I read two articles yesterday that have forever altered how I view Thanksgiving.

Indian Country Today, one of my favorite publications to read, ran an essay by Congressman Joe Baca about today, Native American Heritage Day, and the history behind it. Signed earlier this year by President Obama, the legislation for this remembrance was introduced by Rep. Baca, who also crafted the bill for Native American Day – the fourth Friday in September.

In his essay, Rep. Baca lists a few of the debts we owe to the Native Americans, such as Iroquois influence on our Constitution and the Navajo codetalkers during World War II. He calls on the American public to “take some time to recognize Native American Heritage Day. We must never take for granted the very first inhabitants of this continent – Native Americans, and their many contributions that have greatly enriched the United States.”

Photo: Zig Jackson

This reminded me of a fantastic book that I read several years ago called Native Roots by Jack Weatherford. In it, Weatherford describes in startling detail the many ways American Indians have enriched America:

• Woodcraft Indian youth movement, organized by Ernest Thompson Seton and based predominantly on the Native Americans’ harmonious relationship with nature, was a precursor to our Boy Scouts of America.

• Tammany Society, the Democratic Party in the 18th century, was named for Chief Tamanend, a Lenni-Lenape leader in the Delaware Valley. Not only did the Tammany Society adopt many Native customs and terms, but Chief Tammany was also elevated to a mythical status, most notably as the “Patron Saint of America.” During a time when our fledgling nation needed a distinct identity, this Native American leader who advocated peace and camaraderie provided us with the perfect symbol.

• Because the ‘New World’ presented an unusual array of sights for early European settlers, many Native American words were added into our English language: moose, caribou, raccoon, pecan, mahogany, succotash, avocado, bayou, savanna, podunk, cigar, tobacco, tomato, kayak, canoe, parka, toboggan.

• Lewis Morgan, commonly known as the Father of Anthropology, developed a friendship with Ely Parker, a Seneca Indian, and introduced the studies of kinship and human social organization.

• El Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, a descendent of the Incas, wrote extensively about the history of the U.S. before there was “a single European settlement,” thus preventing wholesale Spanish erasure of names we use today: Ocali (Ocala), Tascaluza (Tuscaloosa), Mauvila (Mobile), and Alibamo (Alabama).

• Living in a “Wooden Age”, Native Americans developed effective forest management techniques still employed today, such as controlled fires, controlled replanting and cutting firebreaks through forests.

• From 1911, explorations into the Antarctic “rely heavily on the technology, knowledge and culture of the Arctic Inuit.”

• All of Chapter 3 is dedicated to the amazing Native women (and some men) who helped guide, and save the butts of, the many, many explorers of the ‘New World.’

…

The essay, and the revisit of the book, thrilled me. They made me thankful that there was a day to honor the Native Americans and thankful for their countless contributions. That’s what these two days were supposed to be about, right? A time to be thankful.

Sure, this Thanksgiving I was thankful for everything from my family, health, and happiness to the joys of having a dishwasher. But the subsequent article I read, by the late University of Buffalo Professor John C. Mohawk, gave me an alternate perspective on the true meaning of thankfulness:

The Indians of the time had a different custom. They recognized that life, all life on the planet, is a miracle of good fortune, that it is dependent on numerous components which include earth and vegetation and water and sun and moon and in all a complex order of higher powers and that humans, as a species which is aware of this good fortune, has an obligation to express a collective statement of gratitude in joyous celebration of the good gifts of the powers of the universe. That, for the Indians, was an important part of their “old time religion.”

The good gifts of the powers of the universe. That is a simple lesson that I can carry with me to make every day Native American Heritage Day.

For other Native American contributions, here is a gallery of beautiful art pieces by Native artists.

I’ve read many tips and advice on how to temporarily stave off  wanderlust pangs until the next travel fix: mini-excursions to local sights, posting up pictures of future travel plans, etc.

By far the best method for me is listening to world music. As a music nut, I turn to my favorite songs to get me out of whatever funk I happen to be in. Music helps me heal, and music is always the best escape.

Pushing it even further, world music takes me to places and ideologies beyond my mental and physical borders.

The rhythm & percussion. The swirling strings or jangly strumming. The lilting vocals or metered chants. The fusion of odd instruments such as the mbira, the oud, the kena, the didgeridoos, the shakere, the duduk. The words in Arabic, Innu, French, Tuareg, Dioula, Yiddish, Russian, and sometimes English.

Encapsulated with the 3 to 4-min songs are all of the trials and tribulations of hundreds of cultures. Entire histories, laments, proclamations of faith, heartbreak, manifestos against corruption, hope.

In world music, I have found octogenarians with a new musical chance, a blind couple rising to stardom, a rebel band born out of a refugee camp, a gypsy hip-hop act, and a reggae artist from Africa.

In world music, I’ve seen regular human beings from differing walks of life and religion work together harmoniously — an act that seems so hard for many other regular human beings to accomplish.

These elements of sound and instrumentation and languages are not things you find in our regular U.S. surroundings.

That’s my point: what better way to “travel” beyond your current space than to enjoy the music?

More than the most vivid photographs, more than the most gorgeous writing, it’s the music that transports you. It’s the music that seeps into your flesh, that pulls at your heartstrings or nudges your nostalgia. It’s the music that puts you in that hammock on a Caribbean beach, in the noisy street surrounded by food vendors and rickshaws, in the hot gritty repose of a Saharan afternoon.

It’s the music, more than static words or images, that awakens the imagination, that moves your spirit, that possesses you to sway to a groove without any regard to (or understanding of) the words being sung or the instruments making the sounds.

