Around the World
Los Van Van Revisit US From Cuba With Hopes for No Protest Sideshows
Something very exciting is expected to happen when Los Van Van kick off their first US tour in nine years with shows at Los Angeles' Conga Room on Dec. 2 and 3: ... Read More »
Marc Ribot Makes Classical Musician Case for Haitian Guitarist Frantz Casseus
Marc Ribot, a musician with a voracious appetite for Caribbean sounds, would strike up conversations with Haitian-born cab drivers about such things as he navigated around his hometown of New York. ... Read More »
Gigi Sings Hope Songs for Ethiopia -- With Hopes for a Homecoming
The singer known as Gigi is trying to make plans to return to her native Ethiopia for the first time since 1997, hoping to play a concert on Jan. 7 – the Ethiopian Orthodox Christmas. ... Read More »
Ranjit Barot Lights His Indian Fusion Fuse With John McLaughlin and Zakir Hussain
Ranjit Barot had been born in England but moved to his family's native India in the late 1960s when he was 10. By any standards, it was a time of rich experience, at least musically. ... Read More »
Ian Brennan's Rwanda Music Search Literally Finds the Good Ones
Ian Brennan was sitting outside a house in Kigali, Rwanda one July night in 2009. Out of the shadows appeared two young men, holding something between them. ... Read More »
'AfroCubism' Circles Back to Complete Buena Vista's Cuba-Mali Connection
Christina Jaspars There wasn't a lot of talking in Madrid's Studio Sonoland on a day near the end ... Read More »
Huun Huur Tu Gallop Back to Tuva's Traditions With a Saddlebag of New Tricks
The ancient Tuvan song 'Chyraa-Khoor,' explains Radik Tyulyush of the Tuvan band Huun Huur Tu, tells the story of a man riding his horse – a yellow trotter, as the title translates. ... Read More »
Psychedelic Aliens: Ghana Rock History Is Unearthed After 40 Years
It's just eight songs long, less than 24 minutes of music. But midway through 'Psycho African Beat,' compiling the entire recorded output of Ghanaian band the Psychedelic Aliens, there's a very cool epiphany. ... Read More »
Mohammed Alidu Takes the Talking (and Teaching) Drum Back Home to Ghana
Mohammed Alidu has a lot of packing to do. The practitioner of the West African talking drum is about to head out as a featured performer with the cast of worldwide buskers on the Playing for Change tour. ... Read More »
Joan Soriano Stays Loyal to His Bachata Roots in the Dominican Republic
At one point in the documentary DVD that comes as a bonus with Dominican Republic musician Joan Soriano's new 'El Duque de la Bachata' album, Soriano is seen in a Santo Domingo television studio. ... Read More »
Tom Zé Keeps Messing With Brazilian Music Traditions
The answers to a series of questions come back in an e-mail in Portuguese with English translations, though at the end is a note from the subject himself, written in slightly broken English, all capitals: ... Read More »
Keith Richards Gives Jamaica's Wingless Angels Flight Once Again
It's easy to guess what bonded Keith Richards with the deep-roots Rastafarians of rural Jamaica years ago. ... Read More »
Toubab Krewe Are Rolling From Bonnaroo to Bamako With 'TK2'
Drew Heller, guitarist for the North Carolina-based Afro-jam band Toubab Krewe, is standing in a Nashville parking lot talking on his cell phone about the band's musical journey. ... Read More »
King Sunny Ade Goes to Some Lengths for New Album's Fuller Sounds
A ritual of King Sunny Ade's fans outside of Africa dating back to the release of "Juju Music," his 1982 international debut for Island Records ... Read More »
Rajasthan's Dhoad Gypsies Dig Roots From Surprising Cultures
It was an odd sight: a man in a bright orange-brocaded robe walking down the streets between the fjord-side hills of Forde, Norway, blowing out great puffs of fire from his mouth. ... Read More »
Khaira Arby's Mission From God Moves From Mali to America
Not only is Malian singer Khaira Arby finally giving her first concerts in North America after more than 20 years as a professional singer at home ... Read More »