iLatin Jazz Mini-Fest 2014, “There is a whole new generation of Latin Jazz players, from all over the world,” enthuses Emerson Bran, the founder of the iLatin Jazz Mini-Festival, a new endeavor in Los Angeles to spotlight these artists. “They are playing at a ridiculously high level, and they have the right vibe and charisma to reach a wider audience.” 07/28/14 >> go there
Youn Sun Nah, Fall 2014 Tour, In Korean, it’s called han. It’s an elusive but poignant feeling, the bittersweet longing mixed with shades of pleasant melancholy. A similar emotion pervades lusophone music as saudade and ducks in and out of the blues. 07/22/14 >> go there
Willis Earl Beal, Experiments in Time (CD Baby), Some artists dive so deep into the oceans of their inner worlds that they eventually land on universal territory, mapping the secret currents and hidden crannies of the heart. In a quiet, intuitive way, Willis Earl Beal has found this path. He makes songs out of his inner world, feeling his way carefully toward what he, and he alone, wants to hear. 07/03/14 >> go there
Center Stage, 2012 Tours, Diplomacy doesn’t just happen in conference rooms or at embassies. It can burst out in classrooms and dance studios, on town greens and at local landmarks, in coffee shops and arts centers, moving from person to person, between artist and arts lover. 06/19/14 >> go there
The Bad Things, After the Inferno (Silent City Records), Seattle. The whole world knows the bands that word conjures. But they only tell one small fragment of the city’s musical story. Hidden by the noise of electric guitars and the sweet scents of gentrification, a strong, vital underground scene still flourishes. A junkyard cabaret inhabited by the underdogs and freaks, caught in the sudden glare of burlesques and little jewel box clubs. A place filled with the joyous outcasts, of celebration and commiseration. 06/18/14 >> go there
Zebrina, Hamidbar Medaber (Tzadik), Canadian jazz pianist Jonathan Feldman had an epiphany. Raised on a steady diet of Miles Davis and his former bandmates’ records like Chick Corea’s “Light as a Feather”, Feldman hadn’t really explored the music of his family’s Jewish faith. Growing up Jewish in Hamilton, ON and attending a Jewish elementary school and summer camp exposed him to some Israeli folk music and the liturgical music of the synagogue, but aside from the avant-garde offerings of clarinetist Ben Goldberg, he never checked out much klezmer music, sometimes called “Jewish Jazz”. 06/16/14 >> go there
Zongo Junction, No Discount (Electric Cowbell Records), Every journey, they say, begins with a single step. For Zongo Junction, that first footfall came in the Bay Area, when drummer and West African music explorer Charles Ferguson was young. His drum teacher began to show him the wide world of music that was waiting out there. 06/16/14 >> go there
Song of the Bird King, 2014 Summer Projects, Code: It’s a language of secrets, a precise pattern of presence and absence, sound and silence. It’s the hidden foundation of technology, covertly connecting scattered bits and bytes. Composers/percussionists Susie Ibarra and Roberto Rodriguez crack and play with code, uniting diverse but entwined projects in their new digital music initiative, Song of the Bird King. 06/09/14 >> go there
Mónica Giraldo, Que venga la vida (Polen Records), Mónica Giraldo is a woman walking two paths. The first is taking her deeper and deeper into the heart of Colombian music, surrounded by the power of her native land’s traditional rhythms. The other leads her out and away, following melodies and harmonies from overseas. 06/03/14 >> go there
Joe Purdy, Eagle Rock Fire (Mudtown Crier Records), When Arkansas songwriter Joe Purdy was told to evacuate his California home because of nearby forest fires, he didn’t pack up his dog Smalls and a couple favorite guitars. Instead he sat down and started writing a song: “Warn all the horses, warn all the riders, that the fire is coming down.” He finished the song and the evacuation warning passed. 05/28/14 >> go there
