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Music Freedom Day to Celebrate Voices of -- and Under -- Oppression

Jen Bell Cairo's Tahrir Square has been the site of some remarkable events in recent weeks. Ole Reitov hopes there will be another on Thursday: a concert. Thursday is the fifth annual Music Freedom Day, associated with the Copenhagen-based artists' rights organization Freemuse, of which he's co-founder and program manager. "The plan was to ...

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'Mistico Mediterraneo' Seduces With Corsican-Sardinian-Italian Folk-Jazz-Classical Magic

Andrea Boccalini It's a Romeo and Juliet story. Only instead of being set in the bloody Montague and Capulet feud of 16th century Verona, it's the lingering rivalry between the Mediterranean islands of Italian Sardinia and French Corsica. And instead of moony teens reaching across the battle lines it's veteran musicians representing not just ...

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Sussan Deyhim 'City of Leaves' Album Bridges Tehran to Tarzana

Virgo Paraiso Sussan Deyhim's bracing new album, 'City of Leaves,' is an amalgamation of all the vibrant phases of her life: her upbringing and musical training in an Iran that shifted from wide cultural embrace to closed and repressive. More than 27 years in the challenging art laboratory that is Manhattan. And recently from a vantage in the ...

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Pakistani Surf Rock? A New Archives Compilation Catches That Surprising Wave

Radiodiffusion Surf's up, Islamabad! Hang 10, Lahore! Catch a wave, Karachi! Uh.... What? From the mid-'60s to the mid-'70s, the sounds of surf music proliferated around Pakistan. Twanged, tremeloed guitars and cheesy organs pumped out instrumentals suitable for Rincon or Trestles. Only thing is, such bands as the ...

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Sway Machinery and Khaira Arby Bridge West Africa and West Side of Manhattan

Tatiana McCabe Jeremiah Lockwood had to keep reminding himself where he was one night last fall. He and his bandmates in the group the Sway Machinery were mingling with Malian singer Khaira Arby and her band. Arby was playing with young kids on the floor, music and dancing was breaking out spontaneously – and a big meal was being ...

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Kodo at 30: Still Beating the Big Drum for Japanese Culture -- Even Sans Big Drum

Buntaro Tanaka It's the world music answer to the 'Phantom of the Opera' chandelier. The Ringling Bros. elephants. The o-daiko – a giant drum weighing in at nearly 900 pounds – is what everyone comes for at a Kodo performance, as inevitable as it is thunderous. No matter what else the Japanese music and dance troupe might do in ...

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An Irishman in Tokyo: Johnsons Motorcar's Celtic Rock Shines in the Rising Sun

Kamewada If you're looking for a big St. Patrick's Day celebration this year, head to that magic, mythic isle: Honshu. Yup. Tokyo may be the place for the wearin' of the green. And we don't just mean dribbled wasabi. Tokyo has hosted a St. Patrick's Day parade since 1992 and has been the site of a huge event celebrating Irish pride, ...

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