The Houston Symphony goes Marvel Universe this Saturday and Sunday with performances of the “Black Panther” soundtrack at Jones Hall.
The Oscar-winning score, which melds traditional African sounds with Western orchestral music, American hip-hop, and R&B, will get an evening performance on Saturday and a Sunday matinee.
Massamba Diop, one of the top tama players in the world, will join the orchestra as special guest percussionist. The tama, an instrument known in African society as the "talking drum" for its expressive qualities, can sometimes be played to represent human speech. In the film, Diop uses the tama to represent the main character, King T’Challa.
Diop, who is from Senegal, has only performed the soundtrack with orchestras in Los Angeles, Atlanta, Washington, and a few others.
“Black Panther” was the highest-grossing film of 2018, bringing in more than $700 million.