The music below is a teaser, a primer, a carrot-on-a-stick for a global expedition.

All descriptions are from All Music Guide, unless otherwise noted. For great sites to explore other world music acts, check out Mondomix Music and National Geographic World Music.

There is never a shortage of amazing music to discover.

…

Buena Vista Social Club – “Compositor Confundido”

Country: Cuba

Style: Afro-Cuban Jazz, Son, Salsa

Bio: This Cuban musicians’ collective has played together for over half a century, and it shows. Stylistically, they span the entire spectrum of Afro-Cuban music. Deliciously slow bolero ballads and majestic danzones feature the swell of strings, while background vocals conveying messages of romance hide behind arrestingly beautiful melodies. Buena Vista Social Club’s most influential style is the exuberant, polyrhythmic music known as son, which gave birth to both Mambo and Salsa. These upbeat numbers are full of infectious guitar licks, multilayered Afro-Cuban rhythms, soaring vocal melodies, and brash, Big Band-style horn parts. (from Rhapsody Music)

…

Stella Chiweshe – “Manja (Respectful Hands)”

Country: Zimbabwe

Style: Mbira, African, Neo-Traditional

Bio: Accompanying her swooping vocals on mbira, a thumb piano consisting of metal strips set in wood, Stella Chiweshe has taken the traditional Shona music of Zimbabwe to the international stage. Chiweshe reached her largest audience when she joined Peruvian vocalist Susana Baca and Tex-Mex singer-guitarist Tish Hinojosa for the Global Diva tour in 1997. One of the few women to play the mbira, Chiweshe was taught to play by her mother’s uncle in 1963 or 1964. In 1974, she had to borrow an instrument in order to record her debut single. In the two decades since, Chiweshe has recorded more than twenty singles.

…

Novalima – “Machete”

Country: Peru

Style: Afro-Peruvian

Bio: Though Novalima was originally started by four Peruvian musicians living in all four corners of the world (Barcelona, Hong Kong, London, and Lima), this experimental music group’s membership spans much wider than that. Their sound and goal are much too broad to be thought of in a traditional “credits list” sense. Though the world is generally familiar with several Afro-Latino musical styles, meaning musics created by the mutual influence of African, Spanish, and indigenous cultures, such as Afro-Cuban (salsa, son) or Afro-Brazilian (samba, bossa nova), Afro-Peruvian music has been much overlooked by world music audiences. Aiming to rediscover and revitalize Afro-Peruvian music, bringing the genre out of obscurity and near extinction, the four producers solicited some of Peru’s most famous and best respected folkloric musicians.

…

Souad Massi – “Ech Edani”

Country: Algeria

Style: North African, Rai, Flamenco, Traditional

Bio: Born into a poor Muslim household in 1972, Massi spent her formative years in Bab el-Oued, a suburb of Algiers, as one of seven siblings. Massi signed on to front Atakor, a heavy-rock band with political leanings. Her seven years with Atakor earned her a troublemaker’s reputation in fundamentalist Algeria, where she quickly became the target of spitting and general scorn. Massi, who had disguised herself by cutting off her hair and camouflaging her body with boys’ clothes, became the target of death threats and fled to Paris. If Massi’s personal transformation and her mastery of genre-jumbling is impressive, her voice is no less so on all three of her discs, as universally appealing as the story of her struggle to secure artistic freedom. Melancholy ballads sung in Arabic, French, and English typically melt into rock, folk, flamenco, and classical backdrops.

…

Gipsy.Cz – “Mira Daje”

Country: Czech Republic

Style: Gypsy, Roma Hip-Hop

Bio: A cheeky combination of hip hop, gipsy music, r’n'b, pop and many other influences, Gipsy.cz is comprised of Radoslav ‘Gipsy’ Banga, along with the experienced and famous Czech gipsy violinist and singer Vojta Lavicka and the young, traditionally schooled gipsy musicians, the Surmaj brothers. After working with local bands like Syndrom Snopp, Radoslav ‘Gipsy’ Banga developed his style of Romano hip-hop, combining Roma rhythms and language with the 200bpm music played by Balkan brass bands. Gipsy.cz augment their traditional attributes of freshness, grace, humour and originality with a genuine concern for social issues of our times. (from band website)

…

Françoise Hardy – “Pouce Au Revoir”

Country: France

Style: French Pop, 60’s Pop

Bio: Immensely popular in her native France, the chanteuse first displayed her breathy, measured vocals in the early and mid-’60s. Her (mostly self-penned) recordings from that era draw from French pop traditions, lightweight ’50s teen-idol rock, girl groups, and sultry jazz and blues — sometimes in the same song. The material is perhaps too unreservedly sentimental for some (in the French tradition), but the songs are invariably catchy and the production, arrangements, and near-operatic backup harmonies excellent, at times almost Spector-esque.

…

Ali Akbar Moradi – “Intimate Dialog”

Country: Iran

Style: Middle Eastern Traditional

Bio: Ali Akbar Moradi is a living legend. He plays the Kurdish lute called the tanbur, an ancient instrument that is likely the ancestor of most long-necked, plucked stringed instruments. The tanbur has always been considered a sacred instrument associated primarily with the Kurdish Sufi music of Western Iran. It is believed that its repertoire is based on ancient Persian music. Moradi has a unique style that sets him apart from other tanbur players. He’s also a leading composer and teacher of the sacred Kurdish music of Iran. Moradi has won many awards including two honorary diplomas at major music festivals in Iran. Moradi has performed as a soloist and with ensembles in festivals throughout the world. (from World Village Music)

…

Alpha Blondy – “Lalogo”

Country: Ivory Coast

Style: Jazz, African Reggae

Bio: Hailing from the Cote d’Ivoire, Alpha Blondy is among the world’s most popular reggae artists. With his 12-piece band Solar System, Blondy offers a reggae beat with a distinctive African cast. Calling himself an African Rasta, Blondy creates Jah-centered anthems promoting morality, love, peace and social consciousness. With a range that moves from sensitivity to rage over injustice, much of Blondy’s music empathizes with the impoverished and those on society’s fringe. Blondy is also a staunch supporter of African unity and to this end, he sings to Moslem audiences in Hebrew and sings in Arabic to Israelis.

