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The Reader’s Guide to WORLDMUSIC FESTIVAL 2005 28 CHICAGO READER | SEPTEMBER 16, 2005 | SECTION THREE CHICAGO READER | FESTIVAL GUIDE | SEPTEMBER 16, 2005 | SECTION THREE 29

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The Reader’s Guide to WORLDMUSIC FESTIVAL CHICAGO 2005

12:15 PM, RANDOLPH CAFE Cuban revolutionary imagery—Piña wears a By Peter Margasak friday 16 Che Guevara-style beret on the cover and Celso Fonseca refers to himself as “El Rebelde del Acordeon”—but given that he still lives the he big news about this year’s World Music 11 AM, CLAUDIA CASSIDY For two decades singer and gui- Festival is that there really isn’t any news. THEATER way he did before his success, in the same tarist Celso Fonseca has been a modest house in the roughest part of town, T Michael Orlove of the Department of R ubiquitous behind-the-scenes I’m not inclined to criticize him for his con- Lura presence in : he’s produced albums Cultural Affairs, who’s organized all seven festivals, flation of musical iconoclasm and political If you’ve only heard one piece of by Virginia Rodrigues, , and revolt. says that this year’s process was the smoothest yet— music from the Cape Verde Daude, among others, and the likes of visas came through, and for the most part artists R Islands, a former Portuguese , Gal Costa, and Carlinhos kept their commitments. (There was just one last- colony off the west coast of Africa, chances Brown have covered his tunes. Though he’s Lila Downs minute cancellation, by Venezuela’s Simon Diaz.) are it was morna sung by Cesaria Evora, also been making his own records for most the undisputed master of that beautiful, of that time, his performing career only The daughter of a Mixtec Indian mother The only serious trouble came early in the year, sorrowful song form. Similar to Portuguese began to take off a few years ago. Fonseca from Mexico and an Anglo father from when Orlove was trying to settle on a lineup: the fado, it’s the dominant style on Sao is a devotee of in its purest Minnesota, singer Lila Downs named her low value of the dollar against many foreign curren- Vicente, Evora’s island, but hardly the only form, but he’s hardly a revivalist: inspired latest album Una sangre (Narada) in part one from Cape Verde: much of the music by guitarist Baden Powell, who opened up to remind us that all Americans are of cies meant that a number of overseas artists couldn’t on Lura’s third release, Di korpu ku alma the genre’s already liberal sense of harmo- mixed blood. She explores traditional offset the financial liabilities of making the trip (Escondida), is a more upbeat, African- ny even further, he pushes the music gen- music from both sides of the Rio Grande, without booking several more stateside gigs. derived style called batuku, developed on tly into novel territory. On “Perdi,” from paying special attention to the folklore of Serbia’s Boric Kovac, ’s Jaipur Kawa Brass the island of Santiago, where her father the recent Rive Gauche Rio her native Oaxaca, but unfortunately Una was raised. (Lura herself was born in the (Ziriguiboom/Six Degrees), he sneaks in sly sangre is burdened with overstuffed Band, and Spain’s Son de la Frontera were among Cape Verdean immigrant community in accents plucked from a whimsical mix of arrangements and awkward stylistic colli- those who declined invitations from the city. Lisbon.) The album is slick and bright sampled sounds—some indistinguishable sions—unwelcome distractions from her The final schedule is still the strongest in years, rather than rustic, with thoroughly con- from conventional percussion, some more voice, with its stunning range and throaty temporary arrangements, but the unique like whispering birds—and on a cover of the soulfulness. though, and includes several acts that seem certain rhythms—from the batuku, a galloping clop Damien Rice mopefest “Delicate” he livens to cross over to a more mainstream audience soon— that was once beaten out by women on things up with lighter-than-air vocals and Brazil’s Seu Jorge, Mali’s Amadou & Mariam, 6 PM, BORDERS ON NORTH France’s Nouvelle Vague—as well as many more who are steadfastly upholding ancient traditions, like Juan-Carlos China’s Qing Mei Jing Yue, India’s Sidi Goma, and Formell Palestine’s Trio Joubran. Many of the acts based in Juan-Carlos Formell clearly wants the States seem to have been chosen not because it’s to earn his reputation, not inherit relatively easy to get them to Chicago but because R it: the press materials for his new they’re genuinely groundbreaking: ’s solo album, Cemeteries & Desire (Narada), say only that his father is the “leader of a is at the forefront of the inter- popular dance band in Cuba.” (That’d be national Balkan underground scene, and Cuban the influential Los Van Van, which laid the expat Juan-Carlos Formell is developing an original foundation for contemporary music.) singer-songwriter take on and trovas. Formell was raised by his paternal grand- mother and taught himself to play , The unofficial focus is on Brazil. The fest has but aside from the Spanish-language lyrics booked plenty of Brazilian performers in the past six his songs have no real connection to Cuban years, but in quantity and quality the current offer- . Instead he’s squarely in the ings probably match all of them put together: Seu singer-songwriter tradition, writing mod- ern boleros and updated trovas, the equiv- Jorge, Badi Assad, Celso Fonseca, , alent of in his homeland; his and Domenico + 2 will all give hotly anticipated per- delicate vocals and nimble guitar playing formances, and Domenico + 2 will also participate in also suggest bossa nova, with its complex a one-off collaboration with locals On Fillmore. The accent patterns and unusual harmonies. most important event, though, is surely the Millennium Park gig by , a big- 6 PM, BORDERS ON MICHIGAN band revue of some of the country’s best talent. As usual the festival takes place at many different Amadou & venues around the city, and events are free and all- Lura Mariam ages unless otherwise noted. Advance tickets to Amadou Bagayoko and Mariam shows with an admission fee are normally available Doumbia, a blind couple from Mali folded stacks of clothing, to the funana, Ramiro Musotto’s pulsing hand percussion. from the venues; for more information call the city’s R who’ve been married for nearly 30 traditionally driven by the seductive rhyth- Still, the essence of Fonseca’s music is the years and making music together for most World Music Festival hotline at 312-742-1938 or elegant interplay between feather-stroke mic scraping of knives—still provide a of them, have long fused the region’s tradi- broad window on the traditional music of singing and deeply rhythmic guitar play- visit cityofchicago.org/WorldMusic. The early week- tional music with American and soul. Cape Verde. And Lura’s voice would be ing—the same combination that made Joao day performances at the Chicago Cultural Center’s Bagayoko was blinded by cataracts at age enough to hold my attention all by itself: Gilberto sound so revolutionary in the late 15, but not before a long stint playing gui- Claudia Cassidy Theater (Friday, Monday, Tuesday, on the brisk “Vazulina,” about a young girl 50s. This is Fonseca’s solo debut in tar in Les Ambassadeurs du Motel de Wednesday) and Preston Bradley Hall (Thursday) digging through rubble for coins so she can Chicago, and he’ll play unaccompanied. Bamako, one of the country’s greatest afford to get her hair straightened, she jug- will be broadcast live on local radio: Loyola’s modern bands and also home to Salif Keita gles tricky phrases with the precision and WLUW (88.7 FM) will air the 11 AM concerts, and and Kante Manfila during its long history. grace of a veteran singer, and on the 12:30 PM, CLAUDIA CASSIDY the 12:30 PM shows will be heard as part of album’s token morna, “Tem um hora pa THEATER That experience seems to have primed him Continental Drift on Northwestern University’s tude,” creates a deep melancholy that to find pathways to many other styles, and almost rivals Evora’s. Celso Piña on his three previous albums with Doumbia WNUR (89.3 FM). they’ve pulled off daring fusions—like - This accordionist from the slums ing up the circular Malian blues popular- of Monterrey, Mexico, became a ized by Ali Farka Toure with an arsenal of Trio Joubran R star in the late 80s playing instruments from around the world, includ- Samir Joubran, a Palestinian oud —a regional style imported from ing horns, , , the sweet-voiced master born and raised in that, much like norteño, banda, Portuguese cavaquinho, and the Arabic recommended R Nazareth, , says his group was R and , remains popular with the called the kanun—but their current inspired by the popular guitar trio of Al working class—but lately he’s become an record, Dimanche a Bamako (Nonesuch), DiMeola, Paco de Lucia, and John unlikely icon to some of his country’s most tops them all. It’s not only their most McLaughlin, which blended jazz, rock, and forward-looking rock bands. A few years coherent and confident effort (and their with daring improvisatory flair. ago he started working with Control biggest commercial success in their adopt- Trio Joubran plays within the Arabic classical Machete DJ Toy Hernandez, who’d devel- ed homeland of France) but one of the best tradition but breaks some of its rules at the oped an obsession with the sort of old- records I’ve heard all year. The killer pro- same time—most notably the convention school cumbia he played, and in 2001 that only one musician improvise at a time. Hernandez produced the single that made duction by Franco-Iberian pop star Manu Arabic improvisation, called taqsim, usually him an overnight sensation: “Cumbia sobre Chao reflects the duo’s deep African roots works a bit like the soloing in a hard-bop el Rio,” like many tracks Piña has cut since, while incorporating a wide variety of inter- tune: the ensemble states the theme togeth- turns the loping feel of cumbia into a big, national sounds, and for the first time the er, then accompanies a series of players as galloping beat and adds dubby vocal inter- music’s character doesn’t end up smoth- they take turns stepping up. But Joubran jections, rapped lyrics, and throbbing, see- ered by overloud bass and squared-off, and his younger brothers Adnan and sawing bass. The album it was drawn from, foregrounded drums. At times Chao’s fin- Wissam—the latter of whom has followed Barrio Bravo (Warner Music Latina), fea- gerprints are obvious—looping sirens, family tradition to become a , and tures contributions from an all-star roster deliberately dinky drum programs, sam- built the instruments they play—all cut loose of adventurous Mexican bands—Control ples from language-instruction tapes—but at once on their new Randana (Randana). Machete, El Gran Silencio, Cafe Tacuba, even on the several songs he helped write, Both their originals and their renditions of King Chango’s Blanquito Man—as well as a he doesn’t obscure the couple’s personali- classic songs combine the sorrowful beauty, cumbia-inflected Spanish-language cover ties. Instead he frames the duo’s beautiful- stately grace, and splendid microtonal detail of the Gilberto Gil favorite “So quero um ly complementary voices—Bagayoko gruff, of traditional with unexpected xodo.” Piña’s latest release, El canto de un bluesy, and nasal, Doumbia gentle, flutter- turns, crisp dynamic shifts, and charged, rebelde para un rebelde (EMI ing, and sweet—with buoyant textures and spontaneous interplay. Instead of turning to International), dispenses with the guest varied melodic conceits. My one complaint popular music to stretch out, the way so stars, but he’s still nonchalantly incorporat- would be that Bagayoko’s guitar playing is many other Arabic musicians have, this ing more of the offshoots and fusions of limited to a series of brief licks, rather than group is sticking with the tradition and cumbia, including cumbia batacuda and the extended solos he excels at—but I’m expanding it from the inside. . The album’s loaded with confident he’ll stretch out here. 30 CHICAGO READER | WORLD MUSIC FESTIVAL GUIDE | SEPTEMBER 16, 2005 | SECTION THREE

