I caught this performance at New York's "Dizzy's Coca Cola" a posh club connected with Lincoln Center that overlooks Columbus Circle.

Although Claudia Acuña is a full fledged jazz singer, her repertoire still reflects her Chilean origins, and she presented several jazz settings of songs from its folk heritage.

"El Cigaritto" is by the iconic songwriter Victor Hara, whose work is almost synonymous with the protest songs of the  Nuevo Cancion movement that arose in Chile in the 1970's. He was publicly tortured and executed by the Pinochet regime, and must remain one of Chile's great political martyrs. But we must not let his terrible end overshadow the fact that he was also a great songwriter. "El Cigaritto" does not make any overt political statement. It is instead a gentle song with a lovely melody and a poetic lyric sung from the vantage point of a field worker on a tobacco plantation.

Claudia and her band have created a setting that not only preserves the spirit of the song, but enhances the melody with nuanced chord progressions and a different meter. It's a sensitive, loving interpretation. She has stated that Jara's work is very close to her heart, and she recorded three of his songs on her first CD.

You can go here to compare this rendition with Jara's.

It's official. Latin jazz artist Bobby Sanabria will be suing the Grammys over their recent category restructuring. At a press conference at the law offices of Balber Pickard Maldonado and Van Der Truin, Mr. Sanabria, a four time Grammy nominee read his own explanation of the reasons, as he sees it, for the action. I will let him and his council speak for themselves, before throwing in my two cents:

Unlike Mr. Sanabria, I have always thought of the televised Grammys show as a carefully packaged main stream media program, calculated to maximize the sale of goods. When a friend of mine won a Grammy, she did not receive her award on air, nor did she expect to, it having been in an "ethnic" category and unlikely to raise the profit margins of the show's various sponsors. Whether they ought to or not, the general public does not tune in to see awards for Best Hawaiian Slack-key Guitar, or Best Native American music. (I invite comments on this topic.)

But is this what the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (as opposed to the broadcast) is predicated upon? According to the Wikipedia, NARAS is an "organization of musicians, producers, recording engineers and other recording professionals dedicated to improving the quality of life and cultural condition for music and its makers." That is a far cry from how it is currently represented on air, or where it is veering with this decision. By lumping together certain ethnic musical forms, it makes it far harder for the artists involved in those genres to get the Bona Fides that the Grammy award bestows, and the career benefits thereof. And it shows a shocking ignorance -- at best, heedless and dismissive -- of what these various genres are really about.

Since they refuse to divulge the minutes of the meetings that led to the decision, we are left to imagine the true motivations and the conversations that took place. Where was the need for the "streamlining?" Did it have anything to do with financial troubles: an overextended budget, a cutting back of foundation support, and a diminishing membership? Perhaps Latin Jazz was eliminated since "they have their own Grammys" or because "Jazz is Jazz" (both can-of-worms discussions which I am sure they would not want put up for an open debate). Did CBS' or any major label's input affect the decision directly or through other means? Exactly who voted for or against? Which of them was an expert in the fields that were affected? -- Or were the panels all made up of Pop, Rock, R&B and Rap aficionados? One could go on, but I don't wonder that NARAS refuses to disclose the information demanded by Mr. Maldonado's firm. They are damned if they do and damned if they don't. And I don't mean that sympathetically. I mean, what did they expect?

While some of the category winnowing is not dreadful, (best male or female pop vocals are now merged into "Best Pop Vocal") some categories need further expansion, not compression. Best Traditional World Music and Best Contemporary World Music are already inadequate, vague categories, and have been reduced to Best World Music Album…grrrrr… By the way, Tex-Mex, Zydeco, Cajun, Hawaiian, Native American and yes, polka, ARE World Music!
For whatever reasons it may give, NARAS has made a heavy-handed blunder, and after stirring up this hornet's nest, it is responding autocratically. By remaining inflexible, it does itself a great disservice. Even as it, along with the music industry, may be grappling with economic downturns and a changing landscape, it is obligated to stay true to its founding tenets by supporting all the music its membership is dedicated to. Members who were knowledgeable in the fields most affected should have been consulted in these decisions, those decisions should have been announced with sufficient time given for preparation by the artists, and secrecy was not the way to go. In excluding its constituency on such crucial matters, NARAS has placed its own credibility at risk.

For more information regarding action on this issue go to: www.grammywatch.org

Click here to see the categories as they were and as they now are.