…

Mercedes Sosa – “Balderrama”

Country: Argentina

Style: Singer-Songwriter, Latin folk, Nueva Canción

Bio: The driving force behind the nueva canción movement, singer Mercedes Sosa was born and raised in Tucumán, Argentina, beginning her performing career at age 15 after taking top honors in a radio station amateur competition. A rich, expressive vocalist and a gifted interpreter, Sosa was dubbed “the voice of the silent majority” for her choice of overtly political material, and alongside artists including Violeta Parra and Atahualpa Yupanqui, she spearheaded the rise of the so-called “nueva canción” movement, which heralded the emergence of protest music across Argentina and Chile during the ’60s.

…

Lila Downs – “Dignificada”

Country: Mexico

Style: Mexican Folk, Jazz, Cumbia

Bio: Singer Lila Downs grew up with the culture of her father, a professor from the United States, but eventually turned her back on it to explore the tradition of her mother, a Mixteca Indian from Mexico. In doing so, she has created a very individual strain of song that has indigenous Mexican roots and North American sonorities.

…

Fairuz – “Saalouny El Nas”

Country: Lebanon

Style: Middle Eastern Pop, Jazz, World fusion

Bio: Fairuz is a remarkably popular Lebanese musician who has managed to sustain Lebanese cultural motifs and aspirations while blending her performances with sounds as diverse as Mozart and Latin American rumbas, flamenco and Balkan folk music. Fairuz, who is Christian, has recorded both hymns and pro-Palestinian songs. The curious can hear her sing on Al-Gomma al-Hazeenah.

…

Les Yeux Noirs – “Cioara”

Country: France

Style: Gypsy, Klezmer, Jazz

Bio: Les Yeux Noirs (French for “The Black Eyes”) takes their name from the title of a Russian gypsy tune made famous by Django Reinhardt in the ‘30s. It’s the perfect name for a French sextet that plays their own variety and melding of Gypsy and Yiddish music, with a nod to Manouche (French Gypsy jazz). Violinists Eric and Olivier Slabiak founded Les Yeux Noirs ten years ago. France, and much of Europe, are following in the footsteps of the recent American Yiddish revival, and this is the origin of Les Yeux Noirs. The two classically trained Jewish brothers stumbled across the music of the Diaspora and could not get enough. They frequented small clubs and met many musicians. These new friendships led to the creation of the band, which combines violins, cello, accordion, electric guitar, cimbalom and electronic samples in innovative, highly complementary ways. A song starts slowly, moodily, before the instruments gather, merging new melodies and manic rhythms until the music snaps, losing all control. This combination of traditional and original songs of travel and love, celebrations, and heart-rending laments does more than evoke the blues. It persuades the listener to break free from them and dance. (from World Village Music)

…

Andy Palacio – “Miami”

Country: Belize

Style: Punta Rock, Latin folk, Caribbean

Bio: Over the course of modern history the Garifuna people of Belize have endured marginalization and oppression to a point where their very culture and language face extinction. Enter Andy Palacio. Palacio was born and raised in Barranco, Belize, a city where Garifuna language, traditions, and musical expression still live and breathe. Through work in a Nicaraguan literacy program in the ’80s, Palacio became aware of the threat his people’s culture faced. As his artistic career developed, Palacio became part of a community of young Garifuna artists and intellectuals, producing modern artistic works that honored their native past. Palacio became the leading voice of the punta rock genre, a style based on Garifuna rhythms that intermingled with other Caribbean dance styles. Over the course of several years Palacio became Belize’s most famous living artist, gaining recognition throughout the Caribbean and Europe.

…

Marcel Khalife - “Jaffra”

Country: Lebanon

Style: Middle Eastern folk

Bio: Marcel Khalifé studied the Oud (the Arabic lute) at the Beirut National Conservatory of Music and graduated in 1971, and, ever since, has been injecting a new life into the Oud. Marcel Khalifé’s works has been critically acclaimed both in the Arab World and worldwide. His creativity, innovations and his educational and humanitarian concerns and contributions to the promotion of arts and Culture in the Arab world has earned him tens of awards in the Arab World and Internationally. On his journey, Marcel Khalifé invents and creates original music, a novel world of sounds, freed of all pre-established rules. This language elevates him to the level of an ambassador of his own culture and to the vanguard of Arabic music in search of innovators. In June 2005 Marcel Khalifé was named UNESCO Artist for Peace for his artistic achievement and humanitarian contributions. (from artist website)

…

Mano Negra – “Ronde de Nuit”

Country: France

Style: French rock, Spanish rock, World alternative

Bio: Named in honor of an Andalucian anarchist group, Mano Negra emerged from the same Parisian artists’ scene which also gave rise to the like-minded Les Negresses Vertes, drawing equal influence from the punk ethos of the Clash and the multitude of sounds and rhythms endemic to the global music community. Formed in 1986 from the remnants of the neo-rockabilly unit the Hot Pants, Mano Negra essentially consisted of vocalist Manu Chao, his trumpeter brother Tonio and drummer cousin Santiago Casiriego, Spanish natives who fused rock, rap, flamenco and rai to create a heady brew they dubbed “Patchanka,” a name derived from a Spanish pejorative for dancehall music. Multilingual and decidedly multicultural, Mano Negra seemed comfortably at home anywhere, be it North Africa or North America, in their music. Operating as a collective, without a manager, wasn’t the best way to guarantee international success, and their attempts to break the U.S. at the start of the ’90s didn’t work — America simply wasn’t ready for their musical ratatouille. However, Europe loved them, as did South America.

