Monday, December 30
Global Village is honored to announce the start of a new festival series, featuring concert performances from the innovative and eclectic Ground Up Music Festival in Miami Beach. We kick off the series with a performance from Snarky Puppy (with a special guest appearance from Innov Gnawa). The three-time Grammy winning band has won accolades for their lively and inventive mix of world, funk, jazz, and rock influences, all on ample display in this 2019 appearance at the Ground Up Music Festival. (We continue the series in January, in conjunction with our Best of 2019 feature, with a performance from Bokante, just nominated for a world music Grammy.)
Tuesday, December 31
Global Village wraps up the year marking birthdays of two great voices of folk music – English folk singer June Tabor and American folk legend Odetta. We’ll hear music from Tabor’s debut solo album, and releases she did with Maddy Prior (of Steeleye Span fame) and the Oyster Band. We’ll also hear some Caribbean-flavored pieces from Odetta. Plus recent releases from Portugal’s voice and bagpipe group Gaiteiros de Lisboa, the Berlin-based flamenco jazz group Rasgueo, the Garifuna Collective, and Santana.
Wednesday, January 1
Global Village kicks off 2020 with birthday celebrations for four artists born on the first day of the year. We’ll hear music from Ivory Coast reggae star Alpha Blondy, Latin music popularizer Xavier Cugut, and Latin jazz percussionist Manny Oquendo and bassist Andy Gonzalez, who co-led the acclaimed Latin ensemble, Libre. We’ll also hear new music from highlife veteran Pat Thomas, reggae veterans Third World, and Colombian percussionist Samuel Torres.
Thursday, January 2
Global Village has another bout of Accordion Mania with a wide array of releases featuring the oft-misunderstood instrument. We’ll hear two impressive Finnish accordionists, Teija Niku and Maria Kalaniemi, the French neo-folk trio of Maes, Martin & Gruel, I.K. Dairo ( who introduced the accordion into Nigerian Ashiko music), zydeco star C.J. Chenier, Poland’s Motion Trio, and Russian émigré group Ersatz Musika.
Friday, January 3
It’s an annual tradition in the Global Village, in place of the usual New Month/New Music new releases show, to kick off the year with a countdown of the show’s Top Ten world music favorites of the past year. There were some surprising trends and unusual discoveries in 2019 and they’re reflected in the Global Village favorites of the year. Throughout January we’ll continue to highlight significant releases, award winners and nominees, and other milestones of the year. You can also find Top 25 lists not only for Global Village, but for all our local music shows, on our website at kmuw.org.
