One day she met two producers who needed a singer for a demo of a song called “Back It Up.”

Emerald says, “It was just love at first sight. I just so loved this song, and I was like, “Oh My God I’m going to be the demo singer of a really really big hit.”

She says it all just clicked for her.

Emerald continues, “This moment with ‘Back it Up’ was definitely one of those moments where you just know, “This is the kind of music I would like to make.” I knew that in that second.”

So began her transformation into the smokey jazz chanteuse known as Caro Emerald.

She and the producers decided to make a full-length album and put it out on their own.

Deleted Scenes from the Cutting Room Floor is a highly stylized nod to the big bands and jazz divas of the 40s and 50s.

People start lining up at 10 in the morning, and on steamy afternoons the lines can stretch well past the park gates. But at $.04 a scoop it’s well worth the wait, and Havaneros of all ages can be found eating upwards of 10 scoops per visit. It’s a treat, but it also provides a caloric boost to those who subsist on state rations of beans, rice, eggs, and bread.

The phenomenon began with Fidel Castro’s own love of ice cream. When the park first opened there were 54 flavors, including offerings like avocado and tomato. Pedro Zamora manages one of the lines in the park and he says Coppelia produces the best ice cream around.

“It’s very creamy, and made with quality ingredients,” Zamora says.

Problems with the US embargo make it difficult to get materials, but Coppelia has always maintained a high quality. It’s the cathedral of ice cream!” But these days the park usually only has two flavors — on this day guava and strawberry.

The park was named for Castro’s longtime aide Celia Sanchez. She was known for her love of dance, and Coppelia was her favorite ballet. The Coppelia ice cream park has also influenced Cuban pop culture… there’s a popular salsa move bearing its name, and the parlor played a starring role in one of Cuba’s best-loved films, “Strawberry and Chocolate.”

Coppelia’s enduring popularity is a source of great pride for Cubans. And there’s talk that Cuba might export the brand. Last March, Cuba’s close ally Venezuela announced that it’s planning a factory to produce Coppelia ice cream… though it’s not clear where or what flavors.

Salsa dance named after the park:

But a coup overthrew the government. The coup was led by Omar al-Bashir. His dad lost his job and “a bunch of his friends started disappearing and stuff,” Gallab says.

The uprooted Gallab family spent several years in Utah before settling in Ohio. But Ahmed’s parents made sure to send him and his sisters back to Sudan as often as possible.

“I’d spend a lot of my summers as a kid in Sudan,” Gallab says, “all of my family still lives there and it was very important for my parents that me and my sisters maintained our culture as Sudanese people, our identity as Sudanese people.”

Ahmed’s parents kept their culture alive by playing records by Sudanese artists like Mohammad Wardi and Shar Habeel. But they didn’t limit their listening to musicians from home.

Gallab says, “My dad’s first CD was MC Hammer’s ‘Please Hammer Don’t Hurt Em.’”

Influenced by the music he heard at home, Ahmed started gigging while still in grade school. Some of his Provo, Utah classmates recruited him to play in a band called Rigid Prawn.

In his early 20s he formed the project Sinkane. But he was also in demand as a touring musician for some popular indie bands like Of Montreal, Caribou and Yeasayer, so his solo project took a backseat.

A few years ago Ahmed stopped touring to focus on Sinkane, developing its synth-heavy, Afro-electro sound.

And as he wrote the songs that would eventually form his new album “Mars,” he says he realized just how much his music is inspired by his Sudanese roots.

But now all Western and non devotional music has been outlawed in Azawad. Militants have burned instruments and amplifiers, and musicians have been threatened with amputation or worse for doing what they love.

One of the many groups affected by what’s happening is the Tuareg band Terakaft. The name means caravan in Tamasheq. The leader, Diara, was a founding member of Tinariwen. He left to join Terakaft. And today the group is a full-on family affair, fronted by Diara and two of his nephews, Sanou and Abdallah Ag Ahmed.

