Join HotHouse and headliner Chicago Samba as we celebrate Brazilian Independence Day. Music, dancing, capoeira, food, drink.
Fizz Nighclub, 3220 N. Lincoln Ave, 2nd floor loft room (just north of Belmont/Ashland intersection)
August 31st, 2008
Doors open at 8pm, Festival starts at 9pm.
Tickets: $12 in advance, $15 at the door. Purchase tickets here
Free parking in city lot in 1600 block of Melrose, just behind venue.
Full bar and menu available late.
Eddie Palmieri at the Chicago Jazz Festival
August 29, 2008: 8:30pm
Petrillo Music Shell | Grant Park
FREE
Eddie Palmieri, known for his charismatic power and bold innovative drive, has a musical career that spans over 50 years as a bandleader of Salsa and Latin Jazz orchestras. With a discography that includes 36 titles, Mr. Palmieri has been awarded Nine Grammy Awards. He received his first Grammy Award in 1975 for his release The Sun of Latin Music, which is often considered the most historic, as it was the first time Latin Music was recognized by the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences (NARAS).
You’ve seen it around. Those people dressed in white… dancing? Fighting? Spinning on their heads?
Beautiful, captivating, capoeira is both a martial art and a dance. Capoeiristas are musicians, playing the music and singing the songs that accompany their practice. You know that song from that car commercial that goes ‘Zoom zoom zoom’? It’s a capoeira song called “Zoom-Zoom-Zoom” performed by Serapis Bey
The first samba: “Pelo Telefone” - Chico Buarque, Donga, Pixinguinha e Hebe
“Samba is solace, celebration, escape and abandon, and it is culture, philosophy and tradition” (McGowan, 22). In anticipation of our celebration of Brazilian Independence Day, we’re going to highlight the story of a few Brazilian music and cultural traditions this week, starting with samba:
Samba is widely recognized as the national rhythm of Brazil, on worldwide display every Carnaval with wild costumes, giant floats and incredible dancing. It is also hailed as a symbol of the racial and cultural mixture that has become a national mantra of Brazil, like many other nations of Latin America. Continue reading ‘Celebrate Brazil: Samba!’
Join HotHouse and headliner Chicago Samba as we celebrate Brazilian Independence Day.
Folks, this is the place to be August 31st: music, dancing, capoeira, food, drink. mmmhmm. So buy your tickets now because we expect this event to sell out. Stay tuned to the blog this week for a few posts on Brazilian music and dance.
Fizz Nighclub, 3220 N. Lincoln Ave, 2nd floor loft room (just north of Belmont/Ashland intersection) August 31st, 2008
Doors open at 8pm, Festival starts at 9pm.
Tickets: $12 in advance, $15 at the door. Purchase tickets here Free parking in city lot in 1600 block of Melrose, just behind venue. Full bar and menu available late.
Follow the jump for the lineup and links to the bands
The web is abuzz with new releases from China - just in time for the Olympics. Here are a few that might catch your ear. (be sure to read below for links to sounds and video!)
It seems like Sa DingDing’s new album is showing up everywhere. Sa DingDing’s international debut, Alive, is a mixture of traditional melodies, instruments and languages with modern production techniques and electronica sensibility. Born in Mongolia to a Mongolian mother and Han Chinese father, Sa DingDing studied traditional instruments including the zheng and the horsehair fiddle before rising to Chinese pop stardom. She recently won a BBC Radio 3 award for Alive and the international attention this album is garnering raises the possibility that East Asian music may be garnering more attention on the world music front than it has in the past.
This very recent release by Beijing-based Mongolian-folk/fusion band Hanggai may be my favorite of the bunch here today. This album is described as a revival of traditional Mongolian songs, instruments and techniques (including throat singing), recording with beautiful production by Matteo Scumaci. To give you a sense of the spirit of this album, here is a quote from Scumaci describing recording “Drinking Song”: “On the last night of recording, Robin and I had secretly planned to get everyone into a restaurant and record them at their drunken peak. We slowly worked the place into a frenzy and spliced the studio and field recordings together for a focused blend of chaos and mayhem.” Nice.
