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World Music Festival Chicago 2013 is presented by the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events.

World Music Festival Performers

World Music Festival > Performers

Eddie Palmieri Salsa Orchestra

Eddie Palmieri

Few figures tower over the modern history of Afro-Caribbean music like pianist, composer, and bandleader Eddie Palmieri, a native New Yorker of Puerto Rican descent born in Spanish Harlem, who’s reshaped the trajectory of salsa several times in a career spanning almost 60 years. After playing in the Tito Rodriguez Orchestra for a year in the late 50s he formed his first orchestra, La Perfecta, placing a groundbreaking frontline emphasis on trombones and violins (replacing the usual flute-and-violin sound of charanga), and becoming one of the best-loved Latin dance bands of the decade. He was also a standout pianist, having fully absorbed the idiosyncratic qualities of Thelonious Monk, McCoy Tyner, and Bill Evans in his galvanizing solos. In 1970 he experimented with soul and funk with his Harlem River Drive project, and later won a Grammy in 1975, the first time the awards had recognized Latin music. Over the next couple of decades he vibrantly retooled his sound, bringing top-flight jazz soloist and experimenting with arrangements. About a decade ago he put together a new version of his old band, calling it La Perfecta II, a stunning, had-hitting combo with some of the best jazz improvisers in the biz, including long-time sidekicks Brian Lynch (trumpet) and Conrad Herwig (trombone).

Country of Origin/Based: New York/Puerto Rico

Genre: Salsa, Latin Jazz

Websites:

Plena Libre

Bassist Gary Núñez, who founded Plena Libre in Puerto Rico nearly two decades ago, clearly succeeded in his mission to revive the island’s native plena, which first appeared at the end of the 19th century and functioned as a kind of musical newspaper. The style, which is built around three tambourine-shaped frame drums called pandeiros and the scraped gourd called the guiro, and focuses on the interaction of voice and rhythm, initially failed to make the voyage to New York, where salsa took charge in the mid-20th century. But Puerto Rican bandleaders like Ismael Rivera and Rafael Cortijo quietly introduced the form, and Plena Libre made it its literal calling card, putting the form at the foundation of a multi-stylistic hybrid that made room for jazz, pop, and countless other Afro-Caribbean genres. Yet through the group’s vibrant history and technical virtuosity nothing has gotten in the way of its mission to keep the dance floor packed.

Country of Origin/Based: Puerto Rico

Genre: Plena & Bomba

Websites:

AfriCaribe

Founded in 2000 by Evaristo “Tito” Rodriguez, AfriCaribe is a community organization and group promoting the propulsive bomba rhythms of Puerto Rico with performances flush in hypnotic beats, soulful chants, and sensual dance. The group’s performances reach out to the traditional rhythms of other islands in the Caribbean and African nations through the perspective of the bomba, with a strong emphasis on storytelling and improvisation.

Country of Origin/Based: USA/Puerto Rico

Genre: Plena & Bomba

Website: www.africaribe.net

African Showboyz

The African Showboyz is Napoleon, Joseph, Isaac, Mosses and JJ Sabbah , five brothers from the remote village of Binaba in the eastern part of Ghana. Together they’ve developed an infectious attack of frenetic dance, hand percussion (including the bind douk, bin bill and tonton sanson), and chanted vocals that comes through on everything to take on, whether it’s traditional material or a Bob Marley cover. They’ve been invited to share the stage with the likes of Steel Pulse, Femi Kuti, and Stevie Wonder, and earlier this year they toured the US with the legendary drummer Mickey Hart.

Country of Origin/Based: Ghana

Genre: Ghanian Percussion and Dance

Websites:

Amjad Ali Khan with Amaan Ali Khan & Ayaan Ali Khan

Amjad Ali Khan with Amaan Ali Khan & Ayaan

The son of the storied sarod maestro Hafiz Ali Khan, Amjad Ali Khan has to rate as the greatest living sarod player in Indian classical music. (The sarod is a descendent of the Afghani rubab, smaller than the sitar, fretless, and with eight or ten strings plucked with wooden- or coconut-shell-plectrum). He gave his first recital when he was only six years old, and from that point forward he experienced a meteoric rise in the world of Hindustani music, performing internationally for more than five decades now. In recent years he’s collaborated extensively with Western classical orchestras, performing his opus Samagan with both the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and the Taipei Chinese Orchestra. He’s also extended the Ali Khan sarod bloodlines, frequently collaborating, as he will here, with his sons Amaan Ali Khan and Ayaan Ali Khan, both burgeoning virtuosos on the instrument.

Country of Origin/Based: India/USA

Genre: Indian Classical Music

Websites:

Debashish Bhattacharya, Subhasis Bhattacharya and Anandi Bhattacharya

Debashish Bhattacharya & Family

Picking up on the accomplishments of the great Brij Bhushan Kabra, who pioneered the slide guitar as an instrument in Indian classical music, Debashish Bhattacharya has spent the last couple of decades widening and finessing the instrument’s role. In fact, on his most recent recording—the aptly titled Beyond the Ragasphere—he pushes Indian classical music toward other traditions, collaborating with the likes of jazz guitarist John McLaughlin, bluegrass dobro master Jerry Douglas, and flamenco guitarist Adam del Monte. While the recording finds Bhattacharya exploring the fusion and funk sounds, he ever abandons his Hindustani music heart. His festival performance will find him in traditional mode, performing with his daughter, the vocalist Anandi Bhattacharya and his brother Subhasis Bhattacharya on percussion.