…

Ulali – “Mahk Jchi Heartbeat Drum Song”

Country: U.S. (Native American – Tuscarora, Mayan, Apache, Yaqui)

Style: Native American, A Capella, Traditional

Bio: Ulali is one of the first groups to fuse Native American musical influences and modern influences. In addition to appearing at Woodstock 1994 and the opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games in Atlanta in 1996, the three-woman group has contributed to the soundtrack of such films as Smoke Signals (the winner of the Audience Choice and Filmmaker’s Trophy at the Sundance Film Festival in 1998) and video documentaries including The Native Americans. Ulali’s concert video, Follow Your Heart’s Desire, received an award as Best Music Video at the American Film Festival. Two of their songs, “Mahk Jchi” and “Ancestor Song,” were featured on the album Robbie Robertson and the Red Road Ensemble.

…

Totó La Momposina – “Los Sabores del Porro”

Country: Colombia

Style: Cumbia, Afro-Colombian

Bio: Totó La Momposina exemplifies the living tradition of Colombian folk music, having carefully studied and performed her native song and dance for several decades. Colombia’s indigenous music is a heavily rhythmic hybrid of Spanish, native South American, and Afro-Cuban influences, and La Momposina mastered its different styles and rhythmic variations so well that she was invited to perform at the 1982 Nobel Prize ceremony for Colombian novelist Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

…

Balkan Beat Box – “Pachima”

Country: Israel, U.S. (New York)

Style: Club/Dance, Electronic, Balkan brass, Reggae, Alternative/Indie

Bio: With a group of musicians rotating around the Israel-born New Yorkers Ori Kaplan and Tamir Muskat, Balkan Beat Box plays Mediterranean-influenced music that incorporates traditions from Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and New York electronica. Both men had plenty of experience playing in various eclectic bands before starting BBB: saxophonist Kaplan came to the U.S. to play jazz but soon fell into the underground, immigrant-driven scene, hooking up with Gogol Bordello and others, while percussionist Muskat played in Firewater for a while as well as flexing his production muscles (which he also uses with BBB) in projects with Gogol Bordello among others.

…

Andres Landeros – “Martha Cecilia”

Country: Colombia

Style: Colombian folk, Cumbia

…

Los 50 de Joselito – “Montañerismo”

Country: Colombia

Style: Ranchero, Cumbia

…

Antibalas – “War Hero”

Country: U.S. (New York)

Style: Afrobeat

Bio: In the spirit of African icon Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, this fourteen-plus piece ensemble drops African roots, straight out of NYC. Their Big Band arrangement incorporates all the elements of jazz and Funk-influenced Highlife — the genre formally known as Afrobeat, a term created by Fela’s movement. Antibalas, which means “anti-bullets” or “bullet-proof,” stand behind the same revolutionary and anti-capitalist beliefs. Unlike Fela, besides an occasional chant or speech, they do so almost entirely without vocals. The history of Afrobeat speaks for itself and Antibalas’ dedication to the cause is truly enlightening. The members come from various cultures and professions such as teaching, design, sports, and spiritual healing. (from Rhapsody Music)

…

Thomas Mapfumo – “Makandiwa”

Country: Zimbabwe

Style: Chimurenga, Afro-Pop

Bio: Thomas Mapfumo made revolutionary changes in Zimbabwe’s pop-music scene by recording a song for which he’d written his own music. Before Mapfumo, songs in the traditional style were always based on tunes that had been handed down for generations. Mapfumo’s music, chimurenga (“music of struggle”), became popular during the civil war against White minority rule, but his popularity made the government unhappy. In 1977 he was sent to a prison camp for subversion. To obtain his release, Mapfumo agreed to perform for the ruling party, but at the concert he sang only his most revolutionary songs. “I told them that since I’d been in detention, I didn’t have time to write new ones.” Mapfumo’s deep vocals lead his tight, rhythmic band the Blacks Unlimited through upbeat originals, driven by complicated rhythmic grooves and thick layers of melody that would entrance you if you tried to single them out. Add an offbeat bassline, and this classic Zimbabwean performer’s grooves become irresistible African dance anthems. (add’l notes from Rhapsody Music)

…

Inca Sapi – “Ayacucho Querido”

Country: U.S. (Massachusetts), Bolivia, Peru

Style: Andean folk, Huayno, Traditional

…

Radio Tarifa – “Lamma Bada”

Country: Spain

Style: Spanish folk, Arabic, Flamenco, Classical

Bio: Radio Tarifa is one the outstanding world music groups of the turn of their time. Their name derives from the town of Tarifa, which is the part of Spain nearest to Morocco. The group’s mixture of Spanish and Arabic music is not itself new (see Juan Peña Lebrijano. for example). What is new is that instead of simply fusing musical styles as they currently exist, Radio Tarifa goes back in time to the common past of those styles, back to before 1492 when the Moors and Jews were exiled from Spain, and imagines a shared style that might have evolved had history been different, including not just elements of Spanish and Arabic music but also other musics of the Mediterranean, of the Middle Ages, of the Caribbean. This invented style is not only fascinating in its own right, but sheds light upon the real styles of Spain, most notably flamenco.