This may sound like a strange combination, but you’ll be surprised how well it works. The album, Abigail Washburn and The Sparrow Quartet is remarkably beautiful album that combines Abigail’s beautiful voice and light touch on the banjo, the considerable talent of the Sparrow Quartet, and a love for Chinese music and culture. American Public Media broadcast an interview with Abigail on “The Story” on August 13th, and I’ve been addicted to this album ever since. (You can listen to this interview by going to The Story archive page here and clicking on the broadcast for August 13).
Chicago Samba: Thursdays - 10:00pm - The Globe Pub - 1934 W. Irving Park - Phone 773-871-3757 Free admission - Dance lesson.
Old Town School of Folk Music: Parampara: Tradition. Wednesday, August 13, 2008 | 9:30 PM. Sitar musician Sharmistha Sen, one of the few women instrumentalists to attain prominence in Indian Classical music, performs with one of her most highly accomplished students Rahul Neuman of Chicago. The Old Town School’s tabla master, Maninder Singh, will accompany them.
Follow the jump for a sample of what’s on board this week in Chicago’s World Music scene:
Las Tablas and HotHouse proudly present: Raices. Free! Las Tablas has proudly teamed up with the HotHouse to present this weekly live music series for the lover of music that comes straight out of the ground.
Aguzate.org hosts “Ritmo Fridays”: a new DJ Series that brings you a mix of Latin, Reggae, Brazilian, and the best international music. Olé Lounge (2812 N. Lincoln). Friday.
it’s time for our weekly summary of some of the great world music-related material floating around the web. every week i find great articles on world music and artists that i think you might enjoy listening to. check ‘em out:
PRI.org: A Visit to Mombasa, Kenya and Zanzibar from Afropop worldwide. “We start in the Indian Ocean port town of Mombasa to hear the one-of-a-kind taarab music of the Swahili people …. Then it’s south to Tanga, on the Tanzanian coast, to hear Golden Star and Zahira Swale. And we wind up on the famed island of Zanzibar to enjoy Culture Musical Club and the irreplaceable 90-something Bi Kidude.”
PRI’s The World: Bosnian Sevdah music:Damir Imamović Trio. This edition of The World from PRI includes an interview with young sevdah musician Damir Imamovic, who talks about rebuilding a musical tradition while rebuilding his country.
Soundroots.org: Lots of good stuff. Ok, I admit it, Soundroots is one of my favorite world music blogs. This week he’s got a few great posts with mp3’s - “Is Dance an Olympic Event?” (Trust me, if you love throat-singing fusion as much as I do, you can’t miss this post), “Summer Party Soundtrack” and “Mondays mp3: Big African Fun”.
Mofoe describes themselves as performing “Afro-Caribbean Urbano dance music”, including “Salve and Palo from the Dominican Rep.;Bomba and Plena from Puerto Rico; Rumba, Bembe, and Guiro from Cuba, all infused with southern spirituals and New Orleans juju jazz.”
Curious yet? You’re in luck. Along with their nice myspace site, you can learn more about the ensemble and their music at Manigua.org
And, bless them, they have mp3’s posted online. Listen to this, for starters:
Merengue by Mofoe Orisha. Listen to more music from this excellent group here
And I know that by now, you’re hooked. So come see them tonight at Las Tablas.
are you looking for a little distraction? something sweet to listen to at work? well, you are in luck today! npr’s got a couple of treats for us….
something sweet: Ladysmith Black Mambazo And Hugh Masekela: Carrying South Africa on NPR.org. This week’s Jazzset with Dee Dee Bridgewater features 58 minutes of music from these two South African legends. From the show’s site: “Joseph Shabalala grew up on a farm near the town of Ladysmith, South Africa. In the 1950s, much of the work there took place in the mine, with inhuman working conditions. But on Saturday nights in Durban, Shabalala heard choruses of miners singing in Zulu, in the Isicathamiya style. Shabalala led a family chorus himself. One night in his dreams, Shabalala heard a new harmony, a hymn-like harmony, and awakened saying, “This is the sound that I want, and I can teach it to my guys.”
something fun: Brazilian Psych-Rock For A Night On The Porch, also from NPR.org. Egon takes us back to 1970’s Recife, for some seriously funky tropicalia. Follow the link and take a listen to some hard-to-find but entrancing tracks.