Country of Origin/Based: India

Genre: Indian Classical Slide Guitarist

Websites:

Cedric Watson & Bijou Creole

Cedric Watson

San Felipe, Texas native Cedric Watson grew up surrounded by American roots music, but it was the Cajun and Zydeco traditions that most resonated for the multi-instrumentalist and before long he’d moved to Lafayette, Louisiana, the hotbed of black Creole culture, where he began studying the local French dialect. His devotion to early Cajun music partly sparked a renewed interest in musicians like Amede Ardoin and Canray Fontenot and as a key early member of the Pine Leaf Boys, he shared those passions with an increasing fan base. Five years ago he launched his solo career, leading his own band Bijou Creole, and he’s since released two albums dominated by sturdy original material and sprinkled with classics by his predecessors like Boozoo Chavis, Michael Doucet, and Dennis McGee. Watson ignores the white/black lines that often divide Cajun and Zydeco music—for him it’s all part of Creole’s glorious culture.

Country of Origin/Based: USA/SW Lousiana

Genre: Creole Music

Websites:

Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba

Few Malian musicians have at once embraced the country’s rich musical traditions and pushed them forward like Bassekou Kouyate, a virtuoso on the Bambara spike lute called n’goni. He’s worked with some of the country’s most important artists, including kora master Toumani Diabate, guitarist Ali Farka Toure, and singer Kasse Mady Diabate among others, but over the last decade he’s increasingly concentrated on his own music. In the mid-aughts he formed Ngoni Ba, a band built entirely around musicians playing different-sized ngonis (these days his entire band is comprised of family members). He cut his latest record Jama Ko in Bamako shortly after a coup deposed Malian president Amadou Toumani Toure (a fan of Kouyate’s music), and the political developments altered the trajectory of the music. Working with Canadian producer Howard Bilerman of Arcade Fire fame, the songs decry the upheaval in Mali, where Islamic radicals had silenced music and threatened the country’s long-time multicultural tolerance. Some of the grooves are subtle reinforced by some of Bilerman’s Canadian colleagues, but Ngoni Ba’s performances ripple with ferocious indignation and commitment to Mali’s survival.

Country of Origin/Based: Mali

Genre: Malian Blues

Websites:

Sidi Touré

Sidi Touré (photo by Johnathan Crawford) Malian guitarist and songwriter Sidi Touré has become a major force on the international circuit thanks to three superb records released by Chicago’s Thrill Jockey label, and with his newest album Alafia he steps firmly out of the tall shadows cast by fellow countryman Ali Farka Touré. Part of the album had to be recorded in France when Islamic militants took control of Touré’s native Gao region last year, and, as with so many other Malian artists of late, many of the songs comment on the violent invasion, the assault on multiculturalism, and the silencing of music. As usual, Touré drew upon an impressive cast of collaborators, from the spellbinding singer Leila Gobi, who also performs at this year’s festival to fellow guitarist and rising star Baba Salah to the master flute player Cheick Diallo. A lattice of stringed instruments and pulsing hand percussion provides a rousing foundation for hypnotic chants and bluesy melodic shapes that carry on grand Songhai traditions.

Country of Origin/Based: Mali

Genre: Malian, Songhai Blues

Websites:

Los Cenzontles

Los Cenzontles (Nahuatl for “The Mockingbirds”) dig deep into Latino traditions to promote dignity, pride and cultural understanding. The group has pioneered revivals of Mexican roots music in California bringing traditions to new generations. The Mockingbirds now create a powerful new hybrid sound – creating a fresh Chicano voice for a new generation.

Fronting the group is the dynamic vocal dueto of Fabiola Trujillo and Lucina Rodriguez. The Mockingbirds effortlessly mix electric bass and drums with traditional Mexican instruments – jarana, vihuela, requinto, pandero and quijada (jawbone) – creating a powerful contemporary sound infused with the gutsy soul of Mexico’s rural roots music.

The group’s core members also operate Los Cenzontles Mexican Arts Center in San Pablo, California. The Center has been training area youth in traditional Mexican music, dance, and crafts since 1994.

Country of Origin/Based: USA/Mexico

Genre: Mexican Roots Music

Website: www.loscenzontles.com

Leila Gobi

Leila Gobi This stunning singer from the city of Menaka in Mali grew up in a conservative Tuareg family who opposed her pursuit of music, but once her stunning voice was heard while she was a student her career couldn’t be derailed. She studied at the National Institute of the Arts in Bamako and became the lead singer for the school’s performing orchestra and before long she became an in-demand backing singer for the likes of Baba Salah, Khaira Arby, and Sidi Touré, another performer at this year’s festival. Her has remarkable control of piercing, high-pitched voice, delivering nasal incantations over hypnotic bass lines accented stinging electric guitars and clopping azakalabó percussion.

Country of Origin/Based: Mali

Genre: Tuareg Vocalist & Instrumentalist: balafon, guitar, djembe; sings in Tamacheq, Songhaï, Peulh, Bambara and French.

Websites:

Palenke Soultribe

Producer/bassist Juan Diego Borda (a.k.a. Insectosound) and producer/keyboardist Andres “Popa” Erazo began collaborating in their native Bogota, Colombia back in 2001 and took another five years before they had forged its compelling electro-cumbia sound as Palenke Soultribe—its name is an adaptation of the Colombian village of San Basilio de Palenque, a legendary fulcrum for Afro-Colombian sound—and relocated to Los Angeles. While the duo’s music is driven by huge hip-hop breaks and club beats, Palenke Soultribe’s melodies cling just as tightly to the sounds of cumbia and champeta as they do global electronica.

Country of Origin/Based: USA/Colombia

Genre: Cumbia Electronico

Websites:

DJ Warp with MC Zulu

MC Zulu Chicago has hundreds upon hundreds of skilled DJs, but few can match the stylistic reach of DJ Warp (aka Brian Keigher), whose knowledge for club sounds is equaled by his deep knowledge of global grooves from India, Africa, Brazil, and beyond. (He’s also a talented live music programmer who helped make World Music Festival Chicago what it is today). For this collaboration he’s joined by regular sparring partner MC Zulu, a Panama-native who’s one of the most exciting dancehall vocalists, routinely pushing beyond the usual reggae riddims and dub sounds and experimenting with cutting-edge EDM artists like Chrissy Murderbot and David Last.