…

Hossein Alizadeh & Djivan Gasparyan – “Armenian Romances”

Country: Iran, Armenia

Style: Middle Eastern folk, Armenian folk

Bio: The acknowledged master of the Armenian reed instrument known as the duduk, Djivan Gasparayan was born just outside of the nation’s capital city of Yerevan, first picking up the instrument at age six. In 1973, he was the first musician given the honorary title of People’s Artist of Armenia by the nation’s government. Hossein Alizadeh is one of Iran’s leading classical composers and musicians. A virtuosic player of the six-stringed Persian tar, four-stringed Persian sehtar and eleven-stringed Azeri tar, Alizadeh has continued to extend the musical traditions of his homeland.

…

Samir Joubran – “Khiyanat Mariha”

Country: Israel

Style: Middle Eastern traditional

Bio: Master oud player and a member of an illustrious musical family (his father is renowned for the ouds he makes), Samir Joubran is first and foremost a musician. But circumstances have certainly thrust politics upon him: during one European tour, he left his wife and child behind in Ramallah, which forced him to follow events there carefully. Close as he is to tragedy and despair, Jouban’s music — often performed in tandem with fellow oud player and brother Wassam Joubran — always rises above strife and into beauty. (from Rhapsody Music)

…

Rachid Taha – “Ya Rayah”

Country: Algeria

Style: Rai, Dance, North African

Bio: Rachid Taha is a pioneer of France’s musical melting-pot. He founded the legendary band Carte de Séjour in the Eighties, mixing uncalculated doses of punk and rock music in his anarchic cauldron. Since 1998, he has been releasing solo albums that delve on his multiple identities. His re-working of the classic Ya Rahia remains a favourite in night-clubs and Club Méditérranée – but Taha has proved that he is a rare pearl, able to distill classics and futuristic melodies that never stray from his roots. (from Mondomix)

…

Nayo Ulloa – “Leno Verde”

Country: Peru

Style: Andean folk, Peruvian folk

Bio: Nayo Ulloa was born in Trujillo, Peru and raised in Lima. Nayo grew up in Comas, an economically depressed but vital area of Lima. French world music magazine Ethnotempos calls his new CD Loma Prieta “Brilliantly performed!” This French-language review calls Nayo “one of the great Peruvian virtuosos of the Quena, the pre-Colombian recorder-like flute” and declares the recording “a fine mix of standards and original compositions…with many Andean folkloric pieces as well as more Latin numbers flavored with strains of samba and flamenco.”

…

Tinariwen – “Aldhechen Manin”

Country: Sahara (Tuareg)

Style: Desert blues, Jazz, Rock

Bio: Tinariwen is a Tuareg group that performs in a Middle Eastern/African style similar to artists like Ali Farka Toure or Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. All of the musicians originating from the southern Sahara, the group’s name, meaning “empty places,” is a reflection of their lands of origin. The band formed in the rebel camps of Colonel Ghadaffi, as each of the musicians had been forced from their nomadic lifestyle into involuntary military service. Surrounded by a displaced nation of their peers, Tinariwen forged a new style of music, trading their traditional lutes and shepherd’s flutes for electric guitars and drums. The style that resulted was dubbed Tishoumaren, “the music of the unemployed.” Their music addressed issues such as political awakening, problems of exile, repression of their people, and demands of sovereignty. In a region with no postal or telephone system, their tapes soon became a grassroots voice of rebellion and a rallying point for a disenfranchised nation. Though outlawed in Algeria and Mali, 2001’s The Radio Tisdas Sessions and 2004’s Amassakoul are available to Western audiences.

…

Waldemar Bastos – “Pitanga Madurinha”

Country: Angola

Style: African traditional

Bio: The handsome figure of Waldemar Bastos has been a prominent feature of Angola’s exiled community of musicians ever since he found refuge from war in Portugal in 1982. Born in 1954 in N’Banza, on the frontier dividing Congo and Angola, Bastos is very much a border artist, culling sounds, instruments and rhythms from the four corners of the globe. The 42-year-long conflict in his homeland brought a melancholic streak to his music, after he suffered imprisonment and the death of his son Walter. (from Mondomix)

…

Amadou & Mariam – “Artistiya”

Country: Mali

Style: Afro-Pop, Malian music

Bio: Affectionately known as “the blind couple of Mali,” husband-and-wife duo Amadou Bagayoko and Mariam Doubia have been making joyous, guitar-based pop together since they were married in 1980. The two met in 1977 when they were both studying Braille at the Institute for the Blind in the Malian capitol of Bamako. The two teenagers were already well versed in music, Mariam having an outstanding singing voice and Amadou learning his trade as a guitarist for Les Ambassadeurs, one of the great African pop bands of the era. They first performed together in the institute’s Eclipse Orchestra, but eventually left to perform their own original music. Since then, the couple have opened for the Scissor Sisters and worked with Damon Albarn (Blur, Gorilaz) and Manu Chao. (from National Geographic World Music)

…

Shantel – “Fige Ki Ase Me”

Country: Germany

Style: Balkan brass, DJ, Club/Dance, Electronic

Bio: The Frankfurt-born Stefan Hantel — aka Shantel — bears much responsibility for the current boom in Balkan and Gypsy music. Shantel started out as a downtempo producer and DJ who started his own club in Frankfurt in the mid-1990s after a stint studying in Paris. And thus he would have remained, but for a fateful trip back to visit his grandparents’ hometown, Czernowitz, in 2001. Czernowitz is situated in Bucovina, a region split between Romania and Ukraine; Shantel found himself profoundly affected by the region’s music and culture. On his return to Germany he founded the Bucovina Club Orkestar, a group dedicated to exploring and playing with Eastern European music – creating a raucous blend of electronica, rock, Gypsy music and countless other influences - and he began to helm a club night by the same name that featured Balkan and Gypsy beats. (from Rhapsody Music)

