, a pristine turban: for her appearances on stage, La Dame Blanche feeds the energy of the spirits of Santeria, her Afro-Cuban religion.

In real life, away from the limelight, this singer, flautist and percussionist is Yaite Ramos Rodriguez…  A mischievous response during a conversation reveals her character: a slender and diaphanous figure, a legend who haunts nocturnal roads and the imagination of children all over the world. Before unfurling her costume Yaite has travelled a long and sometimes hard road.  Everything starts in Cuba where she was born, in the heart of an awe-inspiring musical cauldron on which reigns the figure of her father, Jesus “Aguaje” Ramos, an exceptional trombonist who is also the artistic director of the Orquesta Buena Vista Social Club.  Family parties are gatherings of extraordinary musicians, the cream of Cuban music, to the sounds of thousands of songs and drums. Yaite learns how to play the classical flute at the conservatoire, and dreams of herself standing in front of a black pulpit wearing a demure dress. But then love strikes and takes her to Paris, the city of lights, the city of every sound.  She says: “In my country, popular music was focused primarily on tradition: the sound, la rumba, the batá drums, etc.  In Paris, all borders being open, there was a melting-pot of rhythms and melodies!”  There Yaite sings in the all-girl salsa band Rumbana, joins the Grand Orchestre du Splendid, becomes back-up singer with Sergent Garcia and live singer for El Hijo de la Cumbia…  Those experiences added to her emancipation from the family heritage to develop her own language, that of La Dame Blanche. That root of her signature style, played out while remaining feminine and from the tips of claws, gets entangled with merry and wild offshoots of reggae, dancehall, cumbia, moombathon etc.  Finally, on that sonic jungle organised in her image, land the agile, celestial and anchored threnodies of her flute, with classical accents and sometimes Indian colours. Expect the unexpected from La Dame Blanche, and the eclectic Under the Beams concert series!

 

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