Examiner - Chicago, Concert Preview >>
13th Annual World Music Festival Continues to Rock Chicago
Bonnie Jean Adams, Chicago Culture & Events Examiner
September 18, 2011
From September 15th - 22nd, the City of Chicago transforms into a global center for the best of today’s international music when the13th annual World Music Festival Chicago 2011 returns.
Presented by theChicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE), inpartnership with the Chicago Office of Tourism and Culture (COTC), the city-wide, multi-venue, eight-day festival features acclaimed musicians from more than 40 countries.
Featuring traditional and contemporary music from diverse cultures, the performances and events include a combination of free and low-cost ticketed concerts, many of which are family friendly.
There's something going on every day; in the afternoon and in the evening. If this is the first you've heard of it, there's still time...
This is just one of the phenomenal evenings scheduled.
WHAT: Nawal, and Mali’s legendary blues guitarist Boubacar Traoré
The concert in Millennium Park begins with Nawal, a native of the Comoros Islands, in the Indian Ocean off the eastern Coast of Africa, currently living in France. She returns to Chicago this year with her quartet, singing in Comoran, Arabic, French and English, and showcasing the musical traditions of the Indo-Arabian-Persian Bantu polyphonies, and the syncopated rhythms and Sufi trance of the Indian Ocean.
Over thepast 20 years, Nawal has gained international praise as a self-produced artist with a powerful voice and a socially progressive commentary. Nawal performed as a solo attraction at World Music Festival Chicago in 2005.
Boubacar Traoré was born in 1942 in the Kayes region of Mali. A self-taught musician, he began to compose music at an early age, influenced by American blues and kassonké, a traditional music style from the Kayes region.
In the early 1960s, Mali won its independence and the people of Mali awoke each morning to the sound of Kar Kar's (his nickname) melancholic voice on the radio, which sang of independence.
He is widely known amidst his generation in Mali for his hits "Kar Kar Madison", "Mali Twist" and "KayesBa," in which he encouraged his fellow citizens to return and build the country. Boubacar Traoré appeared at World Music Festival Chicago in 2005.
WHEN: Wednesday, September 21st, at 6:30 PM
WHERE: Millennium Park, 55 North Michigan Avenue, millenniumgarages.com
$ Free
For more information about the concert or the rest of WorldMusic Festival: WorldMusicFestivalChicago.org
09/18/11 >> go there
