Zap Mama draws inspiration from whole wide world.

Byline: Carolyn Lamberson The Register-Guard

The women of Zap Mama refer to their work as "world music redefined."

Five female voices blend the sounds of Congolese souk, soul, hip-hop, gospel, Pygmy song and Afro-Cuban rhythms into an enticing cocktail.

"Marie Daulne and Zap Mama make music that sounds like a one-woman multicultural movement," Time magazine once wrote, `melding African percussion, American soul and European urbanity.'

On Saturday, Eugene fans of world beat music will test the waters themselves when Daulne and Zap Mama bring their hybrid music to the McDonald Theatre.

According to her online biography, Daulne was born in what was then called Zaire, now Congo, but fled the war-torn country when she was 3. For a time, her family took refuge with a tribe of Pygmies before eventually making its way to Belgium, her father's homeland.

As a young girl, she learned the "polyphonic" singing style practiced by Central Africa's Pygmy tribes, a tradition her mother passed down to her. Daulne's tastes ran more to Stevie Wonder and the early rap stars, so it wasn't until she returned to Congo at age 18 that she heard the music in its proper context and formed an appreciation of the undulating style.

She returned to Belgium and in 1990 formed Zap Mama. The band's first release, 1993's "Adventures in Afropea," was a strictly vocal affair. The follow-up, 1994's "Sabsylma," earned a Grammy nomination for best world music album.

On `7,' the group collaborated with such artists as Michael Franti and dub reggae star U-Roy. `A Ma Zone," released in '99, featured the Roots' MC, Black Thought.

The following year, Daulne moved to the United States, where she hooked up with the Roots' creative camp in Philadelphia. Her collaboration with Ahmir `?uestLove' Thompson and the other Philly "soulquarians" resulted in the Mamas' most recent record, 2003's `Ancestry in Progress," in which Daulne and the Mamas put their stamp on American soul music.

"The American beat is a revolution all over the world," Daulne said in a news release. "Everybody listens to it and everybody follows it. But the beat of the United States was inspired by the beat coming from Africa - not just its structure, but the sound of it.

`This is the source of modern sounds, the history of the beat, starting from little pieces of wood banging against one another and arriving on the big sound systems today. It's ge- nius.

`So I wanted to create an album about the evolution of old ancestral beats, how they traveled from Africa, mixing with European and Asian sounds, and were brought to America."

CONCERT PREVIEW

Zap Mama

When: 8 p.m. Saturday

Where: McDonald Theatre, 1010 Willamette St.

Tickets: $22 advance, $25 day of show, available through TicketsWest

CAPTION(S):

Marie Daulne brings her African roots to her music.