Back to the Sources Listening Post 127. Poland’s first Muslim residents came by invitation when medieval rulers saw wisdom in welcoming Tatars, known for their military skills. A thriving community took root and there were Tatar units in the Polish army as late as...
All the Right Notes for Building Listening Post 126. Just as construction cranes on a city landscape signal renewal, so do new songs indicate the vitality of a language. Mary Ann Kennedy, an architect of the Scottish Gaelic Renaissance, builds toward the heavens not...
Double Exposure Listening Post 125. Though recognizable by his dreadlocks and turban, Idan Raichel often seemed to hide in plain sight. Concerts of his Idan Raichel Project feature up to 15 artists at a time on stage, no one commanding the spotlight, and the...
The Sound of Light Listening Post 124. Step away from the urgent world and into the dazzling universe of Gryningsland (Daybreak), by the Swedish-Finnish trio Folk’Avant. Anna Wikenius, Maija Kauhanen and Anna Rubinsztein—who met at Stockholm’s Royal College of...
Perfect Recipe Listening Post 123. The singer-songwriter Izaline Calister has lived most of her adult life in the Netherlands but hasn’t left behind, much less forgotten, her home island of Curaçao. In fact, the fusion that created her native language, Papiamento...
Trading Voices Listening Post 122. How many goals can one album achieve? Idir, the soft but steadfast voice of Berber/Kabyle culture, may not have posed that question when he conceived Ici et Ailleurs (Here and Elsewhere), but a partial list would include putting his...
Cold Wind, Warm Voice Listening Post 121. Our idea of northern latitudes is shaped by stories like The Call of the Wild and Dr. Zhivago—tales that focus on outlanders who venture into the cold for exploration or refuge. One benefit of world music and literature is...
Across the Universe Listening Post 120. As a lyricist, Juanes has been compared to John Lennon, as a humanitarian to Bono. He has sold 15 million albums and has honors to spare. So what more does the Colombian singer-songwriter aspire to? Well, there was his boyhood...
Diving into a Wave Listening Post 119. Wise is the traveler who dives into another culture without losing her own identity, who enables both visitor and host to see themselves in a new light. So it is that Carminho, a pre-eminent star of the fado renaissance, brings...
From Yin-Yang to Oy-Oompah Listening Post 118. Scholars debate whether Yiddish, the German-based language of Ashkenazi Jews, emerged in the Rhineland or Bavaria. Few have studied Bavarian-Yiddish links more than Andrea Pancur, who focuses less on debating linguistic...
Griot-politics Listening Post 117. It’s unlikely Donald Trump has heard Kanazoé Orkestra’s stirring debut album, but when he told a group of African leaders that he has many friends “going to your countries, trying to get rich,” he unwittingly validated the...
Breaking the Silence Listening Post 116. The world music movement is a bridge, allowing artists who once might have been heard only in their own land to reach across borders and oceans. But sometimes distant ears represent a lifeline for performers who can’t be heard...
Forces of Nature Listening Post 115. Nature plays music for those who listen. In addition to the unique performance style that has earned them well deserved laurels, the women of the a cappella quartet Tuuletar listen carefully—to the earth, to the modern urban...
Breaking Barriers With Sound Listening Post 114. One of the most commonly used Romani loan words in English is “pal”—a fraternal takeaway reflecting the solidarity that binds a wandering people. A powerful byproduct of that solidarity is music that breaches social...
Defining Moments Listening Post 113. The great Jim Croce could only dream of capturing Time in a Bottle, but on her fifth solo album the Danish folksinger and songwriter Helene Blum succeeds in making the clock stand still. Each song on Dråber af tid (Droplets of...
Time Well Spent Listening Post 112. Charmingly deceptive, Galant, tu perds ton temps literally means, “Young man, you’re wasting your time,” but in practice the name of the five-woman ensemble of traditional Québec music seems as much a term of endearment as a...
Kalahari Dreamin' Listening Post 111. Elemotho’s Beautiful World is a jewel with facets that reflect topographical and human landscapes. The Namibian singer-composer traces his songwriting to childhood memories of storytelling around campfires in the Kalahari Desert...
Northern Exposure Listening Post 110. The ties that bind the disparate genres of the Jerry Cans’ third album—country and folk, rock and reggae—are the people, families and language of Canada’s Nunavut territory. Fronted by native Inuktitut speaker Nancy Mike (vocals,...
Bio-Rhythms Listening Post 109. For the polyphonic quintet Actores Alidos, songs may entertain but they serve primarily as rhythmic frames for human activity—work, banter, celebration, telling love stories, amusing or calming children, lamenting loss and expressing...
Voice of Man Listening Post 108. A passionate artist and pillar of the Manx-language revival movement, Ruth Keggin is blessed with a voice that floats gently as it penetrates deeply. Turrys (Journey), her second album, is both a voyage across the diminutive Isle of...
Perfect Fifth Listening Post 107. Most of Prince Royce’s career as a singer and songwriter has been dedicated to bachata, but with an open window letting in subtle flavors from outside. The Bronx-born son of Dominican parents, Royce has released albums in Spanish and...
The Doctor Will Sing to You Now Listening Post 106. Though the songs on Joia Rara (Rare Jewel) have the feel of classics, the album’s 10 tracks are actually new compositions on a debut album. In her smooth, sweet voice, Denise Studart animates the works of composer...
Songs for Troubled Times Listening Post 105. Bob Dylan warned the Establishment that a raging battle would “soon shake your windows and rattle your walls/For the times they are a-changin'.” Five decades later, If I Was President, the signature protest track from Las...
Flying in Formation Listening Post 104. They are local and global, gifted artists who sing and play traditional Moravian songs together but with individual experience in diverse worlds—violinist Šuranská in the classical and folk realms; mandolinist Martin Krajíček in...
Sing It Forward Listening Post 103. With his smooth and generous voice, Seydu is poignant in singing about the impact of war, incisive in warning of corruption, reverent about the beauty of African women and upbeat regarding the power of a smile. Such themes animate...
What’s in a Name? Listening Post 102. She was a reality show star on Québec TV at 13 and comes from a musical family, but on Émilie Janvier’s eponymous debut album and in the interviews she’s done to promote it, she reveals her core shyness, crafting lyrics and music...
Perchance to Dream Without Sleep Listening Post 101. She is innocent and wise, a nomad and a poet, an alchemist of styles whose music is more colorful than the sum of its parts. Flavia Coelho, a girl from the slums of Rio de Janeiro who sang in the Paris Métro...
Back to the Sources Listening Post 100. The first album from the Zimbabwean band Mokoomba, released in 2012, was a rock-oriented disk with an urban, pan-African orientation. But tradition was embedded in the group’s name—Mokoomba means “respect for the river”—and...
Nature and Nurture Listening Post 99. Daoirí (pronounced “Derry”) Farrell is a performer and scholar of Irish music. Two of the songs on True Born Irishman, his award-winning second album, are compositions by the late folk singer Liam Weldon, who was not only a role...
Swings So Cool, Sways So Gently Listening Post 98. When bossa nova swept the world, no country was more receptive than France. Marcel Camus’ Oscar-winning film Black Orpheus—music by Tom Jobim and Luiz Bonfá—channeled the Brazilian wave to new audiences. French...