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Venues 6:30 PM, PRITZKER PAVILION

Albert Pick Hall University of Chicago, 5828 S. University, 773- R Celso Piña y Su 702-8297 Borders 1539 E. 53rd, 773-752-8663 Ronda Bogota Borders 4718 N. Broadway, 773-334-7338 See above. For this show Piña is accompa- nied by his regular band. Borders 2817 N. Clark, 773-935-3909 Borders 830 N. Michigan, 312-573-0564 Borders 755 W. North, 312-266-8060 Perla de Borders 150 N. State, 312-606-0750 Mexico Clarke House Museum 1827 S. Indiana, 312-744-6630 After Lila Downs (see above) performs a Claudia Cassidy Theater Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E. set of original material with her own band, Washington, 312-744-6630 she’ll sing traditional Mexican songs Daley Civic Center 50 W. Washington, 312-346-3278 backed by the 12-member Chicago group Dance Studio, Chicago Cultural Center 78 E. Washington, 312- Mariachi Perla de Mexico—a smart booking 744-6630 decision by the festival’s organizers, since the familiar sounds of a straight-up mari- Eli’s Cheesecake Festival 6701 W. Forest Preserve, 773-736-3417 achi band won’t get in the way of Downs’s Empty Bottle 1035 N. Western, 773-276-3600 or 866-468-3401 wonderful voice the way her own fussy Garfield Park Conservatory 300 N. Central Park, 312-746-5100 arrangements sometimes do. GAR Memorial Hall Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington, 312-744-6630 Lila Downs Hideout 1354 W. Wabansia, 773-227-4433 See above. Hypnotic Brass Ensemble Hokin Annex, Columbia College 623 S. Wabash, 312-344-7188 HotHouse 31 E. Balbo, 312-362-9707 9 PM, HOTHOUSE $12, 21+ strate a lot of cross-cultural borrowing: house-based tracks incorporate Mande Humboldt Park Boathouse 1301 N. Sacramento, 312-742-7549 Banda R Lura singing, roots reggae, Latin rhythms, and Logan Square Auditorium 2539 N. Kedzie, 773-252-6179 Manzanera flashes of . Trent is one of the See above. Martyrs’ 3855 N. Lincoln, 773-404-9494 or 800-594-8499 One of the best bills from last most in-demand house DJs in the world, and his own recent discs follow a pattern year’s World Music Festival paired Museum of Contemporary Art 220 E. Chicago, 312-280-2660 R similar to that of his club sets— Olajope (Six Navy Pier 600 E. Grand, 312-595-5184 two very different brass bands: R Celso Fonseca Degrees), a collaboration with Groove Banda Manzanera, founded in Mexico and See above. Collective reedist Jay Rodriguez, is a Old Town School of 4544 N. Lincoln, 773-728-6000 or now based in Chicago, and the Boban 866-468-3401 smooth and soulful addition to the Markovic Orkestar. Manzanera’s larger-than- Nuyorican house canon, with cameos by Park West 322 W. Armitage, 773-929-5959 or 312-559-1212 life arrangements, virtuousic playing, and 10 PM, EMPTY BOTTLE $10, 21+ Cuban pianist Chucho Valdes and New York Preston Bradley Hall Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington, infectious exuberance not only blew away percussionist Eddie Bobe. 312-744-6630 the unsuspecting crowd—many of whom Nomo Pritzker Pavilion Millennium Park, 100 N. Michigan, 312-742-1168 were Serbian and had clearly come to see the headliner—but also caught Markovic’s This Detroit-based Afrobeat combo, led by Future World Randolph Cafe Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington, 312- ear. Several members of Manzanera stayed multi-instrumentalist Elliot Bergman and 744-6630 onstage during the Orkestar’s set, waving usually at least 15 members strong, doesn’t Funk make any attempt to hide its debt to Fela Rogers Park World Music Festival Howard & Ashland, 773-527- towels and dancing in the wings, and after Future World Funk, aka British DJs Michael Kuti. On the group’s self-titled Ypsilanti 2946 one number Markovic ran over and gave “Cliffy” Clifford and Russ Jones, ignore Records debut, produced by Warren them all high fives. The CD-R I’ve heard is standard operating procedure in the highly Schubas 3159 N. Southport, 773-525-2508 Defever of His Name Is Alive, chantlike disappointingly tinny, like most banda competitive and hyperspecialized world of Sonotheque 1444 W. Chicago, 312-226-7600 lines from the tightly clustered horns com- club music, where finding a niche and recordings, but the band’s live sound is bine with propulsive, funky drumming to South Shore Cultural Center 7059 S. South Shore Dr., 312-747- defending it against all comers is often the titanic—and at this all-Mexican show, which create deep grooves that use the force of 2536 name of the game. The duo’s most recent combines several of the country’s most pop- repetition to push through to ecstasy; Wild Hare 3530 N. Clark, 773-327-4273 mix, the two-disc set On the Run (Ether), ular genres, the audience isn’t likely to need swaggering keyboard and guitar solos rip- skips all over the globe: there’s Afrobeat, much winning over. ple through the din, but the emphasis Jamaican dancehall, Brazilian forro, remains less on individual showmanship crossover merengue, and Indian brass- than on the steamrolling ensemble sound. band music, to pick just a few. They’re not 8 PM, OLD TOWN SCHOOL OF Like the Daktaris and Antibalas, two post- particularly fastidious about authenticity— FOLK MUSIC $12 Fela bands from New York, Nomo brings just about everything has been remixed to bits of jazz and soul into the mix, but the favor a four-on-the-floor club beat—but it’s R Trio Joubran effect is much less appealing here: “Moving always good to hear DJs using international in Circles” is mediocre as a soul tune, and See above. sounds for something other than superfi- Bergman’s lyrics—mostly hippie-dippy cial ornamentation. peace bromides—are embarrassing enough Riffat Sultana that when the group brings down the ham- mer later in the song, it’s hard not to sus- Riffat Sultana is the daughter of pect that the idea is to wipe them from legendary Pakistani singer R your brain. Luckily the bulk of the band’s saturday 17 Salamat Ali Khan, and she and her material is strictly instrumental. brothers Sukhawat, Ahafqat, and Sharafat all grew up singing Pakistani and Indian NOON, GARFIELD PARK classical music. But her father, mindful of Hypnotic Brass CONSERVATORY traditional Islamic proscriptions against female performers, didn’t let her take the Ensemble Kusun Ensemble stage for years. It wasn’t till the early 90s, The members of the Hypnotic Most African music-and-dance troupes that when she and Sukhawat convinced their Brass Ensemble aren’t your aver- make it to America are so carefully father to let them stay in the Bay Area R age buskers. All eight are sons of prepped for Western audiences that I often after a stateside tour, that she began to the great Kelan Phil Cohran, who played wonder if I couldn’t get a better feel for the perform—and even then she did so clan- with Sun Ra, cofounded the AACM, original traditions by reading a library destinely at first. But by 1995 she and her and led the Artistic Heritage Ensemble, book. I’ve only seen a short DVD from brother had formed the Ali Khan Band with whose mid-60s work has been an enor- Ghana’s Kusun Ensemble, but there’s a guitarist Richard Michos, one of their mous influence on much of the African-fla- refreshing looseness in the group’s exuber- father’s students, and in 1996 they made a vored music to come out of Chicago since, ant, acrobatic moves—krumping’s got noth- name for themselves collaborating with DJ from Earth, Wind & Fire to Kahil El’Zabar’s ing on this stuff. It’s not that they aren’t and producer Cheb I Sabbah for the disc Ritual Trio. He’s also taught his sons music carefully rehearsed—the focus just seems Shri Durga. Since renamed Shabaz, the for much of their lives, beginning as soon to be on the crispness and energy of the group has continued to release albums, but as they were old enough to hold their dances, not on wrapping them in a big their dated, electronics-heavy dance-floor instruments. Though the brothers are still showbiz production. The ensemble’s music—traditional percussion, melodic production style does a disservice both to selling their CDs on sidewalks, I’m sure singing, and funky, infectiously fluid gui- the traditional elements in the music and there’s a record deal in their future— tar—is a fine backdrop for the choreogra- to the powerful vocals—a fact underlined they’re far and away the city’s best street musicians, playing tunes that combine the phy, and I could even enjoy listening to it by the trio Sultana founded last year with on its own. Ferhan Najeeb Qureshi on tabla and rowdy syncopated feel of funky New Michos, now her husband, on 12-string Orleans brass-band music with the preci- acoustic guitar. This group’s gentle, pop- sion, intricacy, and harmonic richness of modern jazz. NOON, ROGERS PARK WORLD accented settings leave her singing plenty MUSIC FESTIVAL of space, both on original material and the occasional tune or light classical Samarabalouf standard. 10 PM, SONOTHEQUE $12, 21+ Founded in 2000 by guitarist Francois DJ Ron Trent Petit, this instrumental outfit from Amiens, France, has filled its tank with the high- 8 PM, WBEZ 91.5 FM About a year ago Chicago-born DJ Ron Trent and Sonotheque’s Sonia Hassan octane Gypsy jazz of Django Reinhardt, Waldemar Bastos teamed up for a monthly series called though some of the tunes also incorporate “Africa Hi-Fi,” intending to expose the subtle flashes of Middle Eastern harmony See September 17. This is a live African roots of modern pop and dance or hooky melodies that’d be right at home R radio broadcast rather than a pub- music. I’ve heard Trent’s mix from March, in rock or blues. The music’s accessible and lic performance; Bastos makes his and though it’s of dubious value as an entertaining, if not adventurous or origi- first concert appearance Saturday. anthropological document, it does demon- nal: Petit solos over malleable grooves CHICAGO READER | SEPTEMBER 16, 2005 | SECTION THREE 31 32 CHICAGO READER | WORLD MUSIC FESTIVAL GUIDE | SEPTEMBER 16, 2005 | SECTION THREE