These days, Diara lives over the border in Algeria. When I spoke with him he expressed bewilderment over the current state of affairs at home. Though he wants the nomadic lifestyle of Tuaregs to be protected, he hopes that Mali will be united again as one nation.

“I don’t understanding what is happening in Mali,” Diara says. “There has always been conflict between North and South, but things are different now with the Tuareg rebels and the Islamic extremists. Like many Tuaregs I’m just watching the situation, because it’s so difficult to understand what the future holds.”

28-year-old guitarist Sanou is part of the next generation of Mali’s desert bluesmen. He was born into this music and learned to play when he was a child. Now that playing guitar is forbidden in his homeland, he lives in Europe and Canada when he’s not on tour. When I asked him if exile is a choice, he noted his limited options.

“It’s a choice because my life is as a musician,” he says, “With the current strict Islamic laws there is no way to live in Mali today.”

When I asked him if he wants to return to Mali one day, he said of course.

The UN Security Council has approved the idea of an African-led force to help Mali’s army defeat the Islamists in the north. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has been pressing neighboring Algeria to take a central role. But at this point, it’s unlikely that Sanou will go home anytime soon.

This year’s edition of WOMEX (the World Music Expo) brought musicians and delegates from all corners of the globe to Thessaloniki, Greece. The immense Greek financial troubles served as a backdrop to the conference, and on the first full day of festivities the seaside city ground to a halt for a 24 hour general strike. But inside the walls of the conference center the show went on, and five stages played host to musical riches from near and far.

Tsuumi Sound System from Finland, performing at WOMEX 2012. (Photo: Mirissa Neff)

For more info about any of WOMEX’s showcasing artists, or to learn about next year’s edition (to be held in Cardiff, Wales), go to: womex.com

The crowd at Desilicious (Photo: Mirissa Neff)

Earlier during the summer I made my way to Dekalb Market, a quasi pop-up market on the edge of downtown Brooklyn. The market’s infrastructure consists of colorful shipping containers, stacked on top of one another, housing shops and eateries … imagine a life-size Lego-land for Brooklyn’s stylish epicurean set. That eve the market hosted the first outdoor edition of Desilicious, a gay-friendly club night that celebrates South Asian culture and music.

The party started about ten years ago in a small club in Chelsea. According to founder Atif Toor, Desilicious’ organizers and DJs were club kids who came together with the purpose of integrating Bollywood and pop music with house music. Part of the impetus to create the event came from a sense of need in the wake of 9/11. Says Toor, “It was a time when people were feeling a little bit marginalized and not necessarily safe in their community, so it was moment to come together and celebrate being who you are.”

The Dekalb edition of Desilicious coincided with the 65th anniversary of Pakistan and India’s independence, as well as the birthday of late Pakistani pop idol Nazia Hassan. While DJ-ing the opening set, Toor made sure to work in some of Hassan’s tracks, saying “She really brought pop music into Pakistan with this one song called “Disco Deewane” that kind of set the country on fire.”

After Toor, resident DJ Ashu Rai took over the decks. While the sun was still out at the main ones parking on the dance floor were under the age of five, but as darkness fell the older club kids showed up en masse. Several circles of dancers opened up under the glow of a Bollywood film being projected onto a white shipping container. Ashu Rai kept the party going and though she keeps her sets varied, she imparted five songs that she can “always depend upon to pack the dance floor.”

DJ Ashu Rai’s Top 5 Desilicious Songs
A remixed version of Jawani Janeman - from the movie “Namak Halaal”

Aaja Nachle – from the movie “Aaja Nachle”

Disco Wale Khisko – from the movie “Dil Bol Hadippa”

Dholna – sung by Shubha Mudgal

Aap Jaise Koi – sung by Nazia Hassan

Buraka Som Sistema hails from the suburbs of Lisbon, an area that’s heavily populated with African immigrants. The name of the group translates to mean “Buraka Sound System”.

“Buraka is an area in the suburbs of Lisbon where some of us grew up,” said Joao Barbosa, the band’s founding member. “It had an interesting connotation with all the African immigrants. What we were doing was so based in Lisbon that it made sense to have that geographical connection on the name.”