Okay, it’s coming on Cinco de Mayo, so it’s only logical to do a blog post about something Mexican. But the truth is, I really like the music of Rana Santacruz on its own terms, which are solidly Pan-American. As you will see and hear, Rana is a man who loves loud acoustic instruments like the banjo and the accordion. His tastes are eclectic and he wants his mostly USA-born band members to contribute their ideas as well as their chops. The result is something that is a hybrid in the best sense, cohesive and all-embracing—a marriage of the USA’s and Mexico’s musical traditions with healthy injections of contemporary songwriting. The songs are ear candy too. They feel like classics although they have been recently written, and I am a sucker for brass lines that soar like wind currents against a sail. (“Cajita de Barro,” featured here, makes me glaze over. In a good way.) 

With all the brouhaha stirred up by the recent Arizona immigration law, resentments are flaring on all sides. But when I caught Rana at Joe’s Pub a few months ago, where he was joined by two members of a New York-based mariachi band in full regalia, I felt good about people, optimistic about the immigrant values this country was built on and I felt a warm link to Mexico. (Me, a non Spanish-speaking New Yorker!) How many musicians, whether intentionally or not, can make us feel that way? So take a break from the politics, and just enjoy the music. And another thing—when you listen to “Cajita de Barro” invite your sweetheart to join you in a waltz. It may not be “hot” or “edgy” but it’s romantic as hell without ever being maudlin.

....If you don't have a sweetheart, this song might just get you one.

Here are the translated lyrics to "Cajita de Barro" (Little Clay Box)

In a little clay box you left a piece of your heart
In a little clay box tied up with cloth and thread
And every now and then I tie it close to my soul and it takes away my pain
And every now and then I grab it and say “I’m sorry”
“I’m sorry”

And when the clouds turn off the lights of the sky
and rain starts falling down
In that little clay box I want to take shelter
And I can’t hide it any longer, and I must accept
That without that little clay box I don’t know what to do
I don’t know what to do

And when my eyes shrink and shrink for crying so much
In that little clay box I start looking for something
And when I miss you and think of you in the middle of the night
In that little clay box I find you again
I find you again

A few weeks ago I received a hip hop video "B Sotak" from NasJota records aimed at getting out the vote in Sudan. It was a very good video and song, so I made an appointment to interview E-Hab Abasaeed, the president of NasJota. The elections are the first in over 20 years, and I wanted some insights. As anyone following events knows, the lead up to Sudan's elections had been riddled with problems, with claims of vote-rigging and threats, but the biggest complication was the withdrawal of main opposition parties. This automatically gave incumbent president Omar al-Bashir an obvious advantage, offering him a "mandate" to govern that the international community would be forced to recognize regardless of his indictment by the ICC for crimes against humanity. And no less a VIP than Jimmy Carter initially legitimized the election. But what is the experience of those in Sudan who are actively trying to instill the roots of a democracy in their homeland? We couldn't go to Sudan, but in a sense Sudan came to us, when we interviewed E-Hab who in turn connected us with Hisham Haj Omar, a member of Girifna, a youth movement in Sudan that tries to raise awareness of the election process and promote political dialogue in Sudan. In addition to their grassroots activism they have produced entertaining videos with a message.

Obviously both of these men are anti-Bashir. And as of this writing, with the election just recently over and votes not completely tallied, it remains hard to know how representative the vote will be. First the Polish air crash, and now the volcanic cloud that is paralyzing air flight has swept the election off the front pages, making it appear that our own politicos and media seem to be resigned to Bashir's win. Witness this recent article that appeared in the New York Times as if paving the way for acceptance of his victory.

If you are interested in seeing both videos excerpted here in their entirety, go to girifna.com.

I have nothing against the idea of the latest fundraising video for Haiti because the cause is certainly a great one; it's just that I tire of the usual bevy of First World entertainers belting it out. That's why it's refreshing to meet someone like Mark Johnson, one of the founders of Playing for Change.  By now you've all probably heard about this organization through the widely seen globetrotting video of "Stand By Me." The first time I saw it, I thought it was pleasant enough, but what was it for, what was the next step -- what was the substance? Mark clarified it all for me in an eloquent interview, in which he laid out a vision for using music as a catalyst for social change. I've heard my share of pie-in-the-sky blah blah about using music for this or that, but Mark's ideas are not dreams -- they are based on solid reality and hard work.

Can any of us deny that one of our greatest achievements to date is our unprecedented technological connectivity? Playing for Change is not just about making pretty videos. It's about connecting a global community where access to medicine, education, and mutual respect are a given.

I had a conversation many years ago with Christoph Borkowsky, one of the founders of the World Music Expo, WOMEX. At the time he said to me that the music of every nation should be treated as a natural resource. He chafed at the lack of market exposure great world artists got, and was certain that significant revenue streams could result from a level, truly international marketplace. Now that a new generation can access global content with ease, perhaps the idea finally has the proper soil in which to grow. And perhaps the next great musical outpouring of support for a cause will well up spontaneously, from another part of the world, and have a truly international face and sound.