WORLD MUSIC FEST

vocal performances seem aimed squarely with touches of timba, one of R Juan-Carlos at everyone who’s skeptical of the disc’s Cuba’s most popular dance forms. The too-clever conceit. Camille, one of the bet- musicianship is top-notch across the Formell ter singers, plays the Dead Kennedys’ “Too ensemble, but between the relentless See September 16. Drunk to Fuck” for laughs in a way Jello balls-out playing and the cranked-up fusion Biafra never could, her voice dripping with elements in the sound, there’s barely any boozy insouciance, and the bossa nova breathing room in the tunes—in particular 8 PM, OLD TOWN SCHOOL OF beat on the Sisters of Mercy’s “Marian” dis- kit drummer Raul Pineda always sounds FOLK MUSIC $12 pels a bit of the song’s gothic gloom, even like he’s trying to break down a door, no if it can’t make it sound much less dull. matter what the setting actually calls for. R Waldemar Some of the best covers are of fairly well- When Herrera takes a different approach, known songs like XTC’s “Making Plans for though, the result is hardly an improve- Bastos Nigel,” but more often than not it’s relative ment: he enlists the Minneapolis obscurities—Tuxedomoon’s “In a Manner of Philharmonic for a cover of the Orestes See above. Speaking,” Josef K’s “Sorry for Laughing”— Lopez number “Llegaron los millonarios,” that turn out to be gorgeous pop tunes which borrows heavily from Tchaikovsky’s R Lura when stripped of their dated musical trap- Nutcracker Suite, and the arrangement is pings and dressed in new clothes. Two one of the cheesiest I’ve ever heard. See September 16. singers are accompanying the group for this tour: Melanie Pain (who’s on the record) and Phoebe Tolmer (who isn’t). 2 PM, CLARKE HOUSE MUSEUM Waldemar Bastos 9 PM, HIDEOUT $10 Nomo with A Moving Sound Golem from upright bassist Luc Ambry and sec- 4 PM, NAVY PIER See September 17. ond guitarist Pierre Margerin, but his con- Nicole Mitchell & See above. cise, fiercely rhythmic improvising never Vishten strays outside the frameworks established Fred Anderson 3 PM, NAVY PIER by the compositions. The group recently This French-Acadian quartet from Prince See September 16. For this performance, became a quartet, adding Arnaud Van Edward Island, formed in 2000, has devel- Kusun Ensemble part of the Hideout’s annual Block Party, Lancker on . oped an accomplished ensemble interplay sunday 18 and a polished repertoire of Irish, Nomo will be joined by flutist Nicole See September 17. Scottish, and French folk songs. Nimble, Mitchell and tenor saxophonist Fred airy rhythms crafted by guitarist and Anderson, both AACM heavies and first- 1 PM, BORDERS ON 53RD 1 PM, BORDERS ON MICHIGAN bassist Remi Arsenault and guest pianist rate improvisers. 3 PM, BORDERS ON CLARK Megan Bergeron provide solid support for R Boubacar Waldemar Bastos unison lines, deft counterpoint, and Balkan Beat Box In 1998, when Waldemar Bastos extended solos by Emmanuelle LeBlanc 9 PM, PARK WEST $15, 18+ Traore Plugged into the same grid as released his previous album, (bodhran, ), Pastelle LeBlanc (accor- See September 17. Gypsy punks , this R Pretaluz (Luaka Bop), his home- dion), and Pascal Miousee (violin, man- R Amadou & R wild New York group jacks up east- land of Angola was wracked by a civil war dolin), and Emmanuelle adds sweet, pop- ern European folk with bass-heavy elec- more than two decades old. But in the tinged vocals that don’t destroy the Mariam 1 PM, NAVY PIER tronics, tearing into klezmer, Balkan intervening years hostilities ended, and music’s rustic flavor. Onstage the mem- See September 16. melodies, and Turkish traditional music Bastos, who’s lived in Lisbon, Portugal, bers incorporate spontaneous outbursts Nachito Herrera with a combination of feral recklessness since 1982, began making visits in 2003, of dance into their performances, aiming and careful craftsmanship. Formed in 2003 giving a triumphant performance that year to capture the feel of what they call a Boubacar Traore & the Bembe by former Gogol Bordello reedist in the capital city of Luanda. On Pretaluz he and , the Firewater drummer “kitchen party”—and each sits on a wood- In the early 60s singer and gui- sang almost exclusively of the war and the en box that doubles as a percussion Band who produced last year’s Gogol Bordello vs. ways it had ravaged Angola’s beauty, but a tarist Boubacar “Kar Kar” Traore Tamir Muskat, Balkan Beat Box also instrument and a dancing platform. R became a minor legend in his Pianist Ignacio “Nachito” Herrera is an muted optimism permeates the new exemplary product of Cuba’s sophisticated includes trumpeter-trombonist Dana Leong Renascence (Times Square), which cele- homeland with the huge hit “Mali Twist.” and bassist-guitarist Itamar Ziegler, who All it really owes to the Chubby Checker music-education system: he was playing brates the perseverance of Angolans and 4 PM, ROGERS PARK WORLD Rachmaninoff with the Havana Symphony plays slinking unison lines with the horns or describes his powerful emotions upon smash, though, is half its title: it’s not drops deep grooves to beef up Muskat’s live MUSIC FESTIVAL about a dance but rather makes a plea to Orchestra at age 12 and performing with returning home after years of exile. His gor- Buena Vista Social Club pianist Ruben drumming and killer programming. Though geous, slightly feminine voice turns out to his fellow Malians to rebuild their country remix compilations like last year’s Electric R Riffat Sultana after years of colonialism and warfare. The Gonzalez four years later. He went on to be just as well suited to astonished joy as it Gypsyland (Six Degrees) have similarly See September 16. song was ubiquitous, but Traore didn’t see lead the touring version of the legendary was to crushing sadness: on “Pitanga repurposed raucous eastern European much money from it and eventually settled Tropicana Orchestra and serve as pianist Madurinha,” one of the disc’s most upbeat music for the dance floor, the material on into life as a tailor and farmer. In 1987 jour- and musical director for trumpeter Jesus tunes, he sounds unsure about whether to Balkan Beat Box’s recent self-titled debut nalists “discovered” him and cajoled him Alemany’s Cubanismo. But in 2001 Herrera believe his own eyes, singing, “Along the 5 PM, ELI’S CHEESECAKE (coreleased by the New York Jewish-reggae into cutting some new tracks—which defected and settled in Minneapolis, where byways of my land I went dreaming / I wan- FESTIVAL label JDub, Israel’s NaNa Disc, and stunned fellow Malians who’d assumed he he assembled this sextet with other Cuban dered, and saw the houses, my friends, my ’s Essay Recordings) has a leg up was dead—but not long after that his wife expats. On the brand-new Bembe en mi friends in peace, in peace.” As on his earlier Golem on that stuff: the big beats are part of the passed on and he took construction jobs casa (FS Music) he distances himself from recordings, liquid electric reflect the On its latest disc, Homesick Songs arrangements from the beginning, not abroad to support his family. The music the more traditional projects he’d pursued influence of Congolese , but the bub- (Aeronaut), this fun-loving New York sex- grafted on later, and they reinforce the business wasn’t through with him, though: back home, instead mixing aggressive bly, syncopated rhythms are pure Bantu. A tet plays theatrical klezmer colored with after a British producer tracked him down Turkish string section also enhances a few traces of rock and cabaret. Founder and in France a couple years later he started tracks, providing an unexpected touch of lead singer Annette Ezekiel sings a bit like playing again and hasn’t stopped since. Chicago-style soul—“Esperanca” sounds an Dagmar Krause doing a Lotte Lenya He’s in his mid-60s now, but on Kongo awful lot like the Isaac Hayes version of impersonation, and she’s at least as tal- Magni (World Village), his first new studio “Walk On By.” At the first World Music ented as a musicologist: to build up album in five years, his power is undimin- Festival back in 1999, Bastos was stunning, Golem’s repertoire she not only raids old ished. His music shares some traits with his performances a mix of breathtaking Yiddish songbooks from American and that of his countryman Ali Farka Toure, beauty and inconsolable sadness; I’m eager eastern European shtetls but also visits immigrant and elderly New York Jews and with its bluesy, insistently circling acoustic to hear how the developments in his home- guitar, but Traore plays with a lighter reconstructs songs from their memories. land have changed him. touch, masterfully twining spontaneous The band also includes second vocalist licks into his sturdy, looping figures. Aaron Diskin—who might be a little too There’s also a tenderness to his voice that’s theatrical—bassist Taylor Bergen- 3 PM, BORDERS ON BROADWAY missing in the singing of Malian bluesmen Chrisman, trumpeter David Griffin, violin- like Lobi Traore and Habib Koite—and it’ll ist Alicia Jo Rabins of the Mammals, and R Lura be front and center at his Chicago perform- superb jazz trombonist Curtis Hasselbring See September 16. ances, where he’s accompanied only by his of Slavic Soul Party. own guitar and by Kandiamoudou Kouyate on calabash, a giant gourd that provides 3:30 PM, ELI’S CHEESECAKE great low-end thumps. FESTIVAL 6 PM, SOUTH SHORE CULTURAL CENTER Nomo Kusun Ensemble 10 PM, SCHUBAS $12, 21+ See September 16. See above. This event opens with an hour- Nouvelle Vague long dance workshop. On paper this concept band, 4 PM, GARFIELD PARK brainchild of Parisian producers CONSERVATORY R and Olivier Libaux, 7 PM, HOTHOUSE $12, 21+ sounds like a silly idea from a pair of self- A Moving Sound Regina Orozco satisfied smart-asses. The French phrase The repertoire of this Taiwanese group is “Nouvelle Vague” is usually translated thick with Chinese folk tunes, and though I don’t speak Spanish, and I’m sure that’s “new wave” in English and “bossa nova” in their recordings are a bit glossy and poppy, why I don’t understand the appeal of this Portuguese, so Collin and Libaux, inspired that doesn’t spoil the graceful melodies of celebrated Mexican actress and opera by this noncoincidence, hired a slew of singer Mia Hsieh or the elegant erhu lines singer. Orozco’s album La mega bizcocho young French chanteuses to deliver breezy, of Cheng-Chun Wu. But guest players like is campy, theatrical pop, tongue-in-cheek Brazilian-style readings of punk and new- Brazilian percussionist Eduardo Campos and over-the-top—only her wild vocal wave songs. Nouvelle Vague’s self-titled and Belgian guitarist Pieter Thys never histrionics hold together the reckless debut on Luaka Bop doesn’t always play by quite blend into the music or add much to mishmash of cabaret, funk, torch songs, its own rules—Depeche Mode’s “Just Can’t it, and American coleader Scott Prairie—he and traditional regional styles like Get Enough” gets a Vic Godard-style lounge and Hsieh are husband and wife and found- norteño and . The interstitial treatment, and the Clash’s “Guns of ed the band together—frequently torpedoes skits sound pretty gonzo, but I can’t say Brixton” sounds like a down-and-out the songs outright with his out-of-place whether they’re funny—and on a purely Weimar cabaret ditty. But almost all the musical level there’s little for me to rec- reinventions add something to the original, French lines, treacly English folk-pop Boubacar Traore warble, and self-conscious wordless vocals. ommend here. and the consistently heartfelt and inspired CHICAGO READER | WORLD MUSIC FESTIVAL GUIDE | SEPTEMBER 16, 2005 | SECTION THREE 33