The mix of African and European influences in the band’s hometown is reflected in its music. And it recalls the origins of Angolan kuduro in the 1980s. Back then music producers in Luanda began forming their own club beats, inspired by dance music from the West. But the technology they had was far from cutting edge. So they combined African rhythms with dated PC samples to create the burgeoning kuduro sound.

The members of Buraka Som Sistema grew up listening to kuduro on Portuguese radio. In 2006 they started a DJ collective focused on re-editing classic kuduro tracks. Soon they landed a gig at a club in Lisbon. As Barbosa tells it, things caught on pretty quickly.

“From that night it became kinda big,” Barbosa said. “It’s like everyone could identify themselves in what we were doing, like everyone that was our age. We did four nights and then the club got shut down by the police. At the end of those four nights we were like, ‘okay what are we going to do with this?’ And it sort of, from there it became a band.”

Another member of the band MC Kalaf Angelo was born in Angola. When asked how their music fits into the larger history of Portugal’s colonial relationship with his home country, Angelo says that for young people in today’s Lisbon, regardless of their roots, the question is moot.

“I think for our generation it’s just a question of living, the same way Angolan kids got influenced on Portuguese hip hop or the other way around, there’s always this idea that between the younger generations those questions kind of fade out,” Angelo said.

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The free outdoor festival wasn’t categorically punk, and the music slate reflected a wide palette of styles: from the electro pop of Body Language, to the fiery folk of Toshi Reagon, to the art house rock of headliners TV On The Radio. 

What was perhaps most refreshing was the seamlessness of it all. One moment that felt particularly emblematic was when DJ E.Z. Mo Breezy of Grits & Biscuits transitioned from Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” to Waka Flocka Flame’s “Hard in Da Paint” for a crowd that was equally enraptured by both songs. 

I got to chat with festival founder Matthew Morgan and when asked what “Afro-Punk” means to him he summed it up with one word, “Freedom”. He went on to say that though last year’s cancellation was really discouraging, he’s got plans to bring the Afro-Punk brand to other US cities, and has big ideas in store for the 10 year anniversary… namely getting folks like Prince and Grace Jones on board.

Other highlights were Alice Smith‘s modern soul, Sinkane’s Afro-pop rock (more on him to come), and Reggie Watts‘ innovative, stream-of-consciousness compositions.

But the queen of the festival was undoubtedly headliner Janelle Monae. One of the hardest working women in the business, Monae entered the stage donning stilts and proceeded to tear the roof off the stage with her fearless vocals and serious dance moves. 

I’ve seen Monae before and she’s never disappointed, but her Afro-Punk set seemed especially inspired. In the lead up to her hit “Cold War” she relayed her feelings to the crowd, saying “There was a time when I felt insecure. I felt very alone because I didn’t see anyone else who looked like me. I dedicate this song to anyone who’s having issues accepting themselves for what they look like, for who they love, the color or texture of their hair, because I know that sometimes life can be a cold, cold war.”

El Gavachillo (Los Angeles): “Banda is the music of Los Angeles right now.”

A few weeks ago I caught El Gavachillo y Banda Viento de Oro at Lincoln Center’s Out of Doors Festival. They were the opening act for Colombia’s Ondatropica and played the brass-laden, polka-heavy, irrepressibly bouncy music from Mexico.

El Gavachillo is the alter-ego of Wil “Wil-Dog” Abers, who’s best known as the bass player for Angeleno Latin-alternative rock band Ozomatli. I interviewed him last year for PBS’s Quick Hits, where we talked about their US State Department-sponsored tours and the band’s 15th anniversary. At Lincoln Center Abers’ Gavachillo persona had machismo to spare. I was especially intrigued when he mentioned in the middle of the set that, “Banda is the music of Los Angeles right now.”

After the show he told me more about what he meant by that statement: “If you go to the working class neighborhoods, this is the music that you hear.

All the albums are being made in LA, all the best musicians are in LA, it’s like the new Hollywood for banda music is LA. The particular style that people want to hear it’s Sinaloaense, which is from Sinaloa, but it’s changing. These kids grew up listening to Tupac, and they play banda. So there’s a feel in there that’s different.”

