Global Village
Weeknights at 9pm
Join us weeknights at 9 p.m. for a musical adventure with Global Village. From classic recordings to the latest new releases, from right around the corner to halfway around the world, host Chris Heim presents a wide range of world music, along with jazz, rock, folk and other styles, artists and songs with world and roots influences. Each month, we also focus on a particular artist, style or theme (see below), going deeper into the music and offering some rare and seldom heard selections. And the first Friday of every month, hear the best new releases with the Global Village Top 30 show. Each night is a different musical journey, with music that is unusual and intriguing, yet still seems very close to home.
Best of the Year (so far) in World Music
With half of 2010 already behind us, NPR Music and others have been tallying up some of the best releases of the year so far.
Coming Soon
September 2010: King Sunny Ade and Music of Nigeria
Just as the phrase world music was coming into circulation in the 1980s, one of its first and most influential stars, King Sunny Ade, was releasing his finest and best known international recordings, Juju Music, Synchro System and Aura. But well before those albums, Ade had honed his distinctive sound and established himself as one of Nigeria’s leading musicians.
VIDEO OF THE MONTH: King Sunny Ade and His African Beats, Seattle 2009
Born September 22, 1946, Ade had put together his first band, the Green Spots (named in honor of I.K. Dairo’s famous Blue Spots) in 1966. His rhythmic and sweet style of “juju music” is an intricate mesh of guitars (including distinctive pedal steel), talking and other drums, synthesizers and more played by a band that can include as many as 20 to 30 musicians. Though Ade’s international releases have been sporadic since those ‘80s classics, he continued to be a popular performer at home, with 120+ albums to his credit, and to periodically resurface on the international scene as well.
Throughout September, Global Village will feature music of King Sunny Ade, along with some earlier Nigerian artists, like I.K. Dairo, who inspired him and other popular juju performers including Ebenezer Obey, Segun Adewale and Shina Peters. We’ll also dip into the many compilations of ‘60s and ‘70s Nigerian music that have been recently released.