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sometimes lopsided time signatures organi- preserve and revive , a form native to plena’s great past practitioners—Angel such a great gig, but his tepid singing layered drones, and other wordless sounds cally, never coming off like standard-issue the island that arose more than a century Torruellas, Los Pleneros del Quinto Olivo, makes his decision to go solo a lot harder with lyrics drawn from the Bible, the hip-hop or club rhythms. On the record a ago from a collision between the music of Mon Rivera, Rafael Cepeda—but the vin- to explain. Talmud, the Kabbalah, and elsewhere. variety of sassy, slightly drunk-sounding immigrants from nearby Barbados and tage material is arranged sleekly, with She’s also been studying the art of dhru- female singers rap, slur, and shout their Puerto Rico’s own African-derived idioms, radio-friendly vocal harmonies and an ear pad—the most austere form of Indian clas- way through the songs, and the group is which were similar to those developing in toward contemporary dancers. On the 3 PM, CLAUDIA CASSIDY THEATER sical music—and tinkering with hip-hop and traveling with several vocalists, including Cuba. Plena was originally a narrative forthcoming Evolucion the group returns to rap, as well as collaborating with members Jeremiah Lockwood, Tomer Yosef, and style, and its lyrics, which often reflected original songs and expands its sound, A Moving Sound of New York’s bustling Gypsy underground Victoria Hanna (see below)—though she’ll current political or cultural happenings, adding baritone , guitar, vibes, See September 17. like Gogol Bordello front man Eugene Hutz join in only at Monday night’s Empty Bottle could turn the music into an important cuatro, and accordion—to my ears it’s an and Balkan Beat Box (see above—Hanna gig. I doubt Balkan Beat Box will be able to avenue of communication; its sound was improvement over its predecessor, and joins the group for its Monday-night festi- match Gogol Bordello’s go-for-broke defined by elaborate polyrhythms played even the singing of Rafael “Pole” Ortiz 7 PM, MUSEUM OF val performance). I wouldn’t care to predict onstage energy, but they’ve got more than on tambourinelike hand drums called pan- fares better. CONTEMPORARY ART $12 what she’ll decide to do at her performances enough nuance and range to make up for it. deiros and augmented by a scraped gourd here—where she’s supported by violist called a guiro. For most of the 20th century Victoria Hanna Kinor Jacobi, video arist Kathy von Koerber, it was the mainspring of Puerto Rican Chucky Santos Israeli vocalist Victoria Hanna and two members of Balkan Beat Box, 3 PM, HUMBOLDT PARK music, and even though pan- Chucky Santos was formerly second gui- brings such a density of ideas to drummer and programmer Tamir Muskat BOATHOUSE salsa and merengue had displaced it by the tarist for Alex Vargas, one of the biggest R her work that a paper in India and bassist-guitarist Itamar Ziegler—but I 70s, plena had evolved alongside those stars in bachata, the country music of the gave up trying to decide what sort of music plan on being there to find out. Plena Libre genres and like them relied on pat- Dominican Republic and a burgeoning it is and just called it “experimental the- Puerto Rican bassist and band- terns and galloping grooves. Plena Libre’s international phenomenon for the past atre.” Using multiple overdubs of her leader Gary Nunez formed Plena most recent release, ¡Estamos gozando! decade. When you hear Santos’s nimble arrestingly intense and supple voice, she Regina Orozco R Libre more than a decade ago to (Times Square), pays homage to some of guitar playing, it’s clear how he landed combines entrancing melodic curlicues, See September 17. 34 CHICAGO READER | WORLD MUSIC FESTIVAL GUIDE | SEPTEMBER 16, 2005 | SECTION THREE

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8:30 PM, WILD HARE $12, 21+ R Boubacar R Balkan Beat Box Traore with Yuri Lane See September 17. See above. Tonight the group is joined by Chicago’s Yuri Lane, star of the one-man DJ Jerome hip-hop play From to Ramallah: A Beatbox Journey. Derradji This French DJ recently launched the Chicago-based soul and house label Still Golem Music, whose first full-length release, In See September 17. the Dark, documents the Detroit soul underground. Here he’ll spin a mixture of African and Brazilian music. 9 PM, HOTHOUSE $12, 21+ R Nouvelle Vague See September 17. monday 19

Samarabalouf 11 AM, CLAUDIA CASSIDY See September 17. THEATER Nachito Herrera 9:30 PM, LOGAN SQUARE See September 18. AUDITORIUM

Seu Jorge 12:30 PM, CLAUDIA CASSIDY Most Americans, if they’ve heard THEATER of Seu Jorge at all, know him as R the guy with the acoustic guitar Nina Becker, singing tunes in Portuguese all through Wes Anderson’s The Life Rubinho Aquatic With Steve Zissou. That wasn’t his only film role or even his biggest—he also Jacobina played Knockout Ned in City of God, a Two members of the Brazilian big band drama set in the favelas of Rio, where Orquestra Imperial (see below) step out for Jorge spent his childhood—but he got his an intimate set. I’ve only heard one tune by Seu Jorge first real break playing music. In the late singer and fashion designer Nina Becker, 90s he scored a minor hit as a member of but it was a doozy—a sexy, spectral lounge- often a dialogue with nature, incorporating a circusy troupe of musicians and actors pop . She’ll be backed by keyboardist the sounds of forest birds and animals into R Seu Jorge R Victoria Hanna called Farofa Carioca, and in 2002 he Rubinho Jacobina, son of guitarist and the ritualized performances, and that same See September 18. See September 18. released his first solo album, Carolina (Mr. songwriter Nelson Jacobina and cowriter of intuitive spontaneity is evident in Baka Bongo), an amped-up collection of funky some of the songs on the 2002 collabora- Beyond’s dazzling interweaving of wordless a la Jorge Ben. The new Cru tion between Caetano Veloso and Jorge lines. Unfortunately, the rest of the group’s DJ Joe Bryl Mautner, Eu nao peco desculpa (Universal, (Wrasse) replaces his debut’s dense, frenet- music is consistently disappointing, despite Joe Bryl, co-owner of Sonotheque, is one Brasil). ic arrangements with dramatic austerity