Alors, it was a wonderful Fête de la Musique here in Paris last night, thanks to the rollicking sounds of the brass band ensemble known as the Monty Pistons, pictured below. Fun for the kids and the whole family! Covers of Dandy Livingston’s ska classic “Message to You Rudy” and Dr. Dre beats spiced […]
In 2010, 16 countries in Africa celebrate their independence, each achieved to its own unique soundtrack. With this (and a renewed global and American interest in Afro-pop) in mind, a number of compilations and online gems are sure to be found throughout the year. We’ll dedicated a post along the way to each of Africa’s […]
Scheduling meetings here in Brussels and Paris has been suspiciously tough this week, with one person I met with actually admitting he was late because staff was gathered round the conference room television watching, yup, you guessed it, World Cup matches! If you have not checked out Africa blogger Derek Catsam’s posts from SA, now […]
A few days ago I came across the Global Music Project, an international non profit whose goal is to unite musicians and music lovers in order to foster cultural awareness, and strengthen collaboration, peace and understanding in areas of conflict. The Global Music Project runs several music preservation and music discovery projects that connect musicians […]
For those of you in the New York area, I wanted to draw your attention to an event at the City University of New York Tomorrow: From Combat to Healing: The Music of War The relationship between music and war—both to rally the troops and defeat the enemy—goes back centuries, even millennia. The Biblical tale […]
This week marks the 20th anniversary of the release of Nelson Mandela from Robben Island, a gesture that symbolized an end to Apartheid. While Mandela’s human face and political eloquence will place him firmly in history as one of the world’s greatest icons, it was musician Hugh Masakela who provided the soundtrack to the anti-Apartheid […]
While roughly 300,000 people around the globe have participated in the Fulbright Program, named after internationalist Senator William J. Fulbright, since its inception in 1946, it’s probably safe to say that researcher Canyon Cody’s collaboration with producer/rapper Gnotes is the first project to fuse hip-hop with Spanish Andalusian flamenco. The vibrant, 14 track record, Granada […]
From the Brussels-based record label that brought the innovative and “hypnotique” sounds of Konono No 1 to the world stage comes another Congolese sensation with a great back story. Staff Bendi Bililli are a high energy group of paraplegic street musicians who were stumbled upon by Crammed records near a zoo in Kinshasa, DRC. Cruising […]
This morning NPR’s Steve Inskeep profiled the music of Afghanistan’s Ammad Zahir as part of the program’s 50 Great Voices series, which highlights the most influential of singers from around the world. Zahir, called “Afghanistan’s Elvis” by many of his followers, was the king of the music scene in the go-go days of Kabul, when […]
Welcome to the FPB music blog. This week, we take a look at the efforts of musicians around the globe aimed at drawing attention to Haiti following the massive earthquake that hit the Caribbean nation two weeks ago. Leading the charge is Haitian-born rapper Wyclef Jean, whose Yele charity has raised more than $2 million […]
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