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Sima Bina and the Lian Ensemble Team to Bring New Life to Persian Traditions

Fars Media A woman comes into a cozy courtyard behind a small West Los Angeles house, joining a few others sitting there, some smoking hand-rolled cigarettes, some drinking tea from glasses. Petite, demure, bespectacled, she says little more than a curt acknowledgment of an introduction to a new arrival, though a warm smile and sparkle to her ...

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Cuba's Carlos Varela and Jackson Browne Bond Over the 'Power of Music'

Olivia Bendres A couple of frontline singer-songwriters, an Oscar-winning actor and assorted other hangers-on, a Havana hotel room. Oh, and a bottle of rum. That was the scene one mid-'90s evening when Jackson Browne met his Cuban counterpart, Carlos Varela, sparking a mutual-admiration society that has grown through the years, bringing ...

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Sanda Weigl's 'Gypsy in a Tree' Yields Romanian-Jazz-Cabaret Fruit

Tiberiu Crisan Sanda Weigl could be forgiven if she got a little disoriented during a recent performance at New York's 92Y Tribeca. After all, the singer was performing in front of four different groups during the evening: a young rock band called Manzana Carnal, a group of Romanian musicians, an ensemble of top Manhattan jazz/avant-garde ...

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Susana Baca Traces 'Afrodiaspora From Peru to New Orleans Through Song

Luaka Bop Susana Baca has shed a remarkable amount of light on the music and culture of her Afro-Peruvian heritage. Over the course of 25 years and a dozen albums, she's not only brought out the music rooted in the oft-overlooked African presence along South America's Pacific coast, but brought attention to an entire "hidden" community -- the ...

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Bhangra Brass Band Red Baraat Blends New Delhi and New York at Jazz Fest

Amy Touchette It was one of those only-at-Jazz-Fest phenomena. The annual New Orleans extravaganza was having arguably the biggest concentration of star power in its history, with nearly all of its 10 stages featuring headlining stars in one or the other genres spotlighted in the wide-ranging "heritage" berth of its title. John Mellencamp ...

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Amjad Ali Khan Masters the 'Demanding' Beauty of the Sarod

World Village You might be struck by the opening of 'Samaagam,' a consistently striking and unique concerto for Indian sarod and western classical ensemble that teams composer-soloist Ustad Amjad Ali Khan and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra with conductor/arranger David Murphy. The opening prelude, 'Ganesh Kalyan,' is an invocation to the ...

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Paul Simon, Robert Plant, Dengue Fever + Ghazal -- Around the World in Five Days

Dengue Fever It started with the Mastadong. "It" being a trip that went from California to Cambodia, from Soweto to New York, from Calcutta to Tehran, from Timbuktu to the Thames. All in five days. All without leaving Los Angeles. Of course, it was a musical journey, not a travel adventure, but it covered a lot of ground last week with ...

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