Country of Origin/Based: Panama/USA

Genre: Electro-Reggae

Websites:

We Banjo 3

Bluegrass seems like it’s becoming one of the hottest sounds—in Ireland. The Brock McGuire band—with whom We Banjo 3 banjoist Enda Scahill has worked --which returns to the festival this year, has leavened its traditional Celtic sounds with a heady dose of Kentucky bluegrass, but this young combo from Galway, Ireland dives headfirst into the music Bill Monroe made famous. The combo’s acclaimed album Roots of the Banjo Tree—picked as traditional music album of the year by the Irish Times—chronicles a sound that privileges bluegrass, and shapes it with Celtic accents.

Country of Origin/Based: Ireland

Genre: Irish Banjo Music

Websites:

Arifa

Arifa This multinational European quartet, with members from Turkey, Romania, Germany, and the Netherlands, gently and gracefully bridges east and west, delivering dulcet instrumentals the subtly merge jazz, Balkan, and Turkish traditions with melodic fluidity. The snaking, nasal clarinet lines of Alex Simu, the twangy oud arpeggios of Mehmet Polat, and the percolating hand percussion of Sjahin During are woven together by the stately, resonant piano lines of Franz von Chossy, with the combo revealing deep understandings of disparate musical traditions and caressing the commonalities between them.

Country of Origin/Based: The Netherlands

Genre: Arabic, Anatolian and Balkan music w/electronics & improvisation

Websites:

Kardemimmit

The four young women who make up this gorgeously, whimsically harmonizing group from Finland tackle a wide variety of regional traditions—reki-style singing, runo-songs, and Perhonjoki valley style—but they bring a sublimely catchy, energetic verve to all of them. While the way their sweet voices blend and contrast is the undeniable focal point of its music--as melodies both stately and hyperactive are given an accessible veneer that wouldn’t sound of place in indie rock--Kardemimmit secure their authentic folk bona fides with virtuosic use of both the 15- and 38-string versions of the Finnish zither called the kantele. Whether performing traditional songs or original compositions, the group deftly erases lines between past and present—rarely has old-school folk sound so contemporary.

Country of Origin/Based: Finland

Genre: Finnish folk, kantele

Websites:

Pacific Curls

This remarkable trio transforms an utterly unexpected, unlikely marriage of disparate music styles—Scottish fiddle music and Maori folk traditions—sound like the most natural, infectious fusion in the world. The group started as one-off recording project, but years later Rotuman guitarist Kim Halliday, who’s studied with King Crimson’s Robert Fripp, Scottish fiddler Sarah Beattie, and Maori New Zealander percussionist Ora Barlow have found bottomless depths of inspiration together, endlessly mining one effortless polystylistic gem after another. The members of Pacific Curls demonstrate a deep-seated respect for one another’s heritage, but fearlessly finds ways to combine them, using gorgeous folk-pop harmony singing as connective tissue between Pacific polyrhythms, charged Celtic melodies, and folk-pop guitar.

Country of Origin/Based: New Zealand

Genre: Celtic Fiddle and Maori Vocals

Websites:

Noura Mint Seymali

Noura Mint Seymali This powerful, throaty singer from the North African nation of Mauritania is the stepdaughter of Dimi Mint Abba, arguably the country’s greatest singer in the era of recorded music. Seymali began touring with her step-mother as a back-up singer when she was just 13, and she clearly absorbed lessons from the experience. Accompanied by a slithering yet hypnotic blend of amplified traditional regional instruments like the ardine (harp) and tidnit (lute) and hand drums, her lean band also includes electric bass and kit drumming which brings a taut funk groove to the music’s mesmerizing, arid melodies.

Country of Origin/Based: Mauritania

Genre: Diva of the "Sahel"

Websites:

Janka Nabay & The Bubu Gang

Janka Nabay & The Bubu Gang Janka Nabay is the undisputed king of bubu, a frantically-paced dance music with ancient, magical origins in Sierra Leone. The Bubu Gang are the posse of musical collaborators he has hooked up with in the US (featuring members of Skeletons and Gang Gang Dance among others), to create a wild, high-octane juggernaut of call-and-response vocal interplay, juddering dancefloor rhythms, synths and guitars: throw in a taste for tearaway improvisation and you have an absolute blast of a sound, that keeps it quick, loose and natural and runs on pure musical joy. Ready to hit hard and true in full band format at festivals worldwide in 2012. An EP drops on True Panther Sounds in March before a full-length album on David Byrne’s Luaka Bop label later in the year.

Country of Origin/Based: Sierra Leone

Websites:

Baladino

This quintet may hail from Israel, but its music extends beyond its homeland’s borders to provide a sophisticated, melodic fusion of Mediterranean sounds. Baladino produces a jazz-tinged mash-up of sounds from Turkey, Sephardic Spain, Greece, and North Africa that finds and caresses musical commonalities. The grooves sculpted by upright bassist Adam Ben Ezra and hand percussionist Yshai Afterman provide propulsion and space, carving out a generous platform for the jaunty, sweet vocals of Yael Badash, the airy horn lines of Yonnie Dror, and the piquant guitar, oud, violin, and bouzouki of Tomer Moked.

Country of Origin/Based: Israel

Genre: Traditional & Contemporary Middle Eastern music - Vocalist sings in Ladino

Websites:

Leni Stern African Trio

Leni Stern African Trio About a decade ago the music of West Africa exerted its grip on the acclaimed German jazz guitarist Leni Stern who moved to the US in 1977, and later worked with musicians like Bill Frisell and Paul Motian—she’s also married to longtime Miles Davis guitarist Mike Stern. The influence transformed her own music, and while she continues to draw upon her improvisational skill, her work is rooted in the sounds of a continent from where she grew up. Stern was in Bamako working on her latest album Smoke, No Fire when Islamic radicals infiltrated a Tuareg uprising in the country’s northern region and threatened the stability of the nation, but she remained in Mali, recording with guests like singer Amy Sacko—wife of ngoni master Bassekou Kouyate—and the rapper Woroferela Moden. She performs with her long-time trio (bassist Mamadou Ba and percussionist Alioune Faye).