He wasn’t always a fan of the banda sound, but a high school girlfriend made a convert out of him.

“I hated it prior to that,” says Abers. “So I went to a show and saw a banda do it, and I was so inspired. You know it takes a whole community to create this sound. Tonight I only had 11 [players]… but when I’m in LA I play with 17.”

According to Abers, even though he’s been into banda since high school, performing it was completely unplanned. Ozomatli had hired a banda to back them at a Hollywood Bowl gig. During a rehearsal, Abers started singing some banda standards, “I would sing them and these guys were tripping out that I knew all these songs. At the after party to the show the banda shows up and they’re like ‘We want to play,’ but I’m like ‘Who’s going to sing?’ and they’re like ‘You have to sing!’… So I sang a 45 minute set at this after party and it just started snowballing from there.”

Oscar Noriega of Banda de Los Muertos (New York): “When I left home I thought I’d never hear this music anymore.”

Banda is beginning to make a splash in New York as well. I spoke with brass players Jacob Garchik and Oscar Noriega of Banda de los Muertos. Garchik grew up in San Francisco and Noriega grew up in Tucson, both cities with vibrant and established Mexican communities. New York hasn’t historically had a strong Mexican-American presence, but that’s changing. Even though Garchik says it’s still challenging to find a good burrito in the Big Apple, in recent years Mexican-Americans have accounted for the metropolis’ fastest growing ethnic group.

A Mexican neighborhood (Sunset Park) has popped up next to long-gentrified Park Slope, a hamlet infamous for its stroller wars and a controversial food coop.

Similar to Abers, Noriega recalled an earlier dislike of banda, as well as a subsequent redemption.

“I grew up listening to it, my father played it all the time. When I was younger I didn’t like the music … when he would play it in the car I would roll the window up and sink down in my chair so my friends wouldn’t see me. When I left home I thought I’d never hear this music anymore, but when I was playing with Slavic Soul Party, Jacob brought in a banda tune … It was exciting to be playing this music with my friends.”

When Garchik and Noriega formed Banda de los Muertos, there weren’t any bandas in New York. They’ve since turned the experiment into a monthly Saturday night party at Park Slope club Barbes. As Noriega explains, their fan base continues to expand, “There are more and more Mexicans coming. It’s a good feeling that they’re coming out to hear banda and are exited about it along with the people from Park Slope.”

Even audience members who have no idea what they’re hearing can’t help but get swept up in the excitement, says Noriega, “Sometimes we’ll get people coming up to us asking ‘What is this music? What country is it from?’ but they just finished dancing to it, jumping up and down, swinging each other around. It’s a good feeling because it just goes across the board.”

Dranoff is known for the influence he’s had in bridging the gap between new sounds coming out of Brazil and the rest of the world, most visibly through his work as a founder of the music label Ziriguiboom as well as a producer for the Red Hot Organization. This year he was brought in as a guest curator (and sometimes DJ) for Brasil Summerfest, and his mark was all over the event’s slate.

In the late 80s Dranoff moved to New York from Brazil. He points to a brief interaction with Gilberto Gil prior to leaving São Paulo, as a catalyst for what was to come in the US.

After years of tour managing artists like Gil and Caetano Veloso, a conversation began between Dranoff and Marc Hollander, the head of Belgian label Crammed Discs. Together they formed a new imprint called Ziriguiboom, and their first release was Bossacucanova’s “Revisited Classics” in 1998.

Surprisingly it was rapper Marcelo D2 (then of Planet Hemp) who initially turned Dranoff onto Bossacucanova and helped plant the seed for the influential label to take off.

From there artists like Bebel Gilberto, Suba, Trio Mocoto, and Zuco 103 joined the imprint, and in particular Gilberto’s album Tanto Tempo took the world by storm… there was a period in the late 1990s and early 2000s where it was rare to enter a cafe without hearing the albums dreamy refrains.