Cradick and Hart’s obvious sincerity: of Chicago’s most experienced DJs: during tuesday 20 and calm, and announces Jorge’s arrival as they’ve helped the Baka with construction the early days of Club 950 he was one of and development projects and even lived one of Brazil’s greatest young talents: he the first people in the city spinning new 11 AM, CLAUDIA CASSIDY rarely raises his voice above a sexy croon, 12:30 PM, BORDERS ON with them for extended periods, but on wave, and later at the Funky Buddha he was THEATER but still manages to sound beautifully MICHIGAN disc they just water down the Baka’s tradi- an early adopter of acid jazz. He doesn’t intense and expressive. The majority of the tional sounds with bland European ideas. Ensemble N_JP R Seu Jorge do too many sets dedicated to Brazilian tunes are leisurely sambas, with instru- During an extended stay in Japan back in mental backdrops that consist of little See September 18. music, but he’s certainly got the goods in his collection. 2001, former Chicagoan Gene Coleman more than acoustic guitar, hand percus- 3 PM, DANCE STUDIO, CHICAGO hatched the idea for a group that would sion, and sweet-toned four-stringed CULTURAL CENTER $25 yoke age-old Asian musical traditions to cavaquinho (and sometimes even less). 1:30 PM, BORDERS ON MICHIGAN 8 PM, MARTYRS’ $8 ideas and techniques from contemporary Jorge’s voice is far from perfect, and he A Moving Sound classical composition, both Western and regularly slips out of tune, but he makes a Baka Beyond See September 17. This performance will Far Eastern. The lineup he’s assembled virtue of his shortcomings, imbuing every British guitarist and producer Martin accompany a tai chi workshop hosted by Baka Beyond embodies that dichotomy perfectly: it whispered, grunted, or warbled phrase Cradick and his wife, singer Su Hart, found- Hedwig Dances, the Cultural Center’s resi- See above. includes Ko Ishikawa, a member of the with an unforced mix of vulnerability and ed Baka Beyond in 1992, after meeting and dent troupe. acclaimed gagaku ensemble Reigakusha confidence. On a cover of the sinister Serge befriending many Baka pygmies on a visit who plays an ancient bamboo mouth organ Gainsbourg song “Chatterton,” he drops his to the Cameroonian rain forest. On seven Kevin Dempsey called the sho, and Toshimaru Nakamura, voice so low that his faux-Howlin’ Wolf subsequent albums, including the new 6:30 PM, PRITZKER PAVILION an electroacoustic improviser who’s growl disintegrates into a coughing jag, Rhythm Tree (March Hare Music), they’ve & Joe Broughton worked with international heavies like and his eccentric pronunciation on a combined Baka traditions with bits of Celtic Orquestra Singer and guitarist Kevin Dempsey and Keith Rowe and John Butcher and special- molasses-slow version of Elvis Presley’s and Breton music, enlisting performers violinist Joe Broughton are both veterans izes in manipulating feedback from a no- “Don’t” only adds to his charm. Thoroughly from Senegal, Sierra Leone, Ghana, and Imperial of the British folk scene—Dempsey was in input mixing board. On one side, Yoko Nishi contemporary despite its rudimentary, other African nations to thicken the sound. Formed in 2002 by some of the Dave Swarbrick’s Whippersnapper, plays and Kazuko Takada the lutelike back-to-basics approach and skeletal struc- The most arresting element of the new shamisen; on the other, Rei Hotoda plays young guns in the Broughton in the Albion Band—but as a tures, Cru is one of the best albums I’ve recording is the band’s rendering of Baka R piano and Kazuhisa Uchihashi the electric music scene, this big band aims to duo they range afield from that territory. heard this year. vocal polyphony—indigenous Baka music is guitar. With the assistance of local cellist advance new ideas in Brazilian music— On their most recent album, Freehand Marina Peterson, the group will premiere a which of course means embroidering (SAE), they augment the usual Celtic beloved idioms like and bossa nova Coleman composition called “Kyoto in_Ex,” tunes with bits of post-Django jazz and accompanied by Tom Denlinger’s video as much as it does creating fresh styles. some dazzling, uncategorizable instru- Orquestra Imperial has one ringer on projections, and perform several relatively mental work—Broughton’s solo vehicle traditional pieces. board—legendary bossa nova drummer “Reflections in Aloia” creates a gorgeous Wilson das Neves—but most of the players tapestry from multiple overdubbed aren’t stars in their own right, coming tracks of rapid-fire mandolin and pizzica- instead from the pool of immensely cre- NOON, DALEY CIVIC CENTER ative session musicians or producers in to violin. I could do without the milque- Brazil. Berna Ceppas, who plays keyboards toast acoustic pop tunes, but these guys Nachito Herrera and samplers in the group, and Kassin, can sure play. who plays bass, are also one of the coun- & the Bembe try’s most in-demand production teams, using their encyclopedic knowledge of 9 PM, HOTHOUSE $12, 21+ Band musical styles and a healthy dose of elec- See September 18. tronics to tweak time-tested forms; the R Plena Libre singers include Moreno Veloso, Nina See September 18. Becker, and (of the rock 12:30 PM, CLAUDIA CASSIDY band ). This is a rare chance THEATER to get a revue-style glimpse of emerging Nachito Herrera Brazilian talent without shelling out for Rajan & Sajan tickets to Rio. I’ve only seen a short video & the Bembe snippet, but in it the group was a sort of Mishra with glorious self-organizing free-for-all, joyful Band but disciplined—and opener Seu Jorge is Kumar Bose See September 18. likely to join in too, since he was in the One of the greatest modern vocal Orquestra early on. Several members are duos in , playing their own shows earlier today or R brothers Rajan and Sajan Mishra sometime tomorrow: Domenico + 2 (see 9:30 PM, EMPTY BOTTLE 21+ have been performing together for September 20), Wilson das Neves (see R Balkan Beat Box decades, developing not only stunningly Orquestra Imperial September 20), and Nina Becker with precise pitch control but also a sublime Rubinho Jacobina (see September 19). See September 18. musical intuition that lets them put that CHICAGO READER | WORLD MUSIC FESTIVAL GUIDE | SEPTEMBER 16, 2005 | SECTION THREE 35

