That's awesome--let us know how goes the show!

I'm hoping to catch one of their shows when they return to India :)

I somehow neglected to post about this event which I attended in India this past January. The Jaipur Literature Festival is the current incarnation of the Jaipur Heritage International Festival occuring after Makar Sankranti which I attended back in January 2006 and wrote up under this thread (post dated 1/15) worldmusic.tribe.net/thread/...62be9898 Better late than never :)

January 21, 2009

Cheb i Sabbah www.chebisabbah.com/ along with Rajasthani musicians with Queen Harish queenharish.com/ and Colleena www.colleenashakti.com/ tonight in the pink city of Jaipur, Rajasthan, India jaipurliteraturefestival.org/in-concert

QH made a dramatic entrance dancing to Cheb i Sabbah's Morey Piya Bassey featuring the unique singing style of Shubha Mudgal. The stage instantly became a scene for a Bollywood movie with QH in scarlet as an Umrao Jaan-esque character dancing and singing of devotion and longing. And yes, QH spun across the stage both to the right and the left. One of the Rajasthani musicians, Chugee Khan, was quite animated in his performance with the kartals (Indian castanets).

As if that wasn't dramatic enough, came the fire sword dance number, starting from the ground at the crowd level on the front lawn of Diggi Palace, going up the steps to the stage where QH was joined by Colleena also sword dancing to Cheb i Sabbah featuring Riffat Sultana's Qalanderi. As Colleena danced some tribal bellydance moves, QH whirled with the sword immaculately balanced on the head! The amazed audience broke out in applause.

There was audience participation as QH and Colleena descended on the lawn to invite members of the audience up the stage to dance with them. Ladies, gents, followed by a theatrical segment where they managed to spot...me sitting on the grass in the dark!

How could I refuse when two of Rajasthan's finest dancers invite me up the stage to dance with them! Cheb i was playing The Dhol Foundation's celtic-meets-punjabi After The Rain number as Queen Harish taught yours truly some Bollywood arm moves--thanks for the impromptu lesson, QH!

As the performers took a bow, we could hear shouts of "one more!" from the audience, but unfortunately the open air front lawn of Diggi prolly had a time limit to the concert. It was a fantastic opening to the Concert for Peace as part of the Jaipur Literature Festival thanks to all the musicians and performers, and especially the always amazing Queen Harish.

Wow! Thanks for the vivid description, Jacques! Can't wait to hear the next installment.

It's official, there were 30,000 people on that really hot afternoon in Ipanema for the inaugural Banda de Ipanema parade this carnaval season!

OMG, I just got back from the Furacao 2000 www.furacao2000.com.br/new/index.html bloco (street party) along the main avenue, Vieira Souto, on Ipanema Beach! There musta been 50,000 people gettin down at that baile funk on tha beach! I had to wade through an ocean of bodies--throngs of young women and men doing the rebola and gettin down low on the asphalt, just to get close enough to the sound system truck to take a picture. This was at 19:50 hrs on the Sunday night of carnaval! I did spot some families with small children wading through the crowds as well! The trick is to follow any group of people moving in the direction that yu want to go, otherwise it's next to impossible--the masses are literally body to body at the bloco! And make way for the uniformed policia militar when they come thru the crowd!

The baile funk was preceeded by Afro Reggae www.afroreggae.org.br/ , one of the most respected bands to come out of Rio's favelas. Their percussion section certainly did not disappoint. The start time had been delayed from 17:00 to 18:30. By that time, the crowd had swelled, no longer restrained by the intense carioca summer sun which is now setting around 18:00. It got so overwhelming, I almost gave up and was gonna flag a taxi to go back to my hotel at the end of Leblon, but all the taxis were full! So there I was, gettin jiggy with Afro Reggae and close to 50,000 other revelers--the trick was to walk up a block to the next street to get to the other block, the crowd level on Vieira Souto made it next to impossible to move from one block to next!

The reason for the delay was the inclusion of the banda Simpatia E' Quase Amor, another of those iconic Ipanema bandas, celebrating its 25th anniversary. That started at 17:00 and it was almost a different crowd with more of a solid middle class fanbase than Afro Reggae who attracted a really mixed crowd--every race, color, creed, and it being Ipanema, every sexuality. Although I think I noticed what the de rigeur drag costume for straight Brazilian men is--slip on mini dresses with straps! In my tropical island home, I once worked for a female-dominated company where the executives wear that to work!