The artists that Ziriguiboom released shaped a new era of Brazilian music, and according to Dranoff the label was at the right place at the right time. He points to having bases in New York, Brussels, and partnering with San Francisco’s Six Degrees Records, as giving the label a unique advantage.

“The 90s was a time of evolution in modern Brazilian music,” says Dranoff. “There was the whole Recife mangue beat thing, the Chico Science effect… and people discovered electronics. When we started the label [we wanted] to see if we could create a really cool Brazilian label with an international flavor, because of these three bases that we had. Luckily it worked and was a dream come true…”

These days Dranoff admits to being a bit spun around by how quickly things move in the industry. “The whole music/information process is so fast now. I think it’s good, I just hope it’s not so fast that we don’t have time to enjoy the music.”

He points to one of Brasil Summerfest’s breakout stars, Mallu, as a prime example of what’s happening in the industry today.

“Mallu is an interesting case… she basically launched on Myspace when she was 14, I believe? She self-produced and self-recorded four songs, put them up on her Myspace page, and the next thing we know she has like 400,000 hits. It went like wildfire. She’s really a product of this generation of how to use the internet to spread your art. She’s still only 19 and has 3 albums, can you imagine? I think she’s going to have a huge career,” Dranoff says.

Dranoff is already looking towards next year’s installment of Brasil Summerfest and is harboring plans for a parallel Brazilian music film festival. A few years ago he co-produced a documentary called Beyond Ipanema, and described the project to me as an overview of how Brazilian music reached the world, first with Carmen Miranda.

“The movie depicts this evolution from Carmen, to Bossa Nova, to the 80s, to the 90s, to DJ culture, to acid jazz, to today where we have really global stars like Seu Jorge, and Bebel, and CSS, and how it’s less about being Brazilian or being regional and much more about being global. And Brazilian culture was always global because we are African, we are Indian, we are European, we are a super unique example of mixed up cultures.”

Up next for Dranoff is a Brazilian TV series based on the documentary, which is in production and set to premiere next year.

The next installment of Summer in the Global Village will bring banda to the fore. Stay tuned.

Yet it came as somewhat of a surprise when his music became identified with a murder that sent shockwaves through the South American country.

Anwandter tells the story.

“What happened is that earlier this year in March this kid called Daniel Zamudio, he was a victim of torture and actually died eventually, by some neo-Nazis who attacked him because he was gay. I won’t go into the details of what they did to him because it’s like really horrible, but it was horrible enough to shake up my country in regards with the environment of discrimination we live in.”

The brutal murder spurred a media frenzy.

In the midst of it, the victim’s family spoke about how Anwandter had been Zamudio’s favorite artist.

They played his music at the widely covered funeral and urged him to continue speaking out against homophobia in Chile.

The experience inspired Anwandter to create a music video that was a tribute to Jennie Livingston’s 1990 documentary about New York’s queer subculture, “Paris is Burning”.

“My idea was that we in Chile don’t have an equivalent of Paris is Burning. We are that far behind. Like people do not accept any type of diversity, nor do they get to actually see diversity. So my intention was to show, if you wish, sexual minorities or diversity in a very beautiful light,” Anwandter explains.

The final result is the video to his song “Como Puedes Vivir Contigo Mismo”.

When asked whether he now calls himself an activist, Anwandter isn’t so sure at first.

But then he says, “I’ve been a bit surprised now reading press releases or stuff calling me “singer and activist.” I’m like what? I’m an activist? But I guess, I’m fine with it. When I found out that my visibility could actually help get a message across, I felt comfortable with that. So yeah, I guess I’m an activist. A closeted activist.”

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After a stellar kick-off that introduced Sao Paulo’s Criolo to a new set of stateside fans, Brasil Summerfest continued to bring in acts from all corners of Brazil’s lush musical landscape.

The next show I tried to see was Quarteto Olinda at Joe’s Pub, but I arrived just as they were hitting their last notes. I got to watch avant MPB guitarist and singer Pedro Moraes do his thing… and the next night rushed over to Brooklyn’s Barbes to catch Quarteto Olinda’s last NYC set.