Country of Origin/Based: Germany/Mali/New York

Genre: Ngoni musician

Websites:

Mono Blanco

Founded in Mexico City in 1977, through personnel changes over the decades Mono Blanco has maintained a fierce devotion to promoting son jarocho, the popular rural string band music from the Veracruz region of Mexico marked by vigorous, soulful vocals and a piquant yet propulsive lattice of stringed instruments—jarana, guitar, Mexican harp, and guitarron. The music Mono Blanco plays represents the cultural collisions of indigenous Indians, Spanish colonialists and African slaves—yet another vibrant, positive impact of a destructive historical episode.

Country of Origin/Based: Mexico

Genre: Son Jarocho

Websites:

M.A.K.U. SoundSystem

M.A.K.U. SoundSystem M.A.K.U SoundSystem is a New York-based Colombian band playing music that is traditional at its core, but with a futuristic spin that is distinctly M.A.K.U. Basing their rhythmic foundation on Colombian folkloric music, the band diverts from tradition by inflecting their sound with decidedly more modern synthesizers, and musical influences ranging from jazz, psychedelic rock, punk, afro-beat, regg...ae, and soul. This 8-musician ensemble was born in Queens in 2010 and uses an array of instruments in heavy rotation on stage and in the studio, including drums, Colombian drums, guitar, bass, vocals, horn, clarinet, trombone, traditional Colombian instruments such as maracas and gaitas (long indigenous flutes), and synthesizers – to name a few. Most of the band members are Colombian immigrants who currently live, work, and play in New York City. Each of the musicians, regardless of origin, adds in his/her own interpretations and experiences to every M.A.K.U. song, both musically and lyrically, contributing to that indefinable quality in their songs that can only be defined as M.A.K.U.

Country of Origin/Based: USA

Genre: Colombian Folkloric Music

Websites:

Fatbook

Fatbook (Kelli Morrison Photography) This Chicago dance septet sets the dance floor with a hard-hitting mixture of funk, pop, soul, reggae, hip-hop and stylistic ingredients from Brazil and parts of Africa. Their explosive performances leave little question why they’ve become jam band favorites, with a reputation spreading rapidly across the country.

Country of Origin/Based: USA/Chicago

Genre: Roots Reggae

Websites:

Max ZT & Ajit Deshmukh

Max ZT has come a long way since entertaining shoppers at the Evanston Farmers Market with his hammer dulcimer. Now based in Brooklyn he’s become something of an alt-pop auteur with his moody instrumental band House of Waters, but he’s also developed into a virtuoso of the Indian classical music instrument the santoor, which he’s studied under the maestro Shivkumar Sharma. He’ll perform Hindustani music here, joined by the young tabla virtuoso, Ajit Deshmukh.

Country of Origin/Based: India/USA

Genre: Indian Classical Music

Websites:

Aditya Prakash

The young Carnatic singer Aditya Prakash represents a new multi-pronged approach in Indian music, balancing a mastery of its rich classical tradition with openness to new forms and styles. Starting when he was 16 he was a featured singer with sitar legend Ravi Shankar and he’s also worked with the great Shujaat Khan, but since earning a BA in ethnomusicology from UCLA his music has broadened to incorporate elements of jazz and western harmony. He’s also composed for the dancer Mythili Prakash.

Country of Origin/Based: India/USA

Genre: Traditional Carnatic vocal concert

Websites:

Lyon Leifer with Kalapriya Dance Ensemble

Chicago’s Lyon Leifer is a peculiar musician in that he’s developed a mastery of both Western and Indian classical traditions, playing the western flute in the former and the bansuri when working within the latter. He grew up studying Western classical music, attending Juilliard School of Music under the tutelage Julius Baker. But his interest in Indian sounds let him to the subcontinent on a Fulbright grant where he studied under Devendra Murdeshwar. Today he’s the principal flutist in Ars Viva Orchestra and the Lake Forest Symphony Orchestra, but for his festival concert he’ll demonstrate his fluency in Hindustani music in a performance with Chicago’s acclaimed Kalapriya Dance Ensemble.

Country of Origin/Based: India/USA

Genre: Indian Classical Music & Dance

Websites:

Rakesh Chaurasia & Shashank Subramanyam

This very special jugalbandi (or duet) performance features Rakesh Chaurasia and Shashank Subramanyan, two of Indian classical music’s greatest practitioners of the bansuri (bamboo flute). The former is the nephew of the legendary Hariprasad Chaurasia, the greatest flutist of the modern era in Indian classical music, and focuses on Hindustani music, while Subramanyan was a child prodigy that began performing when he was just six: he went on to study under Pandit Jasraj, and deals primarily with Carnatic music. Both musicians possess serious melodic gifts, and when they join forces performances border on the sublime, with one flourish of ethereal, lyric curlicues, swoops, and elaborate melodic shapes following one another and overlapping in a feast for the ears. They are joined by Sai Giridhar on mridangam and Subha Jyothi Guha on tabla.

Country of Origin/Based: India

Genre: Indian Classical Music

Websites:

Kunal Gunjal

Kunal Gunjal is a young virtuoso of the santoor, a variant of the Persian santur used in Indian classical music. The instrument is rectangular, usually possesses at least 72 strings, and is played with lightweight mallets. Gunjal is a student of the santoor master Shivkumar Sharma, and his playing evinces a swift, lyric virtuosity.

Country of Origin/Based: India/USA

Genre: Indian Classical Music

Website: www.kunalsantoor.com

Soumik Datta & Salar Nader

One of the highlights of this year’s Ragamala is the abundance of up-and-coming talent from the world of Indian classical music, and the 28-year old British sarod master Soumik Datta offers a case in point. He’s collaborated with international crossover artists like Talvin Singh and Nitin Sawhney, but his heart belongs to Hindustani traditional music. He’s a student of the great Buddhadev Das Gupta. He’s joined by the young California tabla master Salar Nader.