And the song of Simpatia E' Quase Amor this year--Bodas de Prata, commemorating their 25th anniversary, composed by Felipe Girardi, Rafael dos Santos, Ciraninho, and Leandro Fregonesi. It goes like this:

Vinte cinco anos atras
O sol se encontrou com a lua
A alegria com as ruas, o amarelo com o lilas
O samba a boemia encantou
A poesia Ipanema abenc,oou
E eu, um eterno arlequim
Em orgias sem fim,
Me acabei no simpatia
No vai e vem de folioes e fantasias
O colombina, a gente se apaixonou

ref Vem matar essa saudade, amor
Me beijar ate o sol se por
No balanco das ondas do mar
E' carnaval! Deixa o meu bloco te levar

O meu coracao bate com o surdo e tamborim
Era o meu destino ter voce perto de mim
Nosso 'quase amor' mais uma vez vai desfilar
Vem festejar
Bodas de prata do nosso cordao
A zona sul aplaude essa paixao
Vem brincar

ref E' bom cantar, sambar, nessa folia
Chegou a hora, nossa festa comecou
Vem no calor, sente a pressao da bateria
E' hoje que o 'quase" vira amor!

Don't forget to throw the confetti and golden sparkles as you sing! It complemented the golden sunshine perfectly!

Next up, my report on last week's banda and samba do carnaval experience from the other side of the Rio-Niteroi bridge!

I'm looking forward to the World Music Tribe meet up this weekend.

Jacques, Cas and I are all finally meeting - at a world music festival. Where else?

Look out Womadelaide!

If anyone ese is going to be there give us a hoi!

Wow, just got back from the fantastic Rokia Traore www.rokiatraore.net/ concert at the historic Enmore Theatre www.enmoretheatre.com.au/event...traore (built 1908!) in Newtown.
Was there with fellow World Music tribe member, Cas, and it was funny cuz we had both missed Rokia's performance at WOMADelaide this past weekend (my excuse: staying till the end of Natacha Atlas' set, by which time--21:30--the field surrounding Stage 1 where Rokia was performing was completely saturated by a sea of spectators; Cas had left early Sunday evening as she had stayed late for Seun Kuti's set the previous night). We started the evening by picking up our tickets from the wonderful folks at the Enmore Theatre, before sauntering off in search of dinner whereupon we settled at the Sultan's Table Turkish restaurant (my second best Turkish meal outside Turkey!). It was a cool, breezy evening in historic Newtown, now transformed into an entertainment hub with cozy cafes and pubs lining King St, and this world music traveler was glad to be in a different part of greater Sydney area.

After dinner, we walked back to the Enmore, arriving there at 20:00, walked in and ordered coffee from the friendly barista and we noticed the door to the concert hall had been opened. Walking into the concert hall, we were pleasantly surprised that our "standing dancefloor" tickets were actually open seating from the fourth row back! Settling into our seats, Cas remarked how this venue was famous for its incredible acoustics.

At 21:15, Rokia and her five-member band (two bass guitarists, drummer, backup singer, and a gentleman with an ngoni which struck me as a smaller relative of the Gnawa guembri). Her first song started out mellow, in hushed tones, but gained a certain grooviness as she sang it out. This style or pace pretty much set the tone for the concert. Rokia professed quite a diverse vocal range whether singing in her native tongue or French.She also animated the concert by languidly moving her body and well-toned arms, dancing to the first few songs. After the first number, she welcomed the audience in English by saying that she hoped we would "share the best musical moments" tonight. Singing the song Zen from her new album, she picked up her first instrument of the night, a gourd rattle--this song started out slow before launching into an uptempo dance fest.

Further proof of her versatility as a performer came in the form of storytelling, beautifully done in English, about the story of the harsh infancy of Sundjata Keita en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunjata , founder of the Mali empire, disabled offspring of the King of Mande, Nare Maghann Konate and Sogolon, a hunchbacked woman. Some African members of the audience shouted the approval upon hearing the name of the lead character of this famous West African epic. This preceeded the actual song, done beautifully with emotional nuances, against a backdrop of shadow mask puppetry and one of the bass guitarists trading his instrument for a harp!