It was raining cats and dogs, but as I went into Barbes’ back performance room and I was greeted by a room full of sweaty couples spinning to the quartet’s “forro de rabeca.” Forro, the endearing, hokey, country music of Northeast Brazil, has become an obsession in New York City over the past few years.

The craze can be traced back to an informal, birthday party jam session during which the band Forro in the Dark was formed. The group mounted a Wednesday night residency at East Village staple Nublu and in doing so popularized the style thousands of miles north of its home in Brazil’s Pernambuco state. Other forro nights have since popped up and recently the New York Times did a wrap-up piece on the scene.

Hailing from Recife, Quarteto Olinda sets their music apart from the rest of the forro-sphere by centralizing the fiddle-like rabeca instrument rather than the more conventional accordion. Their manager Paulo Andre Pires explained the uniqueness of the instrument as well as offering perspectives on the latest musical happenings on Pernambuco.

He’s played an integral role in Recife’s music scene dating back to the groundbreaking mangue beat movement in the early 1990s and now organizes two festivals aimed at showcasing the richness of his hometown’s soundscape: Porto Musical and Abril Pro Rock.

A few weeks prior to Quarteto Olinda’s appearance at Brasil Summerfest they backed some of the mestres (or old guard) of forro at Lincoln Center’s Midsummer Night Swing. The night was a tribute to the much beloved King of Forro, Luiz Gonzaga, and NYC’s forro faithful came out in spades to show off their moves on the huge, open-air dance floor.

Mestres of Forro and Quarteto Olinda at Lincoln Center (Photo: Mirissa Neff)

Speaking of Gonzaga I just came across this great video featuring him, in full Nordestino regalia, playing the forro anthem “Asa Branca” along with a veritable who’s who of 1970s Brazilian hitmakers.

After dancing in what felt like a sweatlodge at Barbes, I spent the next few days checking out a few more shows to close out Brasil Summerfest. The first was a lovely set by Sao Paulo chantuese Luisa Maita at the City Winery. Later in the week Mallu played a highly anticipated show at MOMA. It was the 19-year-old ingenue’s first NYC performance and a long line of people hoping to catch the show were turned away from the sold-out theater. Keep an eye out for more on her soon.

I also caught a last-minute set by Sergio Dias, of Brazilian psychedelic supergroup Os Mutantes, at Lincoln Center’s Out of Doors festival. Unforeseen circumstances prevented the full band from playing their scheduled show, but Dias made sure to play all the band’s favorites, while donning an extra large sombrero… perhaps to compensate for having to fly solo?

Finally Recife’s DJ Dolores played one of the final shows of the festival at Drom in the East Village. He’s been an integral figure in modernizing the Nordestino sound, by mixing its rhythms with electronica and making them accessible to a new generation.

Up next for Summer in the Global Village: A rooftop hangout with Brazilian music impresario Beco Dranoff.

The first concert of the festival was a blowout at Summerstage. The queue to enter the concert stretched deep into Central Park, and lilting Portuguese chatter filled the air. As I arrived Dranoff was DJing and Criolo was about to take the stage. One of the clear breakout stars of the festival, Criolo’s unflinching lyrics about the hardships of life in the favelas and his classic hip-hop flow have struck a chord in Brazil, and the word has spread to stateside Brazilophiles.

During the early part of the show Criolo was a somewhat demurring MC, allowing his sidekick Dan Dan to pogo around the stage. The set ranged from MPB, to forro, to a horn-heavy afrobeat track, but as he launched into his hit “Não Existe Amor em SP” (Love doesn’t exist in São Paulo), things really started cooking. The rapt crowd couldn’t help but sing along. Here’s an excerpt:

All in all it was a great set that the crowd welcomed with open arms. As I chatted with Criolo after the show it was clear that for him the experience of playing New York for the first time had been deeply emotional. Stay on the lookout for a longer feature at a later date.

Bebel Gilberto performs at Brasil Summerfest 2012 (Photo: Mirissa Neff)

Bebel Gilberto closed out the day with her trademark dreamy electro bossa. Her band was almost completely comprised of members of Forro in the Dark, NYC’s premiere purveyors of Northeast Brazil’s irresistible rhythms.

