It's always fun to mashup different genres. World Village has two pretty interesting collaborations coming up:"Rishte" is a mix of blues/rock and Indian music, which sounds very cool, very psychedelic. It's Indian artist Najma Akhtar and Gary Lucas (Jeff Buckley, Captain Beefheart):http://www.myspace.com/worldvillagerishte"Saints & Tzadiks" is really different, a combination of Irish and Jewi...
So I had never heard of the chamame before but I think I'm a fan now. I'm checking out Chango Spasiuk who is playing at the Getty Center this weekend. He's also playing in Boston tonight and San Francisco next week. This is really enjoyable dance-y music with all kinds of elements of tango, jazz, even cajun music occasionally! It's pretty varied. This is "La Ponzona".
So I miss Mog - I don't know what happened but I haven't been on here in forever. Too many profiles to keep up with. :) Anyway, very cool news for desert blues fans:Tinariwen is coming back to the U.S. in April and playing Coachella! That should be amazing. I keep hearing good things about Terakaft now too, the taureg group that shares some former founders of Tinariwen, but whose latest al...
I posted a track from Natacha Atlas's Ana Hina before, and now she is playing at The El Rey in L.A. on November 9th! I've heard she's really great live so I'll have to check this out. She's also playing in San Francisco at the SF Jazz Festival on Nov 6th and in New York at BB King's on the 11th. This is the song they've been playing on KCRW, who is presenting the L.A. show.
Iranian kamancheh player, Kayhan Kalhor, has a new album out with a string quartet called Brooklyn Rider, entitled "Silent City". It is seriously beautiful. The music is based on folk tales except for the title track which is an original piece about the city of Halabja in Iraq which was destroyed by Saddam Hussein in the 80s. I love this piece, the opening track, "Ascending Bird". Last Satu...
I've really been enjoying this album "Lampo" by Italian musician Gianmaria Testa. It kind of quietly snuck up on me. This one is my favorite, the title track.