Over four days, January 19 - 22, New York City was a cultural cornucopia overflowing with a profusion of receptions and parties, speeches and awards, performances and showcases, pre-conference sessions and workshops, conference tracks, a glorious globalFest 2007 edition, and unexpected surprises during the Association of Performing Arts 50th Anniversary Celebration Conference.

World music focus during the conference over the past few years has grown to be exceptionally strong this year among fans, media, publicists, presenters, agents, labels, managers, and of course, the artists themselves through the concerted efforts of the North American World Music Coalition.

As the largest global performing arts marketplace, this year’s conference drew a record-breaking attendance of 4,400 registered attendees from the U.S. and all over the world, close to 2700 showcase performances at the Hilton and around town, 28 countries represented, and 120 media attendees. The theme for America’s Arts Presenters’ anniversary is “Presenting America - an opportunity to create visibility for the presenting and touring as an industry and to showcase the world's diverse cultures in communities throughout the United States and globally.”

The North American World Music Coalition organized an excellent world music pre-conference day of workshops and panels with packed rooms at the Hilton. To the great credit of Sandra Gibson, Arts Presenters President and CEO, the conference incorporates this program in their annual schedule as a free-to-the-public service and each year, it’s the invaluable one day in the New Year to explore what is critical to the growth of the world music industry: cutting-edge thinking from the field and network synergies with colleagues.

One of the most useful and informative sessions, “Digital Explosion and Live Performance: Strategies for Linking World Music Tours, Records, and Fans in the New Economy” was facilitated by Dmitri Vietze, the ever-dynamic and brilliant world music publicist based in Bloomington, Indiana, who presides over Rock Paper Scissors. Here is the description of the scope of the session:

When the popularity of illegal downloads emerged a few years ago, there were articles about the end of the music industry. Yet music has not only survived, it has thrived with the emergence of download sharing, free blogs, and social networking sites, though the financial model is still not clear. Many asked "What will the new model be?" The answer is there is no single model. We must all pursue several paths simultaneously to reach increasingly dispersed niche audiences. This open discussion brings together world music presenters, agents, artists, and record labels about how they are using new technologies to reach their audiences and fans in new ways.

Six months ago, Dmitri created the online world music industry journal DubMC where he has just posted a summary of an intriguing creative marketing strategy that was presented during his Digital Explosion session: “Vieux Farka Toure: An Emerging Case Study on the Simultaneous Convergence of Remix Culture, Niche Marketing, and New Source Material.”

Vieux Farka Toure is the son of the great, late Malian musician, Ali Farka Toure. Modiba Productions in Brooklyn has produced Vieux’s first new album that will be released on the World Village label. There will be a DJ “Vieux Remix” party at Pachita’s coming up on February 2nd with a live performance by Vieux with West African dancers promoted by Giant Step and a more traditional performance by Vieux at Joe’s Pub on February 8th.

At the end of this report (click here) Dmitri gives us a wrap-up view of his perceptions about his technology focus session and the conference.

Jesse Brenner, President and Co-Founder of Modiba Productions, who master-minded Vieux’s market launch strategy recaps his Digital Explosion thinking on branding, communications and technology (click here).

It remains critical to insist upon and maintain within the recording industry high quality 3-dimensional sound despite the expediency of mp3 downloads and the ubiquitous i-pod, wherein digitized sound qualities are not optimal. The cold, flat 2-dimensionality of these listening experiences may endanger survival of good recordings. Further, where would the DJ be today without the foundations of great world music recordings to sample and mix? Needless to say, digital technology can be extremely useful, but the phenomenon requires continuous, judicious evaluation. The internet itself is after all, still in its infancy stage of development.

Carlos Gutierrez, New York based cultural promoter and arts consultant states:

Despite the current fascination with technology, with all of its capacities and potential, I’m not just jumping to the bandwagon just yet.... I have several doubts that the way we’re using technology will solve many of the issues that we’re currently facing. This is not to say I am a technophobe… after all, technology is only a tool… however my feeling is that we’re so fascinated with technology as a means in itself that we’re completely overlooking the basics of communicating. I’m not against using Youtube or Flickr to promote the artists – it might work in some cases as part of a larger, and perhaps inexpensive, promotional campaign. However, I think we won’t be successful with the new technologies if we’re not to understand and take the time to properly enounce and listen. The problem is that we’re too obsessed with technology and this is creating a lot of noise in the environment, and as I see it, the way we’re using it is creating more miscommunication problems that might be more harmful than beneficial. I guess the secret will always be in remembering that technology is just another tool.