The next installment of Summer in the Global Village will delve a bit more into Brasil Summerfest with a focus on “forro de rabeca.”

As people filtered in the rain really started coming down and a field of umbrellas bloomed on the green. Haitian singer-songwriter BélO took the stage and warmed the crowd up with a soulful performance heavily steeped in reggae hooks.

As BélO’s set progressed the umbrellas began to close and by the time Montano’s dancers marched onto the stage it felt like a late-February night in Port of Spain. The crowd, dominated by members of Brooklyn’s vast West Indian community, was showing its true colors… with a sea of waving flags. Flags of every color from every island were in the air, even flags instructing “pump your flag”.

To be honest I have yet to attend carnival in Trinidad, but there seemed to be a taste of it in Brooklyn that night. As Montano set foot on stage a unique surge of excitement was palpable and the spectacle of his show mixed with an electric brand of soca left me wanting to pump flags with everyone else.

Alas I was working and had to pump my camera from the pit instead. It was a particularly thrilling vantage point being sandwiched between Montano, his dancers, and the audience (aside from a dicey moment when it seemed the barricades might not contain the crowd’s excitement).

Montano’s been a star on the soca circuit since childhood and is well versed on how to work a crowd. His songs have been the hits of many a carnival, and for years he’s flown up on Labor Day to take part in Brooklyn’s West Indian Carnival.

This year is no exception and I had the chance to chat with Montano earlier in the day about his perspectives on the celebration, and what he expects this year. At one point he sweetly expressed a longing for days past when the parade route had a bit more flexibility and wasn’t limited to Eastern Parkway.

Later this summer I plan to follow up on the Labor Day Carnival preparations so stay tuned.

The crowd at Machel Montano's Celebrate Brooklyn show. (Photo: Mirissa Neff)

Up next in Summer in the Global Village: Brasil Summerfest.

The final few days at the 2012 Latin Alternative Music Conference were filled with free outdoor shows. The last nighttime event was the Calle 13, Ana Tijoux, and Ritmo Machine show at Celebrate Brooklyn. Thousands of people were turned away at the gate and had to watch from behind the perimeter fence. Calle 13′s Nuyorican fanbase was out in full effect as evidenced by the flags being waved… not just the US-sanctioned star and bars, but many Lares nationalist flags as well. The group’s driving reggaeton and hip hop sound is guided by frontman Residente and vocalist/sister PG-13, and the Brooklyn crowd couldn’t get enough.

Early the next day I sat down with Mexico’s Kinky… one of the most successful “Latin Alternative” acts around. When their first album dropped back in 2002 several tracks were immediately licensed for commercial use (a ubiquitous Nissan commercial being the most prevalent example). Though that wasn’t a new phenomenon, what was new was that it was a Spanish-language act getting that kind of visibility in the mainstream US market.

We talked at length about what they’re up to these days and the unusual path their career has taken over the years. Have a look at the video I produced using footage from our interview, their Summerstage show, and tracks from their latest album “Sueño de la Maquina.”

The conference ended with a blowout show back at Central Park’s Summerstage. As I walked in Argentina’s old guard ska-punk outfit Los Autenticos Decadentes was in full swing. The mosh pit swirled into a frenzy as they launched into their hit “La Guitarra” and the temperatures soared alongside the chants of a crowd shouting along with every lyric.

Kinky took the stage for the final LAMC showcase. They mentioned in our chat that they’d recently been spending most of their time in Mexico, so NYC fans expecting the full Kinky experience were not disappointed. Their formula of electronic beats mixed with catchy pop hooks works well and even older hits still sound fresh. One of their new tracks “Negro Día,” is a collaboration with fellow LAMC artist Mala Rodriguez, in which her hard edged femininity complements their grit. A clip from the song’s neo-psychedelic video appears with our interview, so have a look.

Up next for Summer in the Global Village: Carnaval arrives early in Brooklyn.