Toronto, Canada -  The Small World Music Sixth Annual South Asian Music Series continues with the Gundecha Brothers, India’s leading performers of the ancient classical style of Dhrupad. The performance will take place Saturday, May 24, at 8 pm at Enwave Theatre, 231 Queens Quay W.
 
 Umakant and Ramakant Gundecha are India's leading exponents of the Dhrupad style, the spiritual heart of Indian classical music. These dedicated and immensely talented artists have helped to maintain this ancient and profound tradition, a musical legacy which freshly resonates today amongst yoga and meditation enthusiasts, as well as classical music fans.
 
 About the Dhrupad style:

The Taste of Durham food and music festival returns to Durham, North Carolina, May 24th, 2008 at t Imperial Center Surrounding Winchester Place. The eclectic music lineup features known and emerging artists. The highlights of main stage entertainment for 2008 include Latin beats by Jose Conde y Ola Fresca, taste of the Blues by Seth Walker, Afrobeat with The Afromotive, a taste of jazz with John Brown Jazz Orchestra, and many other bands to be announced. Mark Gauthier, comedian/actor is the host/master of ceremonies. Hear the music for 2008 by clicking here.
 
 Described as a Festival Within a Festival, Taste of Durham also includes restaurant food sampling from 20 or more area establishments (See participants here). There is also an International Wine Tasting Pavilion (Preview the wines),  a Beer Tasting Garden (Check out the breweries) and Chef Demonstrations.

AlexCuba

Agua Del Pozo (Caracol Records, 2008)

After his debut CD Humo de Tabaco with appearances by Chucho Valdes and Pancho Amat, AlexCuba is back with his second CD Agua Del Pozo released on the Caracol Records label and it promises to have fans swooning. On Agua Del Pozo with its mellow compositions and flavorful vocals, the Cuban-born AlexCuba has stoked his sound with tres, bata drums, congas, horns and timbales to create sweet-sounding groove that is overwhelming Cuban in flavor, but tinged with AlexCuba’s jazz sensibilities.

Salvador Santana Band (SSB)

 SSB (Tsunami Label Group, 2008)

Salvador Santana Band is led by Carlos Santana's son, keyboardist and composer Salvador Santana. The band's debut album shows great promise with a combination of Neosoul, Latin rock, Afrobeat and hip hop. Although Salvador's demo, released last year, showed more instrumental work and even jazz fusions excursions, the SSB album focuses of short songs that are radio friendly. The music really stands out when the band leaves the tired hip hop influences and ventures into Afrobeat, Latin rock, R&B, funk and even some salsa.

Of the latest batch of Sony Sound Series collection of loops and samples, Richard Devine's The Electronic Music Manuscript really stands out. Despite the title, the impressive collection includes not only electronic instruments, but also ethnic instruments, which makes it specially attractive to global electronica musicians, who want to add fabulous loops to their sampling collections. The ethnic instruments include didjeridu, bells, drums, flutes and congas.

Of course, most of the sounds in this two-CD set are electronic in nature. The set features a wide range of inspiring sounds such as prepared piano, strange ambiences, EVP Shortwave recordings, drum loops, strings and pads pads,  and lots more.

New York (NY), USA – Reggae artist Taj Weekes will release his much anticipated second album, Deidem (All of Us), set for release through Weekes’ independent label, Jatta Records this spring. Jatta Records will distribute the album nationally through the Independent Distributors Collective and Homegrown Music Network. Jatta has also secured a licensing deal with Spectra Records to release the album to major distribution chains throughout the U.S. and Canada. Overseas, Jatta will release Deidem in the United Kingdom, Germany, Austria and Switzerland in conjunction with Afrikool/Culture Taxi Records. On the home front, Deidem will be released in St. Lucia late summer. In addition to international distribution, Deidem will be available online through iTunes, eMusic and other online music distributors.
 
 Following on the heels of their critically acclaimed debut release, Hope & Doubt, Taj Weekes and his band, Adowa introduce audiences to Deidem - a classic roots reggae album filled with melodies that are deliberate and focused. Deidem discusses global and humanitarian issues such as global warming, the effects of Hurricane Katrina, and the crisis in Darfur. Though the topics are insightful and serious, the grooves, melodies and rhythms are the familiar backbeats that reggae fans know and love.

Cheevers Toppah and Kevin Yazzie

First Light (Canyon Records, 2008)

Bombarded this week by an onslaught of lawnmowers, weed wackers, leaf blowers, annoying telemarketers and that freaky guy that drives through our neighborhood with the squealing brakes, I got an unexpected respite in the way of Cheevers Toppah’s and Kevin Yazzie’s First Light out on Canyon Records. This collection of harmonized peyote songs sung in Diné and Kiowa smoothed away the rough edges of life and offered a bit of a sanctuary in the ebb and flow of Toppah’s and Yazzie’s rich vocals.

Devotional in nature, peyote songs are sung to Father Peyote in the ritual practices surrounding the peyote cactus, a plant used for religious and medicinal purposes. Part of the tradition of the Native American Church, or Peyote Church, that traces its origins back to pre-Columbian Mexico, these songs extol the way of ‘right living’ and contemplation. Used as a sacrament, the religious ritual ingestion of the plant is a means to seek guidance and inspiration from Father Peyote.

Doumtekestan (Darbuki Kings Records, 2007)

Lawrence Of Suburbia  (Darbuki Kings Records, 2008)

Two multi-instrumentalists, Robin Adnan Anders and Antonio Albarran, are behind the Darbuki Kings. Inspired by the music of the countries that were part of the ancient Silk Road, the Darbuki Kings combine good humor with folk-inspired instrumental pieces, as well as as modern fusions. The majority of the influences are Middle Eastern, although there are elements of Greek music and Indian dance music.

¡Globalquerque! 08 will present Lila Downs  and her band at this year's festival on Friday September 19th. ¡Globalquerque! New Mexico's 4th Annual Celebration of World Music & Culture takes place September 19 & 20 at the National Hispanic Cultural Center, the presenting partner, in Albuquerque, NM

Lila Downs  gained international attention for her musical role in the award-winning 2002 film Frida, starring Selma Hayek as Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. Her song “Burn It Blue,” from the film was nominated for Grammy and Academy Awards. In 2005 Lila was awarded a Latin Grammy for her album Una Sangre (One Blood).

Many of Downs’ songs carry contemporary messages that promote respect for human rights and dignity bringing a new social awareness to her rich repertoire of original and native Mesoamerican songs. She effortlessly blends indigenous Mixtec traditions with all manner of styles including cabaret, ranchera and spoken word augmented by multi-media presentations. Lila's performances have captivated audiences around the globe.

TransGlobal Underground, winners of the Club Global Category in this year's BBC Radio 3 Awards for World Music will not be playing at the Winners' Concert due to take place on July 30th as part of Radio 3's Proms season of concerts broadcast from London's Royal Albert Hall. 

The announcement has disappointed fans as well as members of the Awards Jury and is in contrast with last year's concert in which the Club Global Category winners, Gotan Project, played a full 40 minute set.

TransGlobal Underground are regarded as pioneers of global dancefloor music, starting in the early days as a club night with live performances, fusing western dance floor beats with Arabic, African and Asian sounds. TransGlobal Underground's personnel and collaborations read like a who's who of the global dance floor scene which also helped launch a number of solo projects and careers.