Country of Origin/Based: UK/USA/India

Websites:

Shamsher Singh

One of four tabla players that include Salar Naderm, Ajit Deshmukh and Nishad Parmer that will perform in the festival's RagaMala event will get together for an early morning percussion discussion. Saler Nader, Shamsher Singh, Ajit Deshmukh, and Nishad Parmer not only represent a new generation of burgeoning tabla masters, but they’re disciples of the great Zakir Hussain. Perhaps no other percussionist in Indian classical music has done more to open the tradition up to new audiences, not just through his jaw-dropping virtuosity, but through his energy and open-mindedness. This performance allows us to get a fantastic glimpse of the next generation of Indian tabla.

Country of Origin/Based: India/USA

Genre: Indian Classical Music

Website:

www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=422614878116

Aditya Sharma and Ajit Deshmukh

Aditya Sharma is a young practitioner of the art of Indian classical music. The prize-winning singer of Hindustani music has studied under the likes of Ulhas Kashalkar, Vidyadhar Vyas, and Shri Madhup Mudgal. He performs here with Chicago tabla player Ajit Deshmukh, who’s studied under the tutelage of Shyam Kane and Zakir Hussain. Ajit Deshmukh has been playing tabla for over twenty years under the tutelage of Pandit Shyam Kane as well as his guru and maestro, Ustad Zakir Hussain, both of the legendary Punjab gharana, or “school of music”. Some of the other notables he has accompanied include singers Vinay Bhide; Pandit Raja Kale, senior disciple of Pandit Jitendra Abhisheki; Anuradha Marathe; and Madhav Gudi, senior disciple of Pandit Bhimsen Joshi.

Country of Origin/Based: India/USA

Genre: Indian Classical Music

Websites:

Nishad Parmar

Stemming from a family of musical genius and drawn to his passion for rhythm and melody, Nishad Parmar has been a student of Tabla for over two decades. Originally receiving his training from his father, Bharat Parmar of Delhi Gharana, he developed and expanded his talent in North Indian Classical music through his mother, renowned vocalist Kalpana Bharat. As his age and skill level progressed, Nishad received opportunities to learn from the very best: Aashim Kumar Karmokar, disciple of Ustad Allah Rakha of Punjab Gharana, and currently with the Tabla Maestro himself, Ustad Zakir Hussain.

Country of Origin/Based: India

Genre: North Indian Classical Music

Sur Musafir

Sur Musafir Sponsored by the University of Chicago, this vocal ensemble is comprised of students, school faculty, and community members interested in the vocal traditions of Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and South Asian diasporas.

Country of Origin/Based: South Asian/USA

Genre: Indian Classical Music

Websites:

Indrajit Banerjee

Indrajit Banerjee is an A-grade artist of All India Radio and television and also an approved artist of I.C.C.R (Govt. of India). He takes a special interest in teaching, he has some outstanding students and a following across the world in this regard.

Subrata Bhattacharya

Subrata Bhattacharya is one of the leading tabla players in India today. Few tabla players have enjoyed such instant recognition and acclaim among concert audiences. Subrata's solo renderings reveal his knowledge of the art and his creativity at their best.

Nirmalya Roy

Nirmalya Roy a Sangeet Visharad, had consistently achieved top positions in music competitions including Khayal at Rajya Sangeet Academy, All India Music Competition, Music India Competition of Ghazals and Golden Talent Contest.

Chicago Afrobeat Project

Chicago Afrobeat Project embarked as one of the first nationally touring American bands to take the sound to the masses. Over the years the band has mastered a sound that successfully weaves the uniqueness of the Chicago music scene with a distinct western-influenced Nigerian style of music. Last year the group performed with Seun Kuti (son of the late Fela Kuti) and featured Sahr (the original actor portraying Fela in the Broadway musical) as a part of the official Fela! musical kick off party in Chicago. In the past with artists the group has performed with notables such as Bill Kreutzman of the Grateful Dead, Jeff Parker of Tortoise, Paul Wertico, Steve Kimmock, Sugar Blue, Howard Levy, and many others.

Country of Origin/Based: USA/Chicago

Genre: Afrobeat

Websites:

Fandanguero

Fandanguero, a Chicago-based Folkloric ensemble was established in 2004. Jesus Rojas, along with his son, Emiliano Rojas have played a substantial role in interpreting and representing two significant Latin American genres of music. The first genre is Son Jarocho which is a 300 year-old tradition that originated in Veracruz, México and the second is Son Montuno which originated in Cuba. Fandanguero maintains their originality without forgetting the deep-rooted origins of the music. Their interpretations encompass a motif of American music, poetry, African spiritual drumming and mystical indigenous expression.

Country of Origin/Based: USA/Chicago

Genre: Latin American Music

Website: www.fandanguero.com

Joan Soriano with Latin Street Dance Academy

The early pioneers of bachata, the rustic guitar-driven folk music of the Dominican Republic, probably wouldn’t recognize its current global manifestation of the style in the chart-topping sounds of former Aventura singer Romeo Santos. Thankfully we have the soulful Joan Soriano to remind us of what uncut, old-school bachata sounds like. Soriano was first introduced the global scene as the guitarist and singer working behind legends like Ramon Cordero and El Chino Sin Le, but in recent years he’s stepped out as a headliner himself, earning the sobriquet “El Duque de la Bachata.” More recently he enlisted family members to sing and play alongside him on La Familia Soriano. You can hear the classic high-velocity, liquid guitar patterns in Soriano’s quietly virtuosic playing and he’s a wonderful, soulful singer, too.