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control to dramatic use. For their extended 6 PM, HOKIN ANNEX, COLUMBIA 7 PM, HOKIN ANNEX, COLUMBIA improvisations the brothers often embroi- COLLEGE COLLEGE der raga melodies, sometimes solo and sometimes in tandem, but for me the real Midival Punditz Sidi Goma thrill comes when they leap clear of the As merchants, sailors, and vic- melodic framework and go into free fall. I can’t even count how many tims of the slave trade, an On their new double CD, Sadhana (Sense), techno tracks I’ve heard that R R unknown number of Swahilis they extract a seemingly limitless amount invoke Indian classical music from the east coast of Africa ended up in of material from a single chord, skipping with nothing but an unintelligible vocal sample or out-of-context loop, the Indian state of Gujarat more than from note to note or repeating a single one eight centuries ago, where they formed a with machine-gun rapidity, sometimes reducing the entire tradition to a pedes- trian signifier of the exotic. The picture unique and isolated community. Known as landing on the same microtone and then Sidis, they’re now a tribal Sufi group, and brightened somewhat with the rise of the shifting in the blink of an eye to harmonize postslavery they’ve eked out an existence in England in the mid- on two different pitches—it’s like watching as itinerant musicians and dancers. It’s a 90s, but ultimately artists like Talvin expert surfers dancing back and forth on a source of pride for Sidis that Hazrat Bilal, rolling wave. The brothers are joined here Singh, Black Star Liner, and State of an African, was chosen as the first on tabla by Kumar Bose, a living legend of Bengal didn’t advance the hybrid of Indian muezzin by Mohammed, and the music of the instrument, who made his name in the music and techno very far, despite their Sidi Goma has a strong African feel, even 70s accompanying Ravi Shankar. Rajan’s more direct connection to south Asian though Sidis consider themselves Indian sons Ritesh and Rajnish, who’ve con- culture. Gaurav Raina and Tapan Raj, aka Domenico + 2 and no longer understand most of the tributed vocals to a forthcoming album by the New Delhi duo Midival Punditz, are lyrics to their own traditional songs. , will also make a guest unequivocally making electronic club (Yunus Babu Sidi, one of the group’s lead- appearance. 12:30 PM, BORDERS ON STATE played HotHouse last October in support of music, and there are just as certainly ers, told the British magazine fRoots, “We Domenico’s record, Sincerely Hot (Luaka Indian classical sounds all over their new are Indians, pure and proper, [but] Swahili Bop), I’ve been waiting eagerly for bassist Domenico + 2 album, Midival Times (Six Degrees)—the is the language of our forefathers and we Alexandre Kassin to take his turn. Though Los Gauchos de difference is that those sounds aren’t should not forget it.”) Sidi Goma recently I can’t think of another Brazilian Sincerely Hot is now almost three years released its debut recording, Black Sufis Roldan group that’s as inventive as this old, it still sounds brilliant to me, marrying samples but rather contributions made R trio, much less so nonchalant especially for the disc by top-notch per- of Gujarat (Kapa), where the group’s four Founded in 1986 by accordionist Walter stuttering electronic beats, favela hip-hop, about it—in fact I only know a few bands and Ernie Isley-style psychedelia to the formers, among them sitar hotshot musicians—there are also eight dancers— Roldan, this compact ensemble—Roldan, from anywhere in the world blessed with usual gentle vocals and sweet guitar of Anouska Shankar, master Sultan accompany their own call-and-response two dancers, and two acoustic guitarists this kind of unfettered creativity. Many pop bossa nova—and the music’s even better Khan, and young playback singer Kailash vocals with propulsive patterns played on who also sing—works to preserve the tradi- artists lose sight of the whimsy in their live, where you can watch Lancellotti ener- Kher. Raina and Raj aren’t classically the malunga, a single-stringed musical tional music and dance of rural Uruguay. music when they take chances, as though getically pushing buttons on his dinky-look- trained themselves, but it’s clear the bow similar to the Brazilian berimbau, Forms like polca, vals, and shotis (that is, experimenting with new sounds were as ing MPC sampler to play the drum parts in music is in their blood: the Indian ele- and a variety of hand drums. The ensem- , , and schottische) reveal an risky as a moon landing, but these guys ble’s performances simulate a typical Sufi real time. ments aren’t pasted on ironically but enduring European influence, but more seem to have more fun the further they get ritual, where celebrants strive to meticulously integrated into each track. interesting are the styles that borrow from from the security blanket of a recognizable approach God by working themselves into indigenous or African music: habanera, genre. So far singer and guitarist Moreno an ecstatic trance: there’s a gorgeous call , milonga, and chamarrita. The group Veloso, son of Caetano, has issued an 6 PM, CLAUDIA CASSIDY to prayer, sacred songs performed while also plays material from Argentina and album with the group as Moreno + 2, and THEATER 6:30 PM, ALBERT PICK HALL seated, and of course plenty of athletic southern Brazil; Roldan makes a point of singer and percussionist Domenico dancing—which often climaxes with one of explaining the various idioms and their ori- Lancellotti has followed up with a disc Ensemble N_JP R Trio Joubran the men shattering a coconut on his head gins between songs. billed to Domenico + 2. Ever since the trio See above. See September 16. in a feat of divinely inspired strength. 36 CHICAGO READER | WORLD MUSIC FESTIVAL GUIDE | SEPTEMBER 16, 2005 | SECTION THREE

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7:30 PM, PRESTON BRADLEY rhythms played on the calabash, and the HALL sorrowful sound of a single-string El Payo called a godje all come from Mali’s beauti- This local band plays rumba rock, the R Rajan & Sajan ful ; and the animated amped-up blend of rock and hard-charging burping and hiccuping of the kalangu, or flamenco that put the Gipsy Kings on the Mishra with talking drum, bring to mind Nigerian juju. map, but they don’t have anything like the Guitarist Abdoulaye Alhassane and bassist chops they’d need to match that group’s Kumar Bose Harouna Abdou add depth without disrupt- power. ing the traditional feel, blending tastefully See above. into the dense, churning polyrhythms.