Present during Dmitri’s Digital Explosion session was Benjamin de Menil, Record Producer with IASO Records. Having launched his independent world music label just a few years ago, he is producing some of the best available Afro-Latino Dominican merengue and bachata recordings, superb traditional West African music and more to come from other parts of the world. (He may be dashing off to Kashmir soon to record indigenous love songs that may to be falling into extinction.)

What gives his recordings quality are live recording techniques that he discusses at the end of this report in interview (click here) along with his astute views on technology usage. His is a rare, at once state-of-art-technologically-hip yet “old-fashioned” live-recording breed of producers. Chances are that the ‘classic’ recordings he’s producing may very well outlive many others on the market. He possesses a finessed musical ear and a keen technical understanding of just what constitutes high quality recordings.

During the conference, Benjamin was in the midst of recording the great kora master Djeli Lankandia Cissoko, the “Lion of Senegal,” from Casamance, Senegal, in the IASO Records Studio in the city. Djeli Lankandia is the pedigreed son of the legendary, late Mande kora player Djeli Mori Cissoko and whose grandfather is reputed to have introduced the kora to Casamance several decades ago.

It was a pleasure to sit in on the vibrant, warm 3-dimensional live recording of a very special and specific style of kora-playing, which is much more percussive and “hotter” than the typical Mande kora albums we have heard from Mali and Guinea. The forthcoming album promises to be quite extraordinary with accompaniment by mbalax sabar dance drumming, balaphon and konting (fretless lute). More information about the recording is available on the IASO Records website.

Coinciding with the Arts Presenters 50th Anniversary Conference, Sean Barlow, Afropop Worldwide President and Executive Producer, celebrated his 50th birthday in the elegant home of Josh Mailman, Afropop Board Member, an avid collector of exceptional African art. The evening was a memorable party event with many Afropop supporters present, delicious food, a birthday cake, good cheer, and of course wonderful live music and dancing.

Banning Eyre, Afropop’s Senior Editor, an accomplished guitarist, teamed up with Niger’s master guitarist Abdoulaye “Abdallah” Alhassane and Dirk Westerveldt on bass and performed a splendidly beautiful after-dinner concert of ancient court songs from Niger’s Songhoi people. Following this, the popular local group, Timbila charged the evening with infectious dance rhythms and ringing harmonies with their “Afrodelic xylophone funk” from Mozambique, Zimbabwe and New York’s East Village and everyone danced the night away.

On Sunday evening, world music fans and presenters were treated to the crowning glory world music event showcase of the conference, the by now eagerly anticipated annual globalFEST.

See Banning Eyre’s “globalFEST 2007: Bigger and Better” review and photos here

Maybe it was the switch this year to the larger venue, Webster Hall, maybe it was the synergy of celebrating some of the best in world music today along with Arts Presenters 50th Anniversary. For certain this year’s 4th annual globalFEST was by far the most impressive, at once spectacular and full of clear musical contrasts and unexpected surprises.

The strongest acts veered away from fuzzy fusions and were at ease with mixing musical specificities from their countries. The expansive Ballroom stage held the best surprises of the evening. Brazil’s Recife-born singer Lenine, solo on stage with his guitars, was able to captivate and enthrall the crowds without a blazing band behind him. He presented himself as a rock-balladeer, uninhibited in deeply intense expressiveness, gentle and poetic by moments and then, suddenly rock-explosive in his chord phrasing. Lila Downs possesses a soaring, beautiful, trained voice and infuses Mexico’s diverse regional traditions in her peppy cumbias and tearful rancheras. Compared to her quiet performances with a few musicians in Joe’s Pub over the past few years, she rose to the challenge of Webster Hall’s biggest stage and became a rock-star with a full band and a Jarocho harp. No small feat to have dramatized her performance with video projections of photos of Mexican workers on the backstage screen, occasionally superimposed with live-feed images of herself. The charming, wonderful pop Cambodian singer, Chhom Nimols with the group Dengue Fever anchored her backing ‘60’s style psychedelic rock band with her beguiling, haunting vocals and seductive dancing. It’s heartening to know that Cambodian pop music has managed to survive despite the country’s terrible history.

