South by Southwest 2005-2010
Marco Werman
The presence of international artists at the annual South by Southwest (SXSW) music conference in Austin, Texas has steadily grown in recent years. A few years ago, The World’s Marco Werman began wondering what made those musicians from around the world who come to SXSW different from musicians who fall into the “world music” category.
“It’s kind of like the division in cinema: there are the Hollywood blockbusters, and then there are the small indy films, and they have more in common with foreign films.”
Thus was born the All Music Is World Music showcase at SXSW, sponsored by PRI’s The World and KUT 90.5 in Austin. “I just want to blur the lines because ‘world music’ has kind of fallen into its own ghetto,” says Werman. “Isn’t all music world music?”
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This is the final installment in our All Music Is World Music series of podcasts: the band ChocQuibTown from the region of Choco in Colombia. Imagine the Fugees, channelling both hip-hop and the hot and heavy Afro-Colombian beats of the wet Pacific coast of Colombia. This is a longer podcast than most in the All Music Is World Music series. Consider it an invitation to dance with the rest of the crowd at the South by Southwest show from this past March.
ChocQuibTown
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Longital are from Bratislava. They are Daniel Salontay and Shina. The couple have found their voice in avant-garde sounds, with an abiding interest in Soviet-era Slovakian experimental theater. It may appear disjointed on paper, but the music of Longital doesn’t wander too far from toe-tapping pop. This is their performance at All Music Is World Music 2010 in Austin.
Longital
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This week, we feature the Unthanks, an ensemble from the north of England that plays traditional Brit-folk. This being the 21st century though, the Unthanks adorn their music with a contemporary perspective and voice. Sisters Rachel and Becky Unthank bring their heavenly voices and off-kilter arrangements to this SXSW performance from March 2010.
The Unthanks
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Somi is the first jazz performer All Music Is World Music has hosted. Her parents hail from Uganda and Rwanda, and she moved to the US as a youngster, growing up in Illinois. Now fully ensconsed in the New York jazz scene, she also represents the multi-kulti world that runs from the center to the fringes of that scene. And Somi takes it all in, as you will hear in this set from SXSW.
Somi
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We begin the All Music Is World Music showcase 2010 from SXSW with Gong Myoung, a four-man percussion ensemble from South Korea. Their music is as much about concentration as it is sound and rhythm. The artists are intense young men, and it’s evident in their drumming.
Gong Myoung
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Cla is a quirky and talented band from Porto, Portugal. Manuela Azcevedo — Cla’s charming frontwoman — says the city is grey, but has a lot of heart. Think of it as a small version of Detroit. Cla isn’t Motown. But they are one of Portugal’s most popular groups.
Cla
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They met when they were kids, they’ve got a fetish for bicycle moto-cross, and you might see them on stage — throwing down electro-tropical beats — with BMX wheels on their heads. The duo is known as Monareta (the brand of a particularly good BMX bike in Colombia where they’re from), and they are Andres Martinez and Camilo Sanabria. This is their set from the 2009 All Music Is World Music showcase at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas. By the way, this is great party music, if you need to get your houseguests shaking for 30 minutes.
Listen to The World’s report from January 2, 2009
Monareta
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Ximena Sarinana from Mexico City is a twenty-something singer-songwriter. Over lush arrangements, she brings a languid world-weary delivery, one that has electrified a large fan base. When she played at SXSW in 2009, the room suddenly filled up with young Mexican and Mexican-American women who hear in her music a simpatico voice. Given the Grammy and Latin Grammy nods she got in 2008, her admiring audience is clearly much bigger than the SXSW room.
Ximena Sarinana at SXSW
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Asa is a young singer-songwriter from Nigeria. Her US debut CD, “Asa” features songs that recall Bob Marley and Stevie Wonder, and themes that are uniquely Nigerian. Asa knows how to cloak those themes in infectious rhythms, and makes them universal.
Asa at SXSW 2009
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Kingman and Jonah are Claudius “Kingman” Linton and Ian “Jonah” Jones. Linton is an old-school reggae artist from Negril, Jamaica. Jones is a rock guitarist from Baltimore. The music they make is the result of a chance meeting on the beach in Negril.
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