7:30, MUSEUM OF Los Gauchos de CONTEMPORARY ART $12 wednesday 21 Domenico + 2 Roldan See above. 11 AM, CLAUDIA CASSIDY with On Fillmore THEATER See above for more on Domenico 9 PM, HOTHOUSE $12, 21+ Alkinoos +2. On Fillmore is the duo of per- R cussionist Glenn Kotche, best Wilson das Neves Ioannidis known for his drumming in Wilco, and Drummer Wilson das Neves was in This Greek Cypriot has achieved stardom at bassist Darin Gray of Grand Ulena. home by mixing rock with traditional Together they play meditative, stripped- the thick of Rio’s bossa nova craze R from the early 60s onward; though Cypriot music and Greek idioms like rem- down texture-and-groove music: their lat- betika and entechno, but on this tour he’s est album, Sleeps With Fishes pioneers like Joao Gilberto didn’t use drums to broadcast the music’s signature rhythms, presenting a new project, “Mediterranean Qing Mei Jing Yue (Quakebasket), is a gorgeous sort of mini- Crossroads: Songs From Old Cyprus to malism, with Gray’s sturdy upright bass plenty of other musicians did, and das Modern Greece.” He’s playing guitar and endlessly cycling its arcing lines, Kotche Neves stood out for his rare ability to make lute in an ensemble that includes violinist 6 PM, BORDERS ON BROADWAY 8:30 PM, OLD TOWN SCHOOL OF playing vibes and coaxing clear overtones the beat feel like an organic outgrowth of Miltiades Papastamou, percussionist and FOLK MUSIC $15 from his cymbals with a bow, and field the tune. For four decades he’s weathered cellist Yiorgos Kaloudis, bassist Yiannas Badi Assad recordings blended in throughout—auto all the trends in Brazilian music, working Papatriantafyllou, and pianist Sotiris Susana Baca Trio traffic, a jet far overhead, running water, with important artists from a range of gen- Though the songs on Badi Lemonidis; the tunes I’ve heard are sor- kids talking. Members of Domenico + 2 will res—samba and bossa nova singers like Assad’s new album, Verde (Edge rowful and beautiful, with sensitive R with intermittently join On Fillmore to impro- Elizeth Cardoso and , MPB stars Music), share the sashaying arrangements that recall chamber music. For more than a decade the great vise, and the duo will return the favor dur- like and , even rhythms and feathery touch of bossa Peruvian singer Susana Baca has ing the Brazilians’ set. romantic rockers like Roberto Carlos. In the nova, the Brazilian guitarist doesn’t stick R 90s he began singing as well, developing to the purist’s definition of the form. Her run the Instituto Negrocontinuo into a consistent songwriter, and returned NOON, DALEY CIVIC CENTER instrumental style includes brief, aggres- with her Bolivian husband, Ricardo Pereira, aiming to preserve the songs and oral tra- 8 PM, MARTYRS’ $10, 21+ to more traditional samba and bossa nova sive runs, dense and sometimes discor- sounds. Das Neves is one of only a few liv- R Sidi Goma dant harmonies, and rhythm licks that cut ditions of ’s marginalized African pop- ulation. In August she arrived at Tulane Mamar Kassey ing links to the heyday of bossa nova, and See September 20. against the grain of the tune, but she no chance to see him should be taken light- insinuates all these elements into the University in New Orleans on a five-month Mamar Kassey is arguably the ly; he also plays Monday, September 19, music without disrupting its liquid feel. Rockefeller fellowship to study the devel- greatest band in Niger—a nation opment of African-American music in the R with Orquestra Imperial. 12:30 PM, BORDERS ON STATE Even her wide-ranging vocals—which that’s only now catching up with city, intending to compare it to the Afro- include straight-up singing as well as non- neighbors like Mali and Nigeria after its Peruvian tradition, and now she’s among verbal sounds and body percussion—casu- artists and musicians were neglected by R Martires del the hundreds of thousands of people dis- Nina Becker ally incorporate elements foreign to most the government of dictator Seyni Kountche placed by Hurricane Katrina. Baca chose to See September 19. bossa nova. Assad also looks outside for much of the 70s and 80s. Things start- Compas continue her research at the University of ed to turn around in 1987, when Kountche See September 20. Brazil for material, and manages to make Chicago, which has turned out to be a died: that same year Alhassane Dante, for- Rubinho Yann Tiersen’s theme from Amelie, ’s stroke of luck for the World Music Festival— mer director of the national ballet, organ- “One,” and her own impressive composi- she’s agreed to step in and fill the hole in ized a state-run music festival, and in 1990 Jacobina 12:30 PM, CLAUDIA CASSIDY tions sound of a piece with classics by the schedule created by the last-minute he founded the Centre for Musical Training THEATER Luiz Gonzaga and Vinicius de Moraes. cancellation of Venezuela’s Simon Diaz. (All See September 19. Jacobina will play a set and Promotion. Yacouba Moumouni, the Bjork’s “Bachelorette” doesn’t quite tickets for that show will be honored.) Two with his own band as well as accompany founder of Mamar Kassey, owes his career Qing Mei Jing become a bossa, but Assad’s gentle, members of her working band, acoustic Becker. to Dante and his family: in 1976, when his insistent guitar, Toninho Ferragutti’s guitarist Sergio Valdeos and cajon player shepherd father died, the ten-year-old Yue accordion, and Dimos Guadaroulis’s cello Juan Medrano Cotito, are flying in from Moumouni struck out on his own after a create a lovely chamber-music sound that Peru, and the trio will be joined by New 9:30 PM, EMPTY BOTTLE $10, 21+ This Chinese quartet—each of the fight with his brother, walked more than words in its name corresponds to perfectly suits the rising and falling ten- York guitarist Marc Ribot, who’s con- 100 miles to Niger’s capital, and after two Martires del R one of the four members—plays a sion in the song. tributed to Baca’s two latest albums. On years of homelessness was taken in by mixture of traditional classical pieces and the most recent disc, 2002’s Espiritu vivo Dante’s sister Absatou, who began teaching Compas originals. Yang Jing (pipa), Liu Yuening (Luaka Bop), Ribot and keyboardist John him music in exchange for housework. He (yangqin), Yu Hongmei (erhu), and Fan 6 PM, BORDERS ON NORTH Medeski help create a fascinating push and later joined Absatou’s band and the nation- This group from Seville, Spain, Weiqing (guzheng) are all involved with pull between Afro-Peruvian roots music al ballet, attended Dante’s school, and calls its music “flamenco-billy,” top-tier preservationist groups like the Jake and postmodern jazz. Baca’s band has toured and . In France R but I’m not going to hold that National Orchestra of Chinese Music and always been extremely empathetic, shad- he met world-music producer Nick Gold, against them. The poppy, hooky originals the Traditional Music Orchestra of the Shimabukuro owing her graceful melodies tenderly and who invited him to play a reed flute called on their recent No Papers (World Village) Central Music Conservatory, but they also Hawaii’s Jake Shimabukuro has done his precisely, but the New Yorkers loosen the seyse on Oumou Sangare’s album stay surprisingly faithful to traditional fla- play Western orchestral music and popular part to rescue the ukulele from the likes things up a bit, bringing superheated met- Worotan, and when he returned to Niger in menco even while hybridizing it with main- Chinese instrumental material. Their CD of Tiny Tim. In his hands it’s hardly a ropolitan funk to the dance celebration “Se 1995 he was determined to put together a stream rock. Guitarist Julio Revilla uncorks Evening Poem is downright gorgeous, if plinky, dinky novelty instrument: on his me van los pies” and dissonant Afro-Cuban modern band. Moumouni drew on fellow solos that wouldn’t sound too out of place not especially adventurous, filled with the new instrumental disc, Dragon intensity to a cover of Brazilian songwriter alumni of Dante’s school to form Mamar on an 80s hair-metal record whenever he Caetano Veloso’s “13 de mayo.” The range sounds of strings being sweetly plucked, (Hitchhike), he plays with a disarmingly Kassey, enlisting a guitarist, a bassist, plugs in, but second guitarist Manuel Soto of material is interesting too: Baca includes deftly struck, firmly bowed, and aggres- sweet tone and mandolinlike fluidity three open-minded traditional musicians, counterbalances him with a relatively a few traditional Afro-Peruvian tunes, a sively strummed. that’d make many a bluegrass picker and three dancers who double as backing straight-ahead flamenco style, and conven- new piece by young Peruvian composer green with envy. Unfortunately, in the vocalists. The band’s two albums, Denke- tional elements dominate the band’s Javier Lazo, and covers of Bjork’s “Anchor past few years he’s become a favorite on Denke (Daqui, 1999) and Alatoumi (World sound: the staccato hand claps, the cajon Song,” the pop standard “Autumn Leaves” Ana Moura the jam-band circuit thanks to opening Village, 2001), achieve a spirited synthesis beats of Alberto Alvarez, the gritty singing (which she sings in its original French), and of West African approaches: Moumouni’s of Chico Ocaña. Not to disparage Chicago’s Joining Misia, Cristina Branco, and slots for Blues Traveler and Bela Fleck “Afro Blue,” the Mongo Santamaria song nasal, parched-sounding vocals, in Fulani annual flamenco festival, which brings in a R Mariza, Lisbon’s Ana Moura is the (and a cameo on Fleck’s Little Worlds), made famous by John Coltrane. and Songhai, combine the influence of sev- slew of great traditionalists each winter, latest in a new breed of fado singer and their chops-first aesthetic has seeped eral Saharan styles with his own deep soul- but it’s exciting to finally get the chance to that’s brought the traditional Portuguese into his own work. He’s still dazzling tech- fulness; hypnotizing figures from simple hear some of the rock- and pop-inflected style to a broader audience. On her debut, nically, but his solos feel emotionally hol- 9 PM, HOTHOUSE $12, 21+ lutes like the molo and komsa, bumping stuff that’s so hugely successful in Spain. Guarda-me a vida na mao (World Village), low, the tunes are forgettable, and the she pays homage to fado’s past with a cover overblown arrangements are sodden with R Martires del of “Flor de lua” by the great Amalia insincere-sounding strings. Rodrigues, but Moura and producer Jorge Compas Fernando—a former guitarist with Rodrigues who’s also worked with Branco and Mariza— 7 PM, PRESTON BRADLEY HALL See above. have loaded the album with more contem- porary material. Moura, who at 20 gave up R Qing Mei Jing performing in a rock band to concentrate on Son Trinidad fado, declares her allegiance to the form in Yue This local instrumental quartet, featuring bassist Matt Ulery and trumpeter Thad Fernando’s “Sou do fado, sou fadista”: “I See above. know my soul has surrendered / Taken my Franklin, brings a jazzy feel and judicious voice in hand / Twisted it in my chest / And extended soloing to its Afro-Caribbean tunes. shown it to the world.” Her singing has the melodramatic quality fado requires, leav- 8 PM, PARK WEST $15, 18+ ened with an appealing airiness that sepa- 10 PM, SONOTHEQUE $10, 21+ rates her from the pack. On her newest disc, Alkinoos Aconteceu (Universal), which hasn’t yet Bombay Beatbox been released in the U.S., she sounds more Ioannidis assured than ever—though Branco and See above. with Midival Mariza have drifted away from traditional Punditz sounds on their most recent albums, Moura R Ana Moura Wilson das Neves has dug in her heels, and her music has an See September 20. Not to be confused almost defiant purity. See above. with Balkan Beat Box (see September 18), CHICAGO READER | WORLD MUSIC FESTIVAL GUIDE | SEPTEMBER 16, 2005 | SECTION THREE 37

