I just got my notification of the line-up for one of my favorite festivals. It takes place 50 kilometers outside Barcelona, in the small city of Manresa. The 20th Fira Mediterrània de Manresa will take place October 5-8 of this year, and if you are planning a trip to Spain, don’t miss this experience. You can even combine it with a visit to the amazing Abbey of Montserrat, hewn … [Read more...]
Techno-folk or Lieder? Jitka Suranska’s Love Affair With Looping.
I’ve recently had cause to research the term “modern modernity” as it applies to music. The nice thing about this kind of research is that it leads me to revisit videos of mine that I have not looked at for a long time, and to enjoy them again. The term certainly includes advances in music technology, and so here is a video I shot three or four years ago, spotlighting an artist … [Read more...]
The Entrancing Sound of the Timple
The family of the lute has a multitude of relatives, the guitar being the most prevalent right now. But there are a number of more diminutive nieces and nephews who have shaped the music of various island cultures. The ukulele is synonymous with Hawaii, the cavaqhinho with Cabo Verde, and the cuatro with Puerto Rico; now meet the timple, the sound of the Canary Islands. … [Read more...]
Cello and Kora Epiphany: Sissoko and Segal
Cello and Kora Epiphany: Sissoko and Segal from Michal Shapiro on Vimeo. The West African kora is iconic all over the continent, so much so that Africa's international equivalent of the Grammys, held annually in South Africa, is called the Kora Awards. It has taken a while for this remarkable harp to find a way to an appreciative audience in the west, but over the past few … [Read more...]
Derek Gripper’s Classical Kora Transcriptions
The last day of WOMEX is usually taken up with an awards ceremony and last minute networking within the world music community. But this year it found me traveling through Galicia in a bus bound for the Monastery of Santa Cristina, and a concert by classically trained guitarist Derek Gripper, presented by Ecos da Pedra. It was a kind of a “those in the know” event, and I was … [Read more...]
Jim Kweskin and Geoff Muldaur at Joe’s Pub: Is it World Music?
Watching Jim Kweskin and Geoff Muldaur at Joe’s Pub a few months ago got me thinking about how I used to have a fairly pat answer when folks asked me “what is World Music?” I would answer simply “Roots Music from where you don’t live.” It was quite flexible because if you were from anywhere outside the USA, you could say that American genres like Blues, Bluegrass, Cajun, … [Read more...]
Yes, but Can You Dance to It? Lautari and 21st century Mazurka
https://vimeo.com/185373590 This is my first entry in ArtsJournal, and in presenting Lautari's ethnojazz take on Polish folk music --particularly mazurka, I hope to demonstrate something about world music, past, present and possible future. Lautari is a singularly appropriate example. The traditional music they are grounded in offers a reconnection to man’s relationship with … [Read more...]