Country of Origin/Based: Dominican Republic

Genre: Bachata

Websites:

Mamadou Kelly

Singer and guitarist Mamadou Kelly hails from Niafunke, Mali—the homeland for so-called Malian blues—where he worked in the bands of some of the style’s most important and influential practitioners, Ali Farka Toure and Afel Bocoum. The imposition of Shariah law by Islamic radicals who briefly took over the country’s northern region forced Kelly to flee his hometown for Bamako, although he has returned home since French troops routed the invaders, but the peace is shaky, and he’s a key part of the effort to take the annual Festival in the Desert on its exile tour of the US. His music is marked by cyclical, spindly guitar patterns and primitive fiddle accents of clip-clopping calabash beats, with his clenched, declamatory singing imparting as much wisdom and emotion as any pyrotechnics could ever accomplished.

Country of Origin/Based: Mali

Genre: Desert Blues guitarist

Websites:

Krar Collective

This London trio of Ethiopian expats formed in 2007 to entertain fellow immigrants from their homeland at weddings, community functions, and cultural festivals, naming itself after the traditional six-string lyre. But before long word got out about the group’s high-energy take on old-school Ethiopian sounds, and its audience quickly grew beyond the community. Last year the group released its stunning debut album Ethiopia Super Krar, where Temesgen Zeleke alternates between the guitar-like electric krar, the spindly and resonant acoustic krar, and the floor-rumbling bass krar. He takes turns singing with the stunning female vocalist Genet Assefa, invoking the most ancient Ethiopian melodies but bringing a decidedly contemporary drive to its repertoire, with propulsion provided by the masterful kebero drumming of Robel Taye.

Country of Origin/Based: UK/Ethiopia

Genre: Krar, kebero drums and vocals

Websites:

Nicolae Feraru & His Gypsy Band

Since immigrating to the United States, Nicolae Feraru has perpetuated the Gypsy traditional music he learned from his father, and other lautari, or minstrels, in his native Romania. The second youngest of seven children, Feraru was born in 1950 in Bucharest, Romania, into a musical family. Feraru's father played the tambal mic (small cimbalom, or dulcimer in the Romanian tradition) and cobza (lute). Despite the warning from his father against becoming a musician because of the long, sleepless, weekend-long weddings, Feraru took up the cimbalom anyway. His father then arranged for him to take lessons on the tambal mic from Mitica Ciuciu-Marinescu, one of the leading Romanian performers on the large cimbalom. From him, Feraru learned formal harmony and theory, but most of the learning was through observation and imitation of the master musician.

Country of Origin/Based: USA/Romania

Genre: Romanian Gypsy Music

Website: nicolaeferaru.com

Dr. L. Subramaniam

Violin master L. Subramanian has spent most of his career pushing against the boundaries of Indian classical music, collaborating with the likes of jazz guitarist John McLaughlin, classical flautist Jean-Pierre Rampal, and Stevie Wonder, among others, as well as melding his native traditions with western classical music. But his artistic core remains Carnatic music, where his improvisational genius and traditional knowledge is beyond compare—he’s arguably the greatest violinist in the history of Indian music. Subramanian will perform Carnatic music at the festival, joined by his daughter Bindu Subramanian, a rising singer in Indian music.

Country of Origin/Based: India

Genre: Carnatic Classical Indian violinist

Websites:

Qawal Najmuddin Saifuddin & Brothers

This rousing ensemble from Karachi, Pakistan boasts direct lineage to the 13th century musicians and singer assembled by the poet Amir Khusrau: the first practitioners of qawwali music. The Sufi devotional music was first introduced to the west in the 90s by the charismatic virtuoso Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, but Qawal Najmuddin Saifuddin & Brothers contains multiple lead singers, all of them brothers, taking turns in spirited call-and-response with the ensemble’s backing vocalists. Rarely is religious music so electric, as a chanted choruses, fervent hand claps, frenetic tabla rhythms, and woozy harmonium melodies, celebrate the divine in Punjabi, Farsi, and Urdu.

Country of Origin/Based: Pakistan

Genre: Qawal Ensemble - Family lineage dates to 13th Century

Websites:

www.qawalbachchay.com/?page_id=1209

Nawal

Nawal Nawal, one of the greatest voices of the Comoros Islands (off the eastern coast of Africa, in the Indian Ocean) returns to World Music Festival: Chicago for the third time in its history. Her intensely focused, intimate work bridges the gap between African rhythms and Arabic sonorities, and on her most recent album Embrace the Spirit she conducted a mesmerizing solo meditation drawing only on her warm, husky voice and frame drums, mbira, and the Swahili gambusi lute. When she plays with her own band the music becomes more melodic and extroverted, without surrendering the almost ritualistic intimacy.

Country of Origin/Based: Comoros Islands

Genre: Vocalist and multi-instrumentalist; African and Arabic instrumentation

Websites:

Slowbots

Slowbots singer Yasmin Ali was trained in traditional Pakistani music and counts the brilliant qawwali singer Abida Parveen as a key influence, but she also names Jeff Buckley as an important inspiration as well. This new Chicago band effortlessly moves in out of Southeast Asian textures, modes, and Urdu language singing into slinky, sophisticated pop-rock, without a hiccup. That easy grace is thanks to the varied experience of her band mates, who collectively have worked with the likes of Common, Dwele, and the DuPage Symphony Orchestra.

Country of Origin/Based: Pakistan/USA/Chicago

Genre: Traditional Pakistani music

Website: www.facebook.com/Slowbots?ref=hl

Brock McGuire Band

Brock McGuire Band Button accordionist Paul Brock and fiddler Manus McGuire are two of the most respected and acclaimed instrumentalists in Irish traditional music, but in recent years they’ve used their partnership to extend the reach of the practice. The group has incorporated the transplanted sounds of Irish music from the US, namely bluegrass and Appalachian roots. The group’s most recent album Blue Grass Green Grass, which includes contributions from the likes of Ricky Skaggs and Aubrey Haynie, dissolves the differences imposed by the Atlantic Ocean: few artists have been able to so effectively locate the shared traits of two related traditions like this combo from County Clare, Ireland.