…

U-Roy – “Natty Rebel”

Country: Jamaica

Style: DJ Toasting, Dub, Reggae

Bio: The granddaddy of DJ Toasting, U-Roy helped invent the style in the late 1960s when he removed the vocals from a Reggae track and inserted his energetic rants, screams and jives. It’s not uncommon to see U-Roy dressed in a wacky costume of bright velvet cape, cane and cap as he captivates his audience with his sidesplitting rhymes. Working as a DJ for King Tubby, his interjections took on a life of their own as he skillfully interjected his ideas between the singer’s choruses. When he began to lay down his rhymes on wax, his albums shot up the charts and paved the way for the future success of toasters I-Roy and Big Youth. Albums such as Dread in a Babylon remain classic and maintain a huge (if underrated) influence on everything from Dancehall to hip-hop. (from Rhapsody Music)

…

Zola – “Ngudu”

Country: South Africa

Style: Kwaito, Rap, Hip Hop

Bio: Zola is a poet, actor and musician who has emerged as the superstar of kwaito. Zola grew up in Soweto, in the ghetto called Zola, hence the name. Though he is standing on the brink of greatness, he is under no misconception of his past or future. ”Kwaito kids are made from hunger, abuse, no father, violence, guns. Now as adults we must change the game for the better. Now we must change everything we are made from,” Zola says. And although Zola is by far the fastest growing brand in South Africa today, he is forever conscious of society’s growing needs, pains and tribulations, which is why he tackles issues such as prostitution, statutory rape and the need for fathers to step up to the plate and be real fathers. But Zola also doesn’t forget that in all our sadness and pain we must yet again, in true South African, fashion rejoice and dance.

…

Kashtin – “Akua Tuta (Take Care)”

Country: Canada

Style: Native American folk, Pop folk

Bio: The duo effortlessly throws a rich mixture of modern instruments and natural elements such as thunderclaps and loon cries into their storied musical heritage with a sound that transcends time, space, language and history. The result is an achingly beautiful sound that the band calls Innu rock ‘n roll. Their language is hundreds of years old and spoken by fewer than 12,000 people. Until the last quarter century, it was only transmitted orally. The band is Kashtin, the language is Innu. Singing in their native tongue, the duo has created a singular style of modern music, a potent blend of British Invasion-era rock and insanely catchy contemporary pop hooks, delivered in a distinctly Aboriginal voice. The music of Kashtin eludes categorization but with a unique Amerindian twist. They are a comfortable mixture of rock, ballads and the AmeriIndian way of life. (bio)

…

Amr Diab – “Hkayak Eih”

Country: Egypt

Style: Al-jil, Middle Eastern Pop

Bio: Egypt’s heartthrob double-threat singer and actor doesn’t exactly have humble origins. His dad was a high-up functionary in the Suez Canal Corporation, and after singing the Egyptian national anthem on the radio, Amr Diab ended up studying in Cairo at both the High-College for Arabic Music and the Cairo Academy of Art. But for all his privileges, Diab earned his success with his own gifts: movie-star good looks and unerringly ambitious, beautifully sung pop. In this venture he succeeded and is now one of the leading Al-jil stars, taking top billing at music festivals and enjoying hit after hit in the cassette markets of Cairo. (add’l notes from Rhapsody Music)

…

Cesária Évora - “Sodade”

Country: Cape Verde

Style: Morna, Fado, West African

Bio: Known internationally as the “barefoot diva,” Cesaria Evora is the world’s foremost singer of the morna, the indigenous music of Africa’s Cape Verde Islands. The morna evolved as a hybrid of Portuguese fados, British sea shanties, and African rhythms, reflecting the island’s history as a Portuguese colony and spot for British coal mining. (Morna was also one of the few musical styles not banned during the colonial era.) Evora began singing on the islands as a teenager, but she found no success outside of Cape Verde until she was in her late forties, when the young producer Jose Da Silva invited her to Paris to record an album. La Diva aux Pieds Nus released in 1988 to wide acclaim, and with the arrival of 1992’s highly successful Miss Perfumado, Evora had put Cape Verde on the musical map — and become a full-fledged international star. Evora’s husky, romantic evocation of saudade, the sense of unfulfilled longing that infuses morna, has opened doors around the world for a flood of Cape Verdean singers who are following in her bare footsteps.

…

Manu Chao – “Me Llaman Calle”

Country: France, Spain

Style: French pop, Spanish rock, World fusion

Bio: Manu Chao helped begin the Latin alternative movement way back in the ’80s — although it had no name then — and in his later work he cut a cross-cultural swath across styles and geographic boundaries. Former leader of the French Punk-Pop band Mano Negra, Manu Chao explores a wider range of musical terrain as a solo artist. Singing in Spanish, French, and English, Chao adopts the voice of the disenfranchised in his work. He’s equally comfortable lamenting the “desaparecidos” (disappeared) in Spanish, confessing existential angst in French, or boasting he’s the ” king of bongo” in English. His main rhythmic template is reggae, and instrumentation is sparse — guitars, bass, and keyboards with a touch of brass. Many tunes include sound montage: European news broadcasts about the Zapatistas and television and radio white noise phase in and out of the songs. Chao’s home-produced work has an air of sincerity rare in the world of pop music, and his rough-hewn vocals display raw talent while he plays his guitar with a deceptive simplicity belying his talent as a songwriter. Well known and loved in Europe, Chao seems poised to conquer the Americas. (from Rhapsody Music)

…

This is based on an earlier post but with additional favorites:

I am a huge art fanatic, dedicating as much time to it as writing and music. These aren’t new artists. They are the masters from the past who I’ve admired for years and years. My all-time favorites.

