Bluegrass Maestro Ralph Stanley Dies at 89
Acclaimed bluegrass banjo player and vocalist Ralph Stanley, “Dr. Ralph,” passed away at his home in the mountains of southwestern Virginia. Ralph Edmund Stanley…
Artist Profiles: Gnonnas Pedro
Gnonnan Sossou Pierre Kouassivi, better known as Gnonnas Pedro, was a singer-songwriter, salsero and musician born in Lokossa, Benin. Gnonnas Pedro had always excelled in…
Artist Profiles: Gangbe Brass Band
Gangbe Brass Band promotes the originality of the music of Benin combining an original mixture of jazz and Beninese traditional music: voodoo rhythms (Sato, Zinti,…
Artist Profiles: Antoine Dougbé
Orchestre Poly-Rythmo not only composed and recorded hundreds of songs but they still found time to arrange and record for other artists, one of them…
Luiz Caracol’s Melting Pot
Luiz Caracol Devagar (DGP, 2013) One the highlights of the Ibero American Music Expo (EXIB) 2016 was the concert by Portuguese musician, composer and singer-songwriter…
Celebrated Qawwali Singer Amjad Sabri Assassinated in Pakistan
News reports from Pakistan indicate that renowned Qawwali musician Amjad Sabri, one of Pakistan’s most well-known Sufi musicians, was shot and killed on Wednesday, June…
WOMEX 2016 Announces First Set of Showcases
World Music Expo, WOMEX, announced this morning the first set of artists that will showcase at WOMEX 2016 October in Santiago de Compostela, Spain. The…
The Impassioned Splendor of Mahsa Vahdat
Mahsa Vahdat a cappella – The Sun Will Rise (Kirkelig Kulturverksted, 2016) Okay, I am going to lapse into my inner icky fangirl for a…
Entrancing Georgian Polyphony
Ensemble Marani – Polyphonies de Géorgie (Buda Musique, 2016) Polyphonies de Géorgie is the new album by the Franco-Georgian men’s choir The Marani Ensemble. The…
Artist Profiles: Adama Yalomba
Malian musician Adama Yalomba was born in Bamako in 1970. He plays guitar, ngoni and dan. He became known to western audiences in 2003 thanks…