Country of Origin/Based: Ireland

Genre: Irish Folk Music

Websites:

The Scientist Meets Ted Sirota’s Heavyweight Dub with special guests Shinehead & General Jah Mikey

The Scientist Meets Ted Sirota’s Heavyweight Dub with special guests Shinehead & General Jah Mikey Jamaica’s Scientist (aka Hopeton Brown) has long been one of the most daring and accomplished producers in all of dub reggae, learning his craft from the legendary King Tubby. The dubmaster enlisted by Chicago drummer and bandleader Ted Sirota for his new project Heavyweight Dub, a jazz-wise excursion into island mixology. Sirota is well-known for his membership in the Green Mill house band Sabertooth and for leading the style-hopping jazz ensemble Rebel Souls, which has regularly mixed doses of reggae and Afrobeat into its repertoire. The group includes some of the city’s finest players: reedist Cameron Pfiffner, bassist Matt Ferguson, percussionist Chris Paquette, guitarists Andrew Trim and Mike Dangeroux, keyboardist Tom Vaitsas, trombonist Matthew Davis, electronicst Anthony Abbinanti, and vocalists Paul Mabin and Yanira Marin. Scientist will do a live dub mix and they’ll be joined by special guest singer General Jah Mikey and Chicago rapper Diverse. Shinehead and Jah Mikey will play a dancehall set to open the show.

Country of Origin/Based: USA/Jamaica

Genre: DUB

Website: www.tedsirota.com

Christine Salem

Christine Salem (photo credit: Evangeline Kim) Hailing from the Reunion Island--in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Madagascar--Christine Salem has emerged as one of the few female and best exponents of the once-banned song form called maloya, a trance-oriented voice-and-percussion style outlawed by the Catholic Church until 1981. Improvised call-and-response vocals lie at the heart of the form—a kind of analog to the work songs and field hollers of slaves of the American south—but in the hands of Salem the tradition has been subtly updated. Her deep, husky voice—which conveys the gravity of Nina Simone—is front-and-center, nimbly slaloming through her group’s polyrhythmic hand percussion, with certain phrases repeated and transformed by a small chorus. The charismatic singer plays the tray-shaped percussion instrument called the zayamb, made from sugar cane stalks, shaking it as her voice enchants and mesmerizes.

Country of Origin/Based: Reunion

Websites:

DakhaBrakha

DakhaBrakha This raucous combo from Kiev, Ukraine has an abiding love for its local musical culture, but that hasn’t stopped them from retooling it, bringing a high-energy blend of hip-hop, art-rock, and rhythms and textures from as far abroad as India, Brazil, and the Middle East. But what prevents DakhaBrakah from sounding like post-modern smart alecks is deep-seated musicality and commitment to privilege Carpathian sounds above all else: the piercing, otherworldly female harmonies steeped in ritual chant, haunting mountain melodies, and local rhythms. The ensemble began in 2004, emerging from the experimental scene, but most of its members have rigorous training in folklore; they put it to good use.

Country of Origin/Based: Ukraine

Genre: Ukrainian folk & improvisation

Websites:

Bloco Maximo

This 12-strong percussion troupe from Chicago plays the Carnival music of Brazil, creating a towering wall of beats to transport the listener to the wildest of samba parades in Salvador. Bloco Maximo delivers non-stop grooves, summoning the spirit and sound of groups like Olodum and Ile Aiye.

Country of Origin/Based: USA/Brazil

Websites:

Magic Carpet

This expansive instrumental Chicago sextet deliver a Magic Carpet of sound, one that flies effortlessly around the globe to sculpt a jazz-wise celebration of international grooves and traditions, particularly music from Africa and the Middle East. Saxophonist Fred Jackson is a heavy hitter on Chicago’s potent jazz scene, and he brings that sound world and his improvisation chops to the fore, shaping spiritual solos over head-nodding beats meted out by drummer Makaya McCraven, bassist Patrick Hicks, percussionist Ryan Mayer, and guitarist Timuel Bey. Keyboardist Teddy Aklilu is an Ethiopian native and he brings a refreshing dash of his homeland’s distinctive pentatonic funk to the proceedings, especially on a tune like “Funky Mulatu,” a tribute to the influential Mulatu Astatke.

Country of Origin/Based: USA

Genre: World/Funk

Website: www.sonicbids.com/2/EPK/?epk_id=73149#bio

Babá Ken Okulolo & The Nigerian Brothers

Babá Ken Okulolo & The Nigerian Brothers Before relocating to San Francisco in 1985 bassist and bandleader Babá Ken Okulolo had gained serious experience with some of Nigeria’s most important musicians: Dr. Victor Olaiya, Anikulapo Fela Kuti, Joni Haastrup’s Monomono, and King Sunny Ade & African Beats, with whom he first toured the US. His vast experience playing numerous Nigerian styles—highlife, Afrobeat, juju—has allowed him to become a major figure on his own, leading several different bands in the Bay Area, including the funky Afro-Groove Connexion, the gently percolating, infectious West African Highlife Band, and the hypnotic acoustic bring he brings to Chicago, the Nigerian Brothers. On the group’s album Songs From the Village harmonious, tender group vocals float over a thick bed of polyrhythmic beats crowned by expressive talking drums and pretty guitar arpeggios for a sound at once sunny, soothing, and propulsive.

Country of Origin/Based: US/Nigeria

Genre: Nigerian Village & Afropop Music

Websites:

Las BomPleneras

Las BomPleneras As its name suggests, this all-female Chicago percussion ensemble is dedicated to spreading the gospel of the Puerto Rican rhythmic forms bomba and plena. While the group is devoted to keeping dance floors busy, part of its mission is to fill its members as well as female audiences with a sense of empowerment as it tries to preserve aspects of the island’s musical culture.