Cascada de Flores, Radio Flor (Ita Music), It’s the sound and feel of XEW, a powerful station out of Mexico that broadcast far beyond Mexico’s borders. It broke down national boundaries, and for many listeners in the early-20th century, the voices of XEW became members of the family, the music the soundtrack to daily life. It’s a warm summer evening. The windows are open, and the radio is on. As the family gathers and chats, the radio orchestra fills the living room with psaltery and violins. Piano and poetry segues into jingles and wildly romantic boleros. Finally, the deep booming voice announcing “Chucho el Roto” drifts in from the receiver. The family huddles around the radio to catch every moment of the eagerly anticipated radio drama. 05/12/14 >> go there
globalFEST @ Lincoln Center Out of Doors 2014, globalFEST, one of the most catalytic world music events in North America, goes on the road, taking over multiple locations at Lincoln Center with a globe and genre-spanning line-up in a day-long celebration. 05/07/14 >> go there
CD Baby, The Iceberg Tip Sheets, Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon and Macklemore both had their start on CD Baby and their catalog titles are still offered. Other artists, like Ingrid Michaelson and Gregory Alan Isakov have maintained independent and highly successful careers even as they’ve continued their partnerships with CD Baby. Greg Brown and Grant Lee Phillips are among musicianswho’ve dropped the old label system and run their own indie careers with the help of CD Baby. But which CD Baby artists will be the next to reach household name status? The Iceberg Tip Sheet offers a quick round up of recent and upcoming releases distributed by CD Baby, showcasing breakthrough artists, as well as cult stars and up-and-comers. 05/06/14 >> go there
The Polish Ambassador, Push Through the Pavement (Jumpsuit Records), “Every night, before we go on stage, we look each other in the eye and say let’s get loose; let’s spread the love,” smiles producer and madcap musical activist David Sugalski a.k.a. The Polish Ambassador. “We dance like crazy when we perform and that’s permission for the crowd to do the same. We encourage everyone to drop the facade of coolness and celebrate their existence, no matter where they are coming from.” 05/01/14 >> go there
Benyoro, Self-titled, Benyoro: the band is, quite literally, a meeting place. Its name, taken from Mali’s Bamana language, means precisely that. That the six-piece group would come together in NYC seems almost inevitable. The city is the polyglot home to a thousand different languages and dialects, where African music devotees can find their kindred spirits in recent émigrés from the continent. Where South African jit can nuzzle up next to merengue and the blues can sit next to Kenyan benga. 05/01/14 >> go there
Rumblefish, Musicians and labels are getting paid for well over one billion monthly YouTube views because of one company. While YouTube monetization is on the tips of tongues across the music industry, innovator Rumblefish—started by a professional musician and film composer—is in the unique position of having the most cleared copyrights (5 million) in the world and the largest number of micro-licensing partners, apps, and marketplaces of anyone in the online music space. Their multi-year head start makes them attractive to large digital distributors, deep label catalogs, and independent songwriters alike. 05/01/14 >> go there
Lost Origin Sound Series (Lost Origin Productions/Electric Cowbell), It all began with a bad cell phone connection. Musician and all-around creative instigator Jason Hamacher was about to drive into a tunnel near the DC zoo, when a friend and fellow musician called and said he had to check out “Serbian chant” for a new project the two were involved with. 04/09/14 >> go there
globalFEST @ Bonnaroo 2014, “Sounds from all over the world are seeping into the mainstream,” explains Isabel Soffer of globalFEST. “We’re here to introduce global artists to new audiences through a festival that is known for its impressive programming, where 80,000 festival goers are particularly open to new sounds. Bonnaroo is a place for discovery, much like globalFEST, so we know the artists we bring will resonate and connect.” 04/03/14 >> go there
Alejandra Ribera, La boca (Pheremone Recordings), Alejandra Ribera has a small tattoo inside each wrist. On the right, in Spanish, is the word ‘Listen’: on the left, ‘Remember.’ They’re not for display, but reminders to herself, watchwords for living and art. And she does both without compromise. 04/03/14 >> go there
Old Town School of Folk Music, Live From the Old Town School (Old Town School Recordings) 10/12/11 >> go there