At one point during the show, Rokia made an emotional statement about the plight of the youth in West Africa, many so disillusioned with life in their homeland that they seek a new life abroad in spite of the obstacles along the path. She said while this was a natural reflex, she asked who would still be around in Africa to continue traditions and tell stories to subsequent generations when the current one leaves. She said she had a personal conviction to change the image of Africa as oft portrayed in world media as a land of endless conflict and misery. She said all races whether black, white, or yellow can be both intelligent and stupid, and that no one race has exclusivity to only one trait, no matter what the media portrays. She sang the song beautifully while playing her guitar.

Other songs performed tonight included Dounia, also from the new album. There was a tribute to Billie Holiday (The Man I Love) that added Malian vibes to the bluesy feel of the jazz standard. She dedicated an uptempo number to the audience whom she thanked for attending the concert and enabling artists like her to make a living ("without an audience, there is no artist"). At 22:55, Rokia and her band performed the last song and exited the stage. Thunderous and incessant applause from the audience--which lasted it seemed a full five minutes--brought the band back out. Rokia acknowledged the tour promoters who put her up in front of this "magnificent audience," and launched into the encore.

And what an encore it was! More like a concert unto itself, Rokia and the band launched into an all out jam. Several Africans in the audience rushed the front of the stage, clapping and dancing, and they were followed by the rest of the audience! Two men and a woman took their turns to jump up on stage and bust some serious West African dance moves--Cas later remarked to me that she thought she saw them at the previous night's Roberto Fonseca show. One of the African guys also got a chance to sing, as Rokia handed over her mike and sashayed next to her backup vocalist, and it was this guy who sang Rokia's name and taught us the correct pronounciation--Rukiyya.

The encore jam quickly developed a deep Afrobeat tone as Rokia belted out Fela Kuti's Lady--awesome! This was followed by another dance number that she said was a favorite of Malian youth. All in all, we saw Rokia energetically sing, do her high jumps, and dance across the stage before exiting it. Her backup singer followed suit, but not before executing some dance moves of her own frontstage center including a rippling booty shake that ended in a split on the floor! The remaining four musicians in the band closed out the show with the last note at 23:15. Definitely one of the best world music concerts this fan has seen in a while!

Wow I just got back from the most amazing world fusion show on a Thursday nite in Montreal!

Vancouver, BC's very own Delhi 2 Dublin performed last night at Les Bobards www.lesbobards.qc.ca/ I got to the club at about 9:30 pm and found that the cover was $7 inspite of the venue's own website advertising it as $5 for last night. The woman who was doing door said the website made a mistake. Stepping inside, I found a tavern-style set up with tables encircling the live stage against the street-facing glass windows, a circular bar, a small dancefloor next to it fronting the DJ booth, and pool tables in the back.

At about 10, I saw Tarun Nayar of Delhi 2 Dublin arrive with his Montreal-based family. It's been eight months since I last saw Delhi 2 Dublin at their Remixed CD Release Party as part of the Beats Without Borders (of which Tarun is a co-founding member) DJ collective fourth anniversary party at the Red Room in Vancouver, BC, an event which I reviewed under this thread worldmusic.tribe.net/thread/...2727341c I had also previously caught two of the band's performances at the Victoria, BC, Earthdance event and afterparty which I reviewed in another thread worldmusic.tribe.net/thread/...781e96be So fortunate to have caught the band's live performances thrice last year, and was personally looking forward to experiencing them again this year for the first time.

In the midst of their current North America summer tour, Delhi 2 Dublin definitely picked the right venue for their Montreal gig this summer. Les Bobards, as I found out over the course of the evening, is quite the hang out for world musicians, fans, and heads. In attendance last night was multi-instrumental world musician, organic clothing entrepreneur, and veritable nomad, Dominic Schiele. As a didjeridoo exponent, he has recorded world fusion CDs in collaboration with other artists. Also in attendance was Anit Ghosh www.myspace.com/violinanit , another local world musician and violin virtuoso who is a member of Djoumbush www.djoumbush.com/ and both he and Dominic helped solve my puzzle as to who could have been the Turkish Romani-style band performing at Square Victoria as part of Concerts-Midi outside my hotel that afternoon!

At 10:45, Delhi 2 Dublin opened the show with dramatic flair highlighted by the color red--of Tarun's scarf, Kytami's top, and Andrew's tartan-print kilt. Almost immediately, people in the stand-up audience behind the tables started dancing, but it wasn't until the third number that a couple dancing next to me moved on to the dancefloor at which point the flood gates were opened! :D My personal highlights of the evening was listening to Celtic Dub (which always sounds amazing live!) with Tarun and Sanjay doing a rap battle, eventually morphing into Dil Nachde, the remixed version.