Country of Origin/Based: USA/Puerto Rico

Genre: Plena & Bomba

Websites:

Pejman Hadadi & Imamyar Hasanov

Pejman Hadadi is one of the greatest living practitioners of Persian classical music, a studied rhythmic force steeped in tradition but one with the creative imagination to push the music forward. He’s worked extensively with most of Iran’s most acclaimed traditional musicians, including Hossein Alizadeh, Shahram Nazeri, Homayoun Shajarian, Parisa, Sima Bina, and Ali Akbar Moradi. In this project with the Azeri kamancha master Imamyar Hasanov—who moved to the US from his native Baku in 1999 and later became the global director of the San Francisco World Music Festival —Hadadi bridges borders, although Persian and Azeri classical music share many traits. On their recording Sound of My Soul Hasanov plays gorgeously astringent, slashing lines on his spike fiddle, tracing out one sorrowful yet lyric melody after another, while Hadadi serves up stately rhythms that ebb-and-flow around his partners improvisations, heating up and cooling down as called for.

Country of Origin/Based: USA/ Azerbaijan/ Iran

Genre: Kamancha & Percussion

Websites:

www.pejmanhadadi.com/awards.aspx/

Fareed Haque & the Flat Earth Ensemble

Chicago’s Fareed Haque was born to Chilean and Pakistani parents and has to rank as one of the world’s most stylistically curious guitarists. Although he’s a jazz guitarist at heart, he’s never allowed that categorization to box him in and over the years he’s freely explored all kinds of genres and hybrids, from jam band sounds with his group Garaj Mahal, Latin jazz with the great Cuban reedist Paquito D’Rivera, straight-up classical guitar, and Eastern European and classical sounds with Goran Ivanovic. There’s no missing his affection for sounds from the Indian subcontinent in his project Flat Earth Ensemble, a groove-oriented combo where extended, fluid improvisation ripples through electric rhythms that borrow from fusion, bhangra, and Indian classical modes, among other sources.

Country of Origin/Based: US/Pakistan/Chile

Websites:

fareed.com/flat-earth-ensemble

Lulacruza

Lulacruza (Photo by: Lula Bauer) Colombia’s Alejandra Ortiz and Argentinean Luis Maurette met in Boston while studying at the Berklee College of Music, and though the electronic textures and beats that course their seductive music reflect the international present, there’s no missing that the instrumental details and beguiling melodies come from their respective South American cultures. The duo recalls the highly idiosyncratic sounds of Juana Molina, situating elegant, quirky pop melodies within electronic dreamscapes, but the arrangements are distinguished by the presence of indigenous instruments like cuatros, charangas, cuatro, and Amazonian flutes.

Country of Origin/Based: Colombia/Argentina

Genre: Electronic Folk Duo

Websites:

www.lulacruza.com/

Janusz Prusinowski Trio

The music of this dynamic Polish ensemble is rooted in the traditional village sounds of central Poland, especially the centuries old dance style called the mazurka, a fast-paced triple time style full of herky-jerk accents. Most of the group’s four (not three) members are virtuosos of multiple instruments; leader Janusz Prusinowski sings and plays fiddle, Polish accordion, dulcimer, and harmonium; Michal Zak plays the shawm, wooden flutes, and clarinet; Piotr Piszczatowski plays tambourine, baraban drum, fiddle, and sings; and Piotr Zgorzelski plays bass and sings. Prusinowski grew up in a small village and learned his group’s repertoire from his elders. But in addition to playing traditional dance music, Janusz Prusinowski Trio has also collaborated with some of Poland’s greatest jazz musicians including Tomasz Stanko and explored the folkloric roots of Frederic Chopin’s music.

Country of Origin/Based: Poland

Genre: Traditional Music from Polish Lowlands

Websites:

Andreas Kapsalis & Goran Ivanovic

Andreas Kapsalis & Goran Ivanovic This long-running, well-loved Chicago guitar duo isn’t just about two disparate players merging their work together—it’s also about two distinct individuals using music to combine cultures, drawing out similarities and making differences sparkle. The duo’s dazzling new album Blackmail reinforces its fluid beauty as elements of Balkan folk, jazz, flamenco, Greek traditional music, and European classical modes collide and caress one another beautifully. Andreas Kapsalis, who grew up in Chicago’s western suburbs first met Croatian expat Goran Ivanovic in 2005 and since getting together the duo’s lyric sound has grown more assured, melodically generous, and graceful.

Country of Origin/Based: USA

Websites:

Paulinho Garcia

Guitarist and singer Paulinho Garcia has arguably been Chicago’s greatest practitioner of Brazilian music styles like samba, bossa nova, and bossa-jazz for decades, an inexhaustible source of tradition, collaboration, and good vibes. The Bela Horizonte, Brazil native moved to Chicago in 1979, at the age of 31, and quickly became involved in the city’s expat musical community, working with the group Made in Brazil and later his own project Jazzmineiro. Since then he’s forged long-lasting partnership with jazz musicians like saxophonist Greg Fishman (Two for Brazil) and another duo with the Polish singer Grazyna Auguscik. On his own he brings out the buoyant rhythms and airy harmonies of bossa nova with natural grace and ease.

Country of Origin/Based: USA/Brazil

Genre: Brazilian Samba/Bossanova Singer-Songwriter

Websites:

Debo Band

Debo Band (photo by: Shawn Brackbill) This Boston combo includes Ethiopian expats and locals with no connection the East African nation other than a deep-seated love for its music, but since beginning in 2006 Debo Band has developed into an undeniable force in Ethiopian music, deftly reinventing classics from Ethiopia’s Golden Era in the late 60s and early 70s as well as more ancient repertoire. Last year the group released its debut full-length album on the Seattle rock label Sub Pop, and the album vividly demonstrated how the group—led by reedist Danny Mekonnen and singer Bruck Tesfaye—transforms songs made famous by the likes of Alemayehu Eshete, Getachew Mekuria, and Mahmoud Ahmed, among others with novel instrumentation including tuba and violins. The recording also includes some original material that shows Debo Band has become a true force to be reckoned with. Of course, the album can’t hold a candle to the group’s explosive performances.

Country of Origin/Based: Ethiopia/USA

Genre: Ethiopian Pop

Websites:

deboband.com