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Sample Track 1:
"The Galloping Hound/McGreavy's/Cat's Meow/Fraher's" from Cherish the Ladies - Disc 2: Global Beat of the Boroughs
Sample Track 2:
"Doli goca n'penxhere" from Merita Halili with the Raif Hyseni Orchestra - Disc 1: Global Beat of the Boroughs
Sample Track 3:
"Fakoli" from Abdoulaye Diabate and Super Manden - Disc 1: Global Beat of the Boroughs
Sample Track 4:
"Olive Harvest" from Simon Shaheen and Qantara - Disc 2: Global Beat of the Boroughs
Sample Track 5:
"Caña Brava" from José Quezada y los Cinco Diablos - Disc 1: Global Beat of the Boroughs
Buy Recording:
Merita Halili with the Raif Hyseni Orchestra - Disc 1: Global Beat of the Boroughs
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Since 1968, the Center for Traditional Music and Dance (CMTD) has been fighting a good fight with more than a little success. Seen by few and recognized by even fewer, the CMTD fights for immigrating artists who, like other talented and professional folks who change countries, often find not only that their credentials are belittled but that immigration sunders the connections that would enable them to continue living as culture-makers. 

But the work of the CMTD is not just about the first generation; it’s about the next and the one after that. In their decades of operation, their courses and touring artists have sparked the American-born to remember additional roots — other ways to voice themselves and move through space.

Celebrating 40 years of reconnecting artists — and artists-to-be — living in diaspora in New York, the CMTD will host a benefit-cum-dance party next Thursday, June 5th at the Hiro Ballroom. 

Performing are David Oquendo, whose Afro-Cuban, rock-inflected jams earned him a Grammy; Merita Halili and the Raif Hyseni Orchestra’s soprano Albanian folk tunes; the all-women Cherish The Ladies traditional Irish music troupe whom BBC named the Best Musical Group of the Year (during the benefit dinner); and Banghra’s sonic steel sweetheart, DJ Rekha.

Directions here and more information on the CMTD’s work here.

The CMTD Benefit and Dance Party
Thursday, June 5th
9 : 00 pm — 11 : 30 pm
The Hiro Ballroom
16th Street and 9th Avenue, NYC 05/29/08 >> go there
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