While I was used to a BC crowd grooving to Delhi 2 Dublin, it was awesome to experience the band in Montreal. A very eclectic crowd had turned up to see the band with a distinctly different dynamic and energy in comparison to the west coast crowd. Many were also seeing the band for the first time, but had no problem getting down to the infectious D2D world fusion sound. A live music experience is after all a social experience in this age of blackberries, facebook, and twitter (all of them virtual networking interfaces which will never fully replace actual human-to-human contact). It was definitely exhilirating to experience the Montreal crowd at Bobards respond to D2D and follow on cue with the band's onstage antics. In fact, the crowd helped cheer the table filled with Tarun's family to join in the dance celebration on the floor!

Another musical highlight for me was Apples which I remember hearing for the first time when Cheb i Sabbah played it on the main floor of Temple SF at his Devotion release party. Tarun revealed that the band just worked on a music video for Apples. The last number for the evening turned out to be the original version of Dil Nachde and its perfect harmonization of Celtic and Indian vibes that always gets me going. Last night in Montreal, Delhi 2 Dublin have proven how adept they are at entertaining the audience whether it be on a small stage or on a huge festival stage. The energy of their live shows always goes through the roof (the temperature on the dancefloor must've reached 35 degrees C at Bobards, in contrast to the cool, crisp 25 degrees C outside) and audiences at festivals they'll be hitting this summer--Shambhala, Beloved, Bumbershoot--need to come prepared.

To dance!

The most amazing concert of Arabic Pop and World Music happened tonight in Montreal. Khaled--the reigning King of Rai khaled-lesite.artistes.universalmusic.fr/ showed a crowd of tens of thousands, including quite possibly the entire Maghrebi/North African Arab community of Montreal, why he is a living world music institution.

We got to the venue of the concert, part of FrancoFolies de Montreal www.francofolies.com/Francos..._en.aspx quite late and found ourselves walking briskly down Ste. Catherine from the St. Laurent metro station, trailing a group of young Arab men, one of whom was wearing a "Made In Algeria" t-shirt, towards the concert venue. As we got closer, a trio of three Moroccan girls ran past us towards the area where Khaled's singing voice was emanating.

When we got to the huge arena, it was completely packed with what looked like a crowd in the 10,000s--they should have named it Boulevard de la Musique, or better yet, Boulevard de Khaled for this weekend, Montreal became the music capital of, not just Canada, but the entire world as no less than three music festivals, all of them for the most part free, took place.

We walked along the passageway to get as near to the stage as possible even though two large simulcast screens were on either side of the stage since it was virtually impossible for everybody to get a close up view of Khaled. We were turned back by the security at one point and made our way, not back, but up along the slope of the hill on the left side of the arena where thousands were already perched. At that point, it was 9:06 pm and Khaled was in the midst of singing Hebbina.

At 9:13, he started to sing Liberte, the title track of his latest album. Draped in the Algerian flag, we saw him on the screen singing with a wide, smiling face. Whenever his vocals paused, the women standing to my left did a zaghareet in unison, filling the air with a distinct Maghrebi vibe. At one point during the song, someone in the front of the stage handed him a bright red shirt that said "Morocco" and Khaled displayed it to rapturous applause from the Moroccans in the audience. Someone else wanted to give him a Moroccan flag and he went back to get it, before rushing back to the microphone, barely picking up the chorus of "ya rayi, rayi, rayi, rayi." Khaled proceeded to unfurl the Moroccan to more applause again, before draping it over himself like Superman's cape after having hung the Algerian flag on the microphone stand.

It was very touching to see the emotional connection the King of Rai has with the Algerians and Moroccans in the audience. This is a man who brought Rai music, and with it North African/Maghrebi cultural identity, to the World and World Music stage in the early 90s, paralleling the migration wave of Algerians, Moroccans, and Tunisians to Europe and North America, and especially Francophone Montreal in the 80s and 90s. His music has followed them as they moved to these distant lands in search of a better life, reminding them of their rich cultural heritage through it. And just as the North African finds him/herself in Europe or North America, Khaled's blend of rai has also encountered and fused with other musics of the world such as jazz and rock, while always celebrating its Arabo-Andalucian roots.

