On April 21, 2009 I went to see "The Lost Fingers", a trio from Canada who do Django-esque covers of 80's hits. The guys were amiable as you'll see in my hyper interview... they took my needling in good stride.

I confess I have a low tolerance for an evening's worth of even a master like Birelli LaGrene, but these guys put on a good show. Tight tight tight, and great arrangements. Plus they all sing, the backup harmonies are excellent (accurate falsettos) and they don't take themselves all that seriously. Highlights were a fabulous cover of "Belleville Rendez-vous," and Kool and the Gang's "Fresh, Exciting."

But of course, I still have to ask (since I think it is open to debate) is Gypsy Jazz really world music?  I know, I know, he's got his own chapter in the "Rough Guide to World Music," but we'll never know how Django's being a gypsy influenced the music he made. And yes, by now there are thousands of Roma out there who claim the music as their own. But there are equally as many gadjé who play le jazz hot.  Feel free to weigh in on this one, folks.

This is Day One: the first installment of Link TV's World Music Blog coming to you from Link's New York City office.
I just got a hand-me-down Flip camera and I'm loving it.  Sure, the zoom stinks, and it has a nervous breakdown in a dark rock club, but really, it's a valiant little thing, and it's also great to be able to just take it out of my purse and capture the moment.  And NYC is full of amazing musicians I've been wanting to interview or to talk to about their music, so WATCH THIS SPACE. I'm also inviting y'all to write in and make this a two way conversation. Hey, I don't want to have to float the whole boat!

04.11.09
I went to the "preview" of the NY Gypsy Festival and caught the first few hours - take a look.

It went on till 4 AM, but hey, I've got a day job, so I just couldn't stay for the whole thing.  You can catch an insightful evaluation of the total event on the Lucid Culture blog.

And my co-worker Deepak Unnikrishnan had this summation:
"Call me clichéd but I fell hard for the dark ambience, the palm readers and certain over-the-top touches of the event. But frankly, none of the props would have meant a thing if the musicians weren’t anything but outstanding. At one point it wouldn’t have surprised me if I looked at my shoes, saw smoke, and smelled burnt rubber from all the dancing." He stayed till they were putting the chairs on the tables.

Like I said, this was a preview of a series of Gypsy festivals to come, so there will be more!

I’ve been trumpeting our acquisition of the Aga Khan Trust/Smithsonian Folkways’ wonderful series about the music of Central Asia for quite a while, and we are starting to role it out this week. The first two are now streaming, and we will commence broadcast of the others on the 28th.  While the music captured in the series may strike our Western ears as dissonant or long-winded, it gives us a chance to step outside of our listening “comfort zones” and imagine ourselves to be from this part of the world. The programs help us do that by transporting us to places like the sweeping steppes of Kazakhstan, where people still live a nomadic life in round tents called yurts, to wedding celebrations and intimate personal reflections by the artists.  I hope you will find this series as fascinating as I do, and if as the series rolls out, you want to hear more of the music, you can visit the Smithsonian website.

Note:  My first foray into blogdom starts soon, and we’ll be posting my coverage of the NY Gypsy Festival—and who knows, maybe some other goodies, too. I’ll keep you posted, so keep checking in.

I'm going to a Gypsy Festival at Le Poisson Rouge in NYC, on Saturday, and we'll see if my little flip camera can capture some of the event. It's going to be quite the gathering, with Turkish clarinetist Selim Sesler setting the tone for some wild and wooly music, fortune tellers, and some trumpet madness from Frank London of the Klezmatics. (He has several extra-curricular projects, and Roma musicians figure prominently in some of them.)

Speaking of Gypsy music, a few years ago I was given a DVD of a great little video of the Hungarian violinist Roby Lakatos. He claims descent from the great Janos Bihari, the gypsy musician that had royalty in thrall in the 18th century, and was known as the king of the Gypsy violinists. Well, Lakatos certianly has plenty of flash, and the video was cool enough for me to want to show it on the channel. But the record label was laconic to say the least and was not interested in tracking down video for me. So it never made it to Link TV.  Then, out of curiosity, I looked on YouTube and voilá! There it was. So here it is, if you are curious. Of course, my DVD is better quality……!

This week I will get my first lesson in becoming a blogger. Now I'm not exactly a Luddite, but I'm also not a computer geek, so wish me  luck. If all goes well, I'll be able to post all kinds of music related thoughts and happenings as they occur, rather than waiting for a specific time and day. So now I hope that all you folks who log on to see our video premiere will take a minute to scroll down just a bit further and add your two cents (politely, of course) to the site. There should be much more inter-activity, and considering how much interesting stuff there is to write about in world music, I expect this to be the space to watch!

FLASH!! I don’t really believe that music is the universal language. There are too many kinds of music that I've had to learn to understand, and many more I may respect, but not enjoy. Still, there is no doubting the phenomenon of musicians from one culture becoming totally enamored of music from another. Many years ago I participated in an International Bluegrass festival in Southern France.  I was surrounded by Bluegrass players from all over the world, and all of them were simply crazy about the music! Why do I bring this up? Because this week we are showing Like a God When He Plays about Irishman Paddy Bush and his love affair with Malagasy music, and the instrument he plays, the valiha. His devotion is real, and it's touching to see him make his pilgrimage to attend the ritual exhumation of a beloved master valihist. Along the way we also get to hear some delightful music, so do check this sweet documentary out.