A New Generation of Global Music, January 9, 2009

Here comes trouble, indeed. Trouble with coloring inside the strict lines of a single genre, or sticking to the traditions of one place, no matter how wonderful. The next generation of global musician is individualistic in how he or she remixes and transforms age-old sounds and current pop conventions. Defying simple categories of place and identity, this new breed of “world” artist is stirring up a whole new kind of trouble in artistic hot spots like Brooklyn.

Forward-thinking San Francisco agency Trouble Worldwide and the worldly New York label Barbès Records have teamed up to present six groups that leap borders and continents with a single musical bound at 92YTribeca  on January 9^th at 8 PM (tickets are $15 at the door; free with APAP badge). Ticket info is available at www.92y.org/92ytribeca or 212.415.5500


Gokh-Bi System

Sounds like: The Roots hanging with Baaba Maal

Home Base:  Northampton, MA by way of Senegal

Childhood friends from the Dakar hood of Pikine Ginauw Rail—literally “the other side of the tracks”—Gokh-Bi System reunite rap with its ancient West African ancestors. Backed by guitar, bass, and drums, Gokh-Bi System kicks out the jams on djembe drums and the rare and nearly forgotten stringed ekonting, all while rapping in English, French, Arabic, Wolof, Serer, and Jola. The ekonting—once used to calm social unrest—and Gokh-Bi’s positive message, inspired by rap greats from The Last Poets to Chuck D, transform the group’s sound into an uplifting yet hard-hitting African homecoming for hip hop.


La Rubias Del Norte

Sounds like: Mozart doing the cha cha cha

Home Base: Brooklyn

The seven-piece La Rubias Del Norte, fronted by two artful female singers, breathes new life into (mostly) vintage Latin American music, with an unexpected nod to Western classical influences. Their boleros and cumbias, called "sparkling gems" by the New Yorker, are infused with harmonies "pure as Andean air" (LA Times).


Cordero

Sounds like: Cat Power channeling Juana Molina

Home Base: Brooklyn, by way of Puerto Rico and Tucson

Cordero's music is a product of its creative and cultural diaspora, an indie- rock band with Latin roots. Cordero is led by a woman of Puerto Rican descent who calls Brooklyn her home, but still finds kinship with many other places—Tucson, Atlanta, and other points on the map where she has lived or performed. With bilingual indie flair, Cordero shifts effortlessly from intimate and lush vocals to power chords.

Hazmat Modine

Sounds like: Brother Where Art Thou on steroids

Home Base: New York

Hazmat Modine blows Americana’s borders wide open with the energy of a Romanian brass band and the scratchy soul of a vintage blues record. Fronted by two virtuoso harmonica players and backed by tuba, horns, and guitars, Hazmat Modine makes forgotten instruments and quirky songs addictively catchy.


Karsh Kale

Sounds like: Herbie Hancock and Zakir Hussain lay down break beats

Home Base: New York

Visionary composer, killer tabla player, and tireless producer Karsh Kale is at ease in multiple worlds: digital and analog, New York and the Subcontinent, pop and avant garde. Collaborating with everyone from Anoushka Shankar to Sting and Paul Oakenfold, Kale has evolved a pioneering sound that incorporates Indian classical and Bollywood music and Kale’s expert DJing and songwriting to become one of electronic music’s brightest stars.


Slavic Soul Party!

Sounds like: New Orleans brass band jams with Macedonian gypsies

Home Base: New York

Fiery Balkan brass, throbbing funk grooves, blazing Gypsy accordion, and virtuoso jazz chops make Slavic Soul Party! NYC's official #1 brass band for Balkan soul and Gypsy funk. With Mexican, Asian, Jewish, Gypsy, and American roots, SSP! makes new music out of the unplanned results of immigration, proximity, and globalization, pumping a strong Balkan brass through the filter of life in New York's outer boroughs.


Schedule:

8:00 pm - Gokh-Bi System
8:45 pm - La Rubias Del Norte
9:30 pm - Cordero
10:15 pm - Hazmat Modine
11:00 pm - Karsh Kale
11:45 pm - Slavic Soul Party!

The Venue: 

92YTribeca 
www.92y.org/92ytribeca or 212.415.5500
200 Hudson Street (off of Canal St.), New York, NY(tickets are $15 at the door; free with APAP badge)