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Current Projects
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Ashkenaz Festival (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), All roads lead to the Ashkenaz Festival, following the twists and turns of a boldly adaptive, constantly evolving culture. They are highways running from Klezmer hotspots like New York, Berkeley, and Berlin. They are medieval trade routes spanning from the Sephardic heartlands of Spain and Morocco to dusty desert trails of the Middle East. Some are faint, forgotten paths from unsung outposts like Florence, Sarajevo, Kishinev and Rio de Janeiro. Others run from imagined clubs where klezmorim jam with salseros, cantors croon with Afrobeat brass bands, and 80’s “hair” bands belt out Yiddish ditties accompanied by screeching guitars and synthesizers. 07/01/10 >> go there
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Brass Menažeri, Vranjski San (Porto Franco Records), Bosnian gems mingle with Bollywood bangles, while Rromani (Gypsy) hits mix with super-fly funk. Thanks to dreamed melodies and down-and-dirty bass lines, Brass Menažeri has been packing Mission bars with a heady mix of Balkan perfection and Bay Area eccentricity, of serious chops and serious joy, for years. 06/17/10 >> go there
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Celebrate México Now! 2010 (New York, NY), There’s Mexico the glorious, born of patriotic revolution and celebrated in official centennials and bicentennials. There’s Mexico the troubled, born of fear-fired images of drug violence and migrant workers. Then there’s the Mexico revealed by the seventh annual Celebrate México Now!, a multimedia, multi-lingual festival of music, performance, film, installation, and cuisine at multiple venues around New York City. 07/20/10 >> go there
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Charming Hostess, The Bowls Project (Tzadik), Writhing sea monsters and demon divorces. Magical amulets and secret sexual desires. Black metal and Blind Willie Johnson. The Bowls Project evokes the cosmopolitanism of ancient Babylon with an eerily contemporary weave of war, sex, and supernatural wonder. 06/10/10 >> go there
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Dave Holland & Pepe Habichuela, Hands (Dare2 Records), Parallel lives, parallel movements: through the streets of Wolverhampton, England and the jazz clubs of New York, the caves of Granada and the flamenco bars of Madrid. Over strings and oceans and language barriers, masterful jazz bassist Dave Holland and Spanish guitar legend Pepe Habichuela have come together to unfold the beauty of flamenco. 07/28/10 >> go there
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East Village Community School, Songs from the East Village, Most public schools facing the current funding crunch mount desperate donation drives or bake sales. But at the arts-based East Village Community School in the heart of one of New York’s historically bohemian and global neighborhoods, parents, students, and school staff opted instead to raise money by singing compelling ballads, making funky beats, and recalling unexpected family stories. 08/18/10 >> go there
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Elikeh, Adje! Adje! (Azalea City Recordings), From atop a smoldering, Afro-rock soapbox, rooted in the traditions of his homeland, an African immigrant and activist belts out this rallying cry, warning against state corruption and capitalistic greed. “People are trapped between governments and corporations,” says the Togolese-born Massama Dogo – singer, guitarist, composer, and founder of the band Elikeh. “Africans,” in particular, he continues, “are being used and abused” by these institutions. 03/29/10 >> go there
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Fat Freddy's Drop, Live at Roundhouse London, Fat Freddy’s Drop has battled mad scientists and unleashed mad skills. An unlikely band of sons of the Pacific, they can flip on the fly from Maori reggae to sweet Yankee soul with near psychic precision. Like kungfu masters, they set their dubbed-out funk, hardcore horns, and waves of luscious bass on unsuspecting opponents and turn them into sweaty dance floor devotees. 09/04/09 >> go there
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Fishtank Ensemble, Woman In Sin, 2010 Tour, Parked next door to a sandwich truck sits a hand-built, mule drawn “Gypsy wagon,” like an apparition from a bygone era, in the driveway of a contemporary hillside home in Hollywood, California. 01/15/10 >> go there
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Galeet Dardashti, The Naming, This is the story of why the brilliant Queen of Sheba shaved her legs, how the stunning Vashti laid down the line for her drunken husband, and how a mysterious witch spoke King Saul’s doom and then served him a nice dinner. The Naming, the upcoming release from singer and composer Galeet Dardashti, draws on the Persian classical music and Middle Eastern Jewish singing deep in her bones to transform the ghostly outlines of Biblical women into full-blown flesh-and-blood personalities. 02/06/09 >> go there
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International Body Music Festival: Lincoln Center (NYC), From the tundra to the tropics, people can’t resist the urge to snap, clap, step, holler, and sing artful music. This universal resonator—our bodies—and its myriad global sounds ignite audiences of the International Body Music Festival in Concert at Lincoln Center. 10/09/08 >> go there
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Khaira Arby, Timbuktu Tarab (Clermont Music), For women, singing can be the road to personal power. When their voice is as strong as Malian vocalist Khaira Arby’s, that power can move mountains, change minds, and win battles. 06/10/10 >> go there
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King Sunny Ade, Baba Mo Tunde (IndigeDisc), Most North American fans know only the shorter, radio-friendly recordings from King Sunny Ade’s earlier life on a major label, songs whittled down to mere shadows of their exuberant half-hour-long selves. Good stuff—it made die-hard fans of Stevie Wonder, Henry Rollins, and Phish’s Trey Anastasio, to name a few—but nothing compared to what King Sunny Ade and his band regularly do in Lagos, and what they knew listeners elsewhere were ready for.
