Some of the most exciting musical collaborations are happening between jazz, classical and world musicians these days. Musicians have always fed off interaction with other players, but the sheer variety of music that is available coupled with access to international artists has led to some truly exquisite sounds. In the classical world the work of Yo Yo Ma's Silk Road Ensemble and its spinoff collaborations between Kayhan Kalhor and Brooklyn Rider come to mind, and of course, the by now venerable Kronos Quartet and maverick violinist Giles Apap. In the jazz world the same foment is apparent (the kora seeming to be the instrument of choice these days, appearing alongside jazz heavies) and when the world music extravaganza of GlobalFEST blew into town in January, it brought Nguyen Lê's "Saiyuki" with it.

Lê's name is practically synonymous with polyglot music; witness allaboutjazz.com describing his 2006 CD "Homescape" as a combination of  "post-Hendrix rock, Milesian harmon-mute free improv, Maghrebi trance music, Ellingtonia, ambient, a Papua New Guinea vocal choir. . .Delta blues, Vietnamese folk tunes, flamenco, Iranian modes, a Sardinian choir, Australian aboriginal ritual music, French chanson, Gregorian chant, and Indonesian gamelan/gong music." The man is eclectic, and joyfully so.

"Saiyuki," his latest aggregate, is a trio. In it, he has brought together Mieko Miyazaki (Japan) on koto and Prabhu Edouard (India) on tablas. (Lê played his backups in mid to low range to fatten up an otherwise treble sound.) The group's performance was one of the highlights of GlobalFEST, and I'm glad I got a chance to catch it on video, even with the uneven sound, and video quality attendant on these kinds of situations. . .note the shattered glass sound from the bar. . .oh well.

Each player brought so much of their own culture along that at times it seemed more like the music was "jazz enabled," with that form giving the musicians a more liberal harmonic matrix and greater freedom to fly. But the end result was something unusual and hard to classify; I guess "world music" as a term still has its uses.

There may not be an official holiday for Gaia (though Earth Day comes close), but Link is showing three music blocks that all celebrate women in their many manifestations:  Block #50, entitled "Songbirds," #62 "Ladies Sublime and Ridiculous" and #93, "Wonderful Women." You'll hear from women who are spiritual, sexy, grounded, powerful, funny (the list could go on) and above all, terrific musicians.  So if you are thirsty for some laiko from Eleftheria Arvanitaki, hankering for Mariza's fado, pining for Badi Assad's guitar mastery, or just in need of a major estrogen injection, you will be a happy camper!

This week we are showing the fine Chinese film "Dam Street." It runs a little bit short of our usual Music and Culture slot, so I was asked to put together a special music block geared specifically to follow the film. At first glance, the list of videos might seem to be a mixed bag.  But actually, I decided to pick videos that enhanced the ambience of the film.  I decided that "Longing" fit the mood, and so I chose "Nuahulwana", one of the most beautiful and haunting of songs, in which a lover is admonished not to go out to find love at the local bars, like a "night bird." I followed that with the brooding and surreal "O Labarinto Parado" by the Portuguese group Madredeus. China's Sa DingDing gives us a fantasy of a former life, one at the pinnacle of an ancient civilization now long dead, and in a field of ice, Uzbekistan's Sevara Nazarkhan sings a poem written about the lights of a beautiful, distant city.  We end with Patrick Bruell's rueful reminiscence of puppy love in Tunisia, at "Café de Delices."

We're in the midst of another pledge drive, and you may have noticed a bit less music programming as a result. But never fear-- on the other side of that event you'll find some fascinating new music documentaries.  We'll be debuting films about Balkan, South Asian and Central Asian music; all of them filled with beautiful images and haunting music. And who knows, you might even be seeing some new music blocks! All of this programming is made possible by your contributions, so I hope you'll take the time to show your support.

Closer to home, I want to plug a dear colleague's debut solo CD: If you were wondering about the vivacious lady singing the Yoruba chants in our video "The Price of Silence", that was Cucu Diamantes, one of the founders of the Pan Latin pop group Yerba Buena. She really made a splash with us with her enthusiasm, professionalism and terrific pipes. And now that she is stepping out with her solo CD "Cuculand", releasing March 17, we wish her all the success she richly deserves.

Continuing with my theme of how preconceptions can get in the way of hearing something simply for what it is, I give you two much maligned instruments: the accordion and the banjo. The accordion started out innocently enough, but due to its capacity for playing rhythm, melody and harmony simultaneously, and being incredibly loud and portable, it became immensely popular and supplanted older instruments, ending up becoming the heart and soul of many folk idioms. Eventually, it became the most conspicuous member of the Polka ensemble, and from there it was a short hop to the Lawrence Welk Show, where its fate was sealed to an entire generation of young people who simply HATED the instrument, and were enamored of the electric guitar. It is only recently that the accordion has lost some of its stigma.

Next, turn back the clock to the late late 70’s and banjoist extraordinaire Tony Trischka’s fascination with the African roots of the banjo. Who knew? But yes, that instrument which we associate with Country music (plus bluegrass and old-timey), minstrel shows and Dixieland comes from Mama Africa. Years later, I interviewed Angelique Kidjo who told me how much she hated the banjo.  Why? Because her father loved American banjo music! Now fast forward to this week, when the soundtrack to the film “Throw down your heart” about banjoist Bela Fleck’s journey to Africa to commune with musicians and find common threads of sound, is now available. What is it about these instruments that has aroused so much emotion?  They are only instruments, things to make music with!  All I can say is let’s hope that Bela’s explorations bring us al a little bit closer to throwing down our preconceptions about music.