All the showcases in the Marlin Room were eminent crowd-pleasers. Belize’s Andy Palacio and the Garifuna Collective must be seen live to experience his power as a great punta rock star. He was joined in a cameo appearance by the Belize singing legend, 78 year-old Paul Nabor with a wizened brown face - like a beautiful piece of old wood - who brought the house down decisively for Andy Palacio’s Garifuna groove. France’s Les Primitifs du Futur is a lovely, retro experience into the bal musette from the ‘30’s and the ensemble carries the nostalgia of the era into the present with grace, while sparking it with terrific vocal jazz scatting and bluesy riffs. Senegal’s Julia Sarr is rising to stardom on the sheer strength of her voice and quietly commanding stage presence. She is working with Patrice Larose, the French flamenco-inspired artist and a French-Vietnamese percussionist and the three-some can spell-bind with soulful intimacy. The Palestinian brothers Le Trio Joubran who are based in France are fascinating to watch and hear on their ouds together. That they are brothers resembling each other enhances the live experience of watching their performance and seems to give them an unusually balanced, aural cohesion, as they strum and pluck away together in their modernized classical oud improvisations.


As the Downtown Room was a traffic-jam of crowds, it was very difficult to squeeze in there and catch all the acts. But there was a jewel-like performance as finale to the whole evening, by Colombia’s delightful Lucia Pulido and Palenque who has been based in New York since 1994. As if in a far-away trance and longing to be home, she sang traditional and Colombian street songs with a sweet flute-like voice. Her music filters through the prism of New York, the most culturally diverse city in this country, with her musicians from different ethnic backgrounds in the city. But her rhythmic mix works exceedingly well, as her spirit is so capable of unifying the band’s sound.

Although Cape Verde’s Sara Tavares was part of globalFEST in the overcrowded room downstairs, she also had another showcase at SOB’s where it was possible to have a second chance to catch her live. Now living in Lisbon, where is there is a universe of immigrants from several Portuguese-speaking countries from Africa and Brazil, she captures all the strands of upbeat rhythms from those other countries and weaves them into her silken and stylish vocals.

India’s Kiran Ahluwalia also had her showcase at SOB’s. A superb singer of traditional music from India and Pakistan, her voice glides and quivers with all the exquisite melismas that characterize the emotions in ghazals and Punjabi folk songs. Watching her perform live is to share in her ecstasy. Her harmonium and tabla players are part of her entrancement.

This year’s Arts Presenters closing reception took place at the Rubin Museum of Art that features a tremendously fine collection of art from the Himalayas and surrounding regions. For the occasion, the Museum commissioned a special performance by Andrew Sterman and his ensemble. As an American jazz musician and composer, his abiding interest in the Museum’s art collection has had a profound influence on his music. There is a calm, meditative, and healing quality in his playing, as he reflects on many ancient principles in the myriad details of Tibetan art.

Tim McHenry, the Museum’s Programming Director, is one of the most innovative live event and concert producers in New York. This morning’s Museum e-announcement from him reads:

Some will be preparing for the Super Bowl this weekend. We at the Rubin Museum of Art are gearing up for the Mongolian New Year with horse roping, wrestling, archery, throat-singing, masked dances, all culminating in a Mongolian vodka tasting of seven different spirits straight from the steppes to the door of our Mongolian ger (nomadic tent) at 5 p.m. on Sunday February 4. One of these eau-de-vie has flecks of 22-carat gold suspended in its 80 proof contents. Come start the weekend celebrating the first anniversary of the K2 Lounge with a Listening Party for Yoko Ono’s new CD Yes, I’m a Witch followed by Hendrik Hertzberg introducing Frank Capra’s Lost Horizon at Cabaret Cinema. Full details here.

It’s all for love. Speaking of the latest buzz word in world music, “the long tail,” here are a few.

By Evangeline Kim
January 29, 2007
Co-Published with Afropop Worldwide and Giant Step