This time, King Sunny Ade and his youthful, high-energy band, fresh from a reinvigorating and successful tour, decided to go for broke. 07/28/10 >> go there
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Krista Detor, Chocolate Paper Suites (Tightrope Records), There is a woman who operates at the crossroads of poetry and circus, con men and wholesome Midwesterners, between transience and the hearth. Her name is Krista Detor and her new album, Chocolate Paper Suites, brings together her signature brave Americana and indie sounds in a lush, heady set of interwoven songs. They dance from Lorca to Darwin, from Tom Waits to Aimee Mann inspired by Detor’s own big-top life. 07/28/10 >> go there
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Michèle Choinière, La Violette (michelechoiniere.com), Along the borderlands between the U.S. and Canada, a lone songbird sings with a voice clear, rich, and distinctly French. Her name is Michèle Choinière, and nestled in the northwestern Vermont woods, she continues a once thriving Franco-American oral tradition that recalls the bright cheer of kitchen parties, the wry pleasures of courtship, and the sway of a waltz. 06/15/10 >> go there
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Polaris Music Prize, The spiritual sister to the UK’s Mercury Prize, The Polaris Music Prize gathers a jury of Canada’s finest music journalists to weigh in, nominate, and argue about the best albums released each year by Canadian artists, regardless of genre or sales. In the search for the country’s greatest music statement, Arcade Fire, K’Naan, the Sadies, Feist, and Caribou have all made the list, and been the source of conversation and contention. 08/11/10 >> go there
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Rahim AlHaj, Little Earth (Ur Music) , In the dry mountains of New Mexico, an Iraqi oud (lute) master raises homing pigeons. Persecuted for a single potent song, he fled his native land, only to be deprived of his beloved instruments at the border. Yet like the birds he cares for, he has homed in a new nest, where quarter tones can be urged from accordions, rock stars and classical violinists can play Iraqi maqam, and Middle Eastern lullabies echo in Pueblo Indian words. 05/11/10 >> go there
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Real Vocal String Quartet, They bang on their violins, stomp their feet, and allow African trance music to influence their take on old timey standards. It's not their sanity that's missing; what RVSQ has lost is the ability to abide the constraints of either the old school classical world, where musicians must frequently forsake their creativity for the overall sound of the orchestra, or the often unapproachable reaches of the contemporary classical world. 12/10/09 >> go there
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Sones de México Ensemble, Fiesta Mexicana, What do a crawfish, a cowboy mouse, and a 100-year-old woman have in common? They are all characters in Fiesta Mexicana: Mexican Songs & Stories for Niños & Niñas and their Papás & Mamás (release April 24, 2010), the latest recording by Sones de Mexico Ensemble. The same band that three years ago ventured into uncharted waters with Mexican folk retoolings of Led Zeppelin’s “Four Sticks” and J.S. Bach’s “Brandenburg 3-2” for their GRAMMY™ and Latin GRAMMY™ nominated album Esta Tierra Es Tuya (This Land Is Your Land) now digs deep into Mexican folklore. 12/11/09 >> go there
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Stern Grove Festival, San Francisco, CA, A soul diva tosses aside her mic and lets her passionate voice roll over the audience as a hawk looks on. A stray sunbeam breaks through looming clouds and dashes across a renowned Indian master’s tablas as he strikes up the beat. A jubilant crowd of thousands dances to electronica-laced tango, swaying as one and leaping joyfully on stage. Butterflies and dragonflies flit past acclaimed symphonies, opera companies, and ballet dancers. 05/20/10 >> go there
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Sunset Concerts 2010, Skirball Cultural Center (Los Angeles), The open expanse of the Skirball Cultural Center’s courtyard looks peaceful nestled under the Santa Monica Mountains, but in summer, it bursts with the raucous and joyful noise of the best of the world’s musicians: Hungarian gypsies bang milk cans and Kenyan bards wield handmade fiddles, while nonagenarian Yiddish-singing piano bar veterans and soulful Cajuns, hip salsa activists, and trans-cultural divas rub shoulders with dancing neighbors of all generations, backgrounds, and lifestyles. 04/16/10 >> go there
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The Other Europeans, Summer 2010 Tour, In a far-flung corner of Europe, Yiddish and Gypsy musicians mingled. Klezmorim and lautari (Gypsy minstrels) joined to play at both Jewish and non-Jewish weddings—and wedded each other to boot. They played what the wedding guests wanted to hear, from traditional Yiddish music to the international popular hits of their day. Though romanticized and reviled as “others” elsewhere, here they formed a solid, vibrant core, until war tore their communities apart. 07/29/10 >> go there
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The Saw Doctors, August 2010 Tour, It takes a special kind of mind to leap from Ireland’s recent smoking ban to ancestral bones and urban sprawl in the space of a single folk anthem, and to get the entire bar singing at the top of their lungs at the same time. But leave it to Tuam County Galway’s The Saw Doctors and their inviting, guitar-rich, punk-infused rockabilly songs that mix pub roots with the astute Springsteen-like observation and an effortlessly popular appeal. 04/02/10 >> go there
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Wingless Angels with Keith Richards (Mindless Records), Keith Richards first encountered this music in the early 1970s on Jamaica’s northern shore, where African diaspora traditions live on. On the beach near Steer Town, one of the first Rastafarian communities in Jamaica, Richards struck up a friendship with Justin Hinds, a central figure in reggae history. Hinds was joined by local fishermen and divers, by friends, neighbors, and relatives who shared his musical and spiritual vision. They made the unprecedented move of bringing their sacred drums to Richards’ home and later into the studio. 04/20/10 >> go there
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