…

Name: Henri Matisse

Country: France

Style: Fauvism, Modernism

…

Name: Salvador Dali

Country: Spain

Style: Dadaism, Surrealism

…

Name: Hieronymus Bosch

Country: Netherlands

Style: Renaissance

…

Name: Rene Magritte

Country: Belgium

Style: Surrealism

…

Name: Giorgio De Chirico

Country: Greek, Italy

Style: Surrealism

…

Name: Diego Rivera

Country: Mexico

Style: Mexican Muralist, Social Realism

…

Name: Paul Klee

Country: Germany, Swiss

Style: Expressionism, Surrealism

…

Name: Edvard Munch

Country: Norway

Style: Expressionism

…

Name: Pablo Picasso

Country: Spain

Style: Cubism

…

Name: Rufino Tamayo

Country: Mexico

Style: Muralist, Mixografia

…

Name: Wasily Kandinsky

Country: Russia

Style: Expressionism, Bauhaus

…

Name: Franz Marc

Country: Germany

Style: Expressionism

…

Name: Eugene Delacroix

Country: France

Style: Romanticism

…

Name: David Alfaro Siqueiros

Country: Mexico

Style: Mexican Muralist, Social Realism

…

Name: Marcel Duchamp

Country: France, U.S.

Style: Dadaism, Surrealism

…

Name: Francisco Goya

Country: Mexico

Style: Romanticism

…

Name: Juan Gris

Country: Spanish

Style: Cubism

…

Name: Willem de Kooning

Country: Netherlands

Style: Abstract Expressionism

…

Name: George Grosz

Country: Germany

Style: Dadaism, New Objectivity

…

Name: Joan Miro

Country: Spain

Style: Dadaism, Surrealism

…

Name: Paul Signac

Country: France

Style: Pointilism, Neo-Impressionism

…

Name: Georges Rouault

Country: France

Style: Fauvism, Expressionism

…

Name: Wilfredo Lam

Country: Cuba

Style: Modernism, Cubism, Surrealism

…

Name: Vincent Van Gogh

Country: Netherlands

Style: Post-Impressionism

She threw her head back and laughed, a throaty laugh, like a cross between gasping and coughing. Such a display could only come from Lydia Katz.

“Well, hon, let me tell you somethin’!” She always started her sentences out that way, whether she was talking about her weekend or giving you the hour. “Well, hon, let me tell you somethin’! We’re fixin’ to git lunch in another hour!” she’d proclaim, flashing her snowy-white teeth.

She smiled frequently. The wrinkles etched into her round pale face created folds of skin around her eyes and mouth, resulting in a squinty look that reminded me of my Shar-pei puppy at home.

She was a large woman, almost 6-ft tall and beefy in size. A linebacker physique, I thought. Her sea-green eye shadow and candy-apple red lipstick popped off her face like an Art Deco painting. Coifed and teased at the top into a perfect arch, her hair fell down in a layer of frizzy blonde curls, clumpy and spongy like pillow stuffing.

Lydia wore a nylon gold and black striped shirt with an oversized neckline that hung off her left shoulder. Sunspots dotted her exposed skin. Her stretch pants, gold and black as well, were animal print instead of stripes. The outfit shimmered and twinkled like her golden bauble bracelets. On her feet were yellow kitten-heeled sandals with a tussock of black feather fur at the sequined toe strap.

I wondered if I stared at her long enough would I get an after-image when I closed my eyes.

During class, Lydia sat at the front of the room, taking copious notes and studying the instructor. Every so often she would rummage in her neon orange tote bag, pull out a highlighter, and streak through a passage in her workbook with such intensity the staccato squeal of the marker pierced through the air and right through my nerves. There was no mistaking her presence. Between the jingle of her jewelry and the clatter of her one-inch rust-colored fake nails, Lydia announced her every movement to the class.

Today’s lesson was about cultural tolerance, and we just finished a discussion on various religions. Usually she would dutifully raise her hand for the question & answer at the end of the lecture. Other times she’d jump at the inquiries of her classmates, eager to share insight.

“What’s Wicca?” asked a low voice on my right.

Lydia immediately whirled around. “Well, hon, let me tell you somethin’. That’s witchcraft. Yes, ma’am, that’s what that mess is. Witchcraft.” She wrinkled up her nose as if she smelled something unpleasant.

“Ohh!” came the collective response of several voices, and soon looks of comprehension fell over the faces of the rest of the class.

“Can you believe what they’re doing these days?”

“Who would want to follow that? Just doesn’t seem right!”

“Between this and same-sex marriages, do you imagine what will be next?”

I scowled. I smelled something unpleasant too. Something unpleasant and familiar and we were now knee-deep in it and me with no freaking Handi-wipes.

Dr. Katz settled back into her seat with a grin on her crinkled face while our classmates whispered fervently. She pulled out a heart-shaped compact and flicked her bangs out of her eyes. Satisfied with her reflection, she put the compact away and glanced at the clock.

“Well, hon, let me tell y’all somethin’! Guess what time it is!”

Can we have a time-out or a do-over? I don’t really need an apology for the Pussycat Dolls. I just want the music industry to regain its innovation, its verve, its oomph. I’d like to listen to the radio and not be so irritated that I want to pummel it and any other nearby appliances.