After Liberte, the next number paid homage to the roots of rai and coastal Algerian music in the music of Al Andalus/Andalucia, to a time gone by when harmonious coexistence between Moorish, Judaic, and Christian peoples was perpetually recorded in musical notes. The Oriental piano stylings, which brought to mind Khaled's collaboration with the great Jewish-Algerian pianist Maurice Medioni, perfectly accompanied Khaled vocal intro, before he uttered an "allez, maestro!" and the band swung into a full Spanish paso doble rhythm! This is why Rai is a quintessential world music genre--while native to Oran, its roots lie equally in the indigenous musical traditions of North Africa as well as in an Iberian Andalucia of a bygone era.

Having given us a crash musical course on the roots of rai, Khaled and his orchestra then took us on a musical trip to the rai of today by taking the Latin rhythms to its present incarnation of Latin jazz. It was quite exhilarating to see the keyboardist play a full Afro-Cuban montuno break in the middle of a roots rai number! The world music just kept on flowing--for his next number, Khaled performed a rai song with a distinct waltzy "quick-quick-slow" beat.

After the two "rai as world music" numbers, Khaled sang an instantly recognizable song from the Sahra album--El Harba Wine. The album original, produced by Nitin Sawhney and featuring Pakistan-British female singer Amar, was a certifiable world fusion classic. Singing it solo, Khaled added cool, jazzy overtones by having his flutist perform a solo, but keeping very much a dance number and dance the audience certainly did! We have to admit it was quite a thrill to be dancing on a sloping hillside while in front of us, we saw an ocean of people holding up their cellular cameras to record the concert.

As Khaled started singing the next number, a reggae-inflected tune also from the Sahra album, we decided to leave Khaled and the FrancoFolies festival to attend another concert on this remarkably musical Sunday in Montreal.

We rushed back to the St. Laurent metro to catch a train to the Berri-UQAM station and Parc Emilie-Gamelin, site of the Divers/Cite festival which bills itself as a unique LGBT festival showcasing a diversity of entertainment and musical genres www.diverscite.org/2009/anglais/apro.htm , including, yes, world music this year in the person of the "Princess of Salsa," La India www.elmundodeindia.com/

By the time we got to the Loto-Quebec stage, it was approaching 10:30 pm and we could hear salsa music playing, but not by la India. Turns out, La India was making a late start, so we were actually on time to catch her entire performance. I must admit, I have been a fan of this Puerto Rican singer ever since I heard her vocals on DJ Jellybean Benitez records in the late 80s (numbers like "Dancing On The Fire"). Managed to follow her career over the decades as she morphed from NYC dance diva into a full career as a salsa diva, earning the moniker of "la princesa de la salsa" owing to her distinctive vocals which have been compared to the late, great "la reina de salsa" Celia Cruz.

This being Divers/Cite, la India started off with a house music number singing about how she can't live without music, before greeting the audience and mentioning how the last time she was in Montreal, she was with a full salsa band! She then proceeded to do a mini-salsa set with some of her biggest hits, Ese Hombre and Dicen Que Soy, both incidentally from ther breakthru 1994 album titled after the latter song. Was hoping she would perform another one of her hits--Seduceme--but oh well :)

Throughout her concert, la India was accompanied by dancers ranging from a multiracial cast of street/vogue dancers to the salsa dancers from the Ballet Raices de Colombia troupe. Dressed in black hat, leather jacket and mini skirt, la India effortlessly took on the persona of NYC dance diva and Nuyorican salsa princess, switching between the two like she switches between speaking Bronx English and Spanish. Somewhere in the crowd, we spotted a group of folks holding up the Puerto Rican flag. At one point, someone handed her a bottle of water and she spilled a drop on the ground, saying "ache," a sign of respect to the Yoruban gods of Santeria.

Which brings us to her performance of "Love and Happiness" or "River Ocean," a NY-style tribal house with deep Latin roots referencing the Yoruban goddesses of Santeria--Yemaya and Ochun--associated with ocean and river, happiness and love. The backing track was the original Louie Vega tribal house version, even though it has since been remixed and become somewhat of a world fusion classic with the unmistakable vocals of la India singing Yoruban chants. La India said she sang this number to remind the world of the importance of love and happiness and the rejection of hate, bigotry, and discrimination.

By the stroke of midnite, la India was ready to sing another song but the stage manager had to shut down the stage, so she improvised an a cappella in Spanish to say goodbye to her "publico" or audience. What an amazing performer with such talent and class! As we left Parc Emilie-Gamelin, we are on such a high and definitely feeling the love and happiness vibe from an amazing Sunday of world music in the equally amazing city that is Montreal!