WORLD MUSIC FEST

Bombay Beatbox is a local world-music Nawal 6:45 PM, CLAUDIA CASSIDY España will provide the sound track for 8:30 PM, CLAUDIA CASSIDY crew with a weakness for spacey, half- THEATER Clinard and dancer Siri Sonty. THEATER baked electronic remixes of traditional This singer hails from the south Asian music—it sounds like they’re Comoros Islands, located in the Las Guitarras de R Sidi Goma trying to split the difference between R Indian Ocean off the east coast 7 PM, PRESTON BRADLEY HALL See September 21. disco and the sound track to a yoga- of Africa, and her gorgeous music España instruction video. They’ll perform with reflects their complex musical culture, Formed in 1999, this local group was R Badi Assad the excellent Midival Punditz (see which feels the pull of two continents. once devoted exclusively to flamenco, See September 21. September 20). I’ve heard five songs from a forthcoming 9:30 PM, RANDOLPH CAFE but its third album, Un respiro por el album by her acoustic trio—she plays gui- mundo (Sweet Pickle Music), is crammed Jake Shimabukuro tar and gambusim (a banjolike Swahili so full of different genres that it has the instrument) and she’s supported by 8 PM, RANDOLPH CAFE See September 21. personality of a supermarket—past the upright bass, mbira, and sparse hand flamenco aisle you get jazz fusion, then percussion. Her songwriting is especially Frigg thursday 22 adult pop, Indian music, Cuban son, and strong, and the arrangements cleave 9:45 PM, GAR MEMORIAL HALL on and on. It feels like the band’s just try- See above. nicely to her full-bodied, husky vocals, 11 AM, PRESTON BRADLEY HALL ing to rack up points, not actually explor- which blend coffee-shop intimacy with R Midival Punditz ing these traditions—nothing’s all that the piercing nasality of Islamic music. R Badi Assad distinct from anything else. Much of the 8:15 PM, PRESTON BRADLEY See September 20. See September 21. material on the disc was commissioned HALL by choreographer Wendy Clinard, who 6:15 PM, RANDOLPH CAFE wanted music for a piece called R APPEX 10 PM, PRESTON BRADLEY HALL APPEX “Unraveling Rhythms” that aims to over- R Nawal lap flamenco and classical Indian dance; Ensemble R Ana Moura Ensemble See above. for this performance Las Guitarras de See above. See September 21. Cross-cultural musical projects are frequently long on ambition R and short on results: A Moving Sound (see September 17), for instance, makes it all too clear how a combination of personnel that sounds audacious on paper can fizzle in practice. The LA-based APPEX Ensemble (the acronym stands for Asia Pacific Performance Exchange), on CHICAGO READER the other hand, is a blockbuster sextet of alumni from UCLA’s Center for Intercultural Performance, all of whom have the talent and knowledge to make their fusion—dominated by traditional Indonesian, Japanese, Indian, and Burmese percussion—work beautifully. All I’ve heard is a 1999 recording that includes only two-thirds of the current woworlrldmdmusicusic lineup, but the tracks are undergirded by a strong compositional logic, relying on melody, counterpoint, and complex inte- rior structures instead of flashy gimmicks or drum-circle nonsense. The group now givgiveaeawayway features Indian percussionist Abhijit Banerjee, taiko drummer Kenny Endo, Balinese gamelan musician I Dewa Putu Berata, Burmese percussionist and pianist Kyaw Kyaw Naing, Balinese dancer and singer Emiko Susilo, and Chinese multi-instrumentalist Qi Chao Liu, who plays dizi, xiao, hulusi, and erhu—two varieties of flute, a set of free-reed pipes, and a two-string violin. They’re all superb, but I’m most interested in seeing Naing, who plays the pat waing, a set of 21 tuned drums arranged in a circle, and the pattala, a 23-key bamboo xylophone— he’s collaborated on a terrific project with New York’s Bang on a Can All-Stars and released a stunning album of his own on Shanachie.

12:30 PM, BORDERS ON STATE Frigg This seven-piece Scandinavian string ensemble includes Alina, Esko, and Antti Jarvela, children of the family at the core of the great Finnish wall-of- group JPP, and two hardanger fiddlers from Norway, Einar-Olov and Gjermund Larsen, who belong to a similarly revered musical clan. The group’s basic sound recalls JPP, but despite its members’ bloodlines, Frigg has carved out its own niche, dabbling in 101 Ways to Win! traditional Swedish music, adapting a few Irish folk tunes—a small step considering how often Scandinavian folk is mistaken for Irish—and branching out into American bluegrass. They don’t play straight-up Grand prize: free round-trip for two to any one mountain music but rather combine its breakneck tempos and wild polyphony with destination in Europe served by United Airlines.* the dense, rich harmonies of their own tra- dition, created in part by the sympathetic 100 slightly less grand prizes: Sound of the World drone strings of the and nyckelharpa (which Esko Jarvela plays). compilation CD by acclaimed world music DJ Charlie Gillett. Frigg’s forthcoming second album, Oasis (NorthSide), is sometimes a bit too pol- ished for my tastes—next stop, Lake Deadline September 22. Wobegon!—but when they stack up all To enter visit chicagoreader.com those fiddles, the roar they make together is hard to resist.

12:30 PM, PRESTON BRADLEY HALL Jake *Pair of roundtrip United Economy ® travel certificates. Some restrictions apply. Shimabukuro See September 21. 38 CHICAGO READER | SEPTEMBER 16, 2005 | SECTION THREE