Music has become homogenized and stagnant, a product of the same stale ingredients. Abroad, many American artists break into the foreign markets and command a healthy following. Stateside, practically nil is heard of the thousands of international artists that make up the global pulse.

Now, when that diversity, that breath of fresh air, is more vital than ever, we keep the music narrow.

…

My best professors of hope were in the ghettos of South America or Africa. These guys are in a situation 10,000 times worse than mine, or than other first-world individuals, but they got more hope than anybody. When you are in a ghetto of South America, you cannot afford depression. You have your children to feed everyday. So you have to go out on the street to feed your children. There is no time for depression. So, hope.

Paris-born and of Spanish descent, Manu Chao is arguably the best-known world music artist this side of the Milky Way.

He is a restless troubadour rarely in one city long enough to visit all of his friends. He sings in French, Spanish, Galician, Portuguese, Italian, Arabic, English and Wolof. He weaves sound bytes from Subcomandante Marcos into his music, indicative of his longtime support for the Zapatistas in Chiapas, Mexico.

During his stint with the multi-cultural and highly popular Mano Negra, he toured South America by both cargo ship and train, performing on each conveyance to audiences of campesinos and guerrillas.

He still busks in Barcelona, doesn’t own a cell phone, and brushes off industry temptations to sell his songs off for Nike commercials or to crash late night after-parties with Kanye West.

Manu is a star by not giving a shit about stardom. He took his cues from the best.

‘Every time I met any of my heroes I was disappointed – the exception was [The Clash's] Joe Strummer, who was like an uncle to me. The last time I saw him was at a festival in Japan, sleeping out in the woods, jamming by a fire and putting on little tapes he’d made to keep the atmosphere going.’

‘Joe absolutely adored Manu’s music and was a friend,’ says Strummer’s widow, Lucinda. ‘I met him once with Joe at the Shepherds Bush Empire, in 2002, and there was lots of excitement when Joe turned up before the gig – attempting to speak to Manu in his broken Spanish.’ (Full article here.)

A product of an immigrant community, Manu grew up listening to a mishmash of musical styles. Blending Latin, punk, rockabilly, ska, folk, pop, reggae, African, jazz, rap and flamenco music came naturally for a guy who also shifts between languages on each song.

His unique musical leanings have dispatched him to everywhere from Tijuana to Bamako, and as he traveled, he became angry. Angry about the poverty and the injustices, the lack of action by the governments, the senseless suffering. But he transforms that anger into something positive. In Manu’s mind, it’s too easy to become a nihilist or a cynic. Optimism is what the people need.

…

I knew about activism prior to becoming a fan. I rallied around Amnesty International as a teenager. I sneered at American extravagance out of concern for the world’s poor. I wrote to my congressmen. I wore the t-shirts and bought the bumper stickers.

But increasingly the crusade felt empty. Without learning more about the world at large, I couldn’t fully understand the cause. I’d remain nothing more than a misguided radical.

Manu Chao filled that void in my life. This diminutive man with the messy hair and rumpled clothing reported the lessons of his travels – stories from the disenfranchised, the underprivileged, and the silenced – through masterfully crafted ditties of protest and hope.

This call-up is a responsibility that Manu doesn’t take lightly. He knows his fame connects him to the ears of millions. But he also knows that his public role means he must speak for those who cannot. He must make his time at the mic count.

Injustice. War. Heartbreak. Boogey Men. Immigration. Soccer stars. Environment. Prostitutes. Globalization. Tolerance. Revolution. Peace.

Manu Chao concert crowds are mini-U.N. assemblies, swarms of people from various ethnic groups chanting, cheering, jumping, dancing barefoot, and waving their respective national flags.

It doesn’t matter that only alternating sections of the crowd understand the words of any given song at any given time. They understand the energy. They understand that despite our differences or allegiances the music shrinks the space between us. The music equalizes our human distortions.

You won’t likely find a moderate Manu Chao fan. You either run into people who have never heard of him, or you run into Manu Chao disciples gleaming with loyalty so intense the total wattage could power all of the favelas in his beloved Rio de Janeiro.

He challenges us to wake up, to participate in the world, to see the horizon past our neatly trimmed lawns or favorite radio station.

…

We have tightened our national borders so much it’s easy to forget that music or life or anything exists outside of our “Party in the USA” borders.

It’s easy to forget that residents in far off places also share our journey. They also love until it hurts, laugh at a good prank, ache for a hungry child, fuck up relationships, want a chance to be heard, and enjoy a good backbeat.

Perhaps we should TiVo ourselves for a change and tune in to the regularly scheduled broadcasts of Anywhere But Here.

Perhaps we should widen our aperture, tear down all barriers, physical or otherwise, and take a hard look into the eyes of others without our nationalistic filters.

Perhaps we should listen to Manu Chao.

This question, they ask me very often: can music change the world? It can help. But it’s not a question only of musicians. Now the situation is so bad, we need musicians, we need taxi drivers, we need fishermen, we need students, we need the workers. We need everybody. We need all of society; we don’t only need the musicians. That’s not enough.

…

Bixo/El Dorado:
(Hybrid of Portuguese/Basque slang set to Latin trumpets)

•

Ronde De Nuit:
(French punk)

•

Me Llaman Calle:
(Spanish with flamenco guitars)

•

Santa Maradona:
(French rap/metal)

•

Peligro:
(Spanish reggae)

•

A Cosa:
(Italian/French/Spanish folk)

•

Denia:
(Arabic and French folk)

•

Señor Matanza:
(Spanish reggaeton/dance)

•

M’Bife Blues (w/Amadou & Mariam)
(Wolof/French blues…and beautiful)