There's no better place to celebrate world music at a crossroads than at the annual Heineken TransAtlantic Festival in Miami Beach. Created by the Rhythm Foundation, Miami's leading world music presenter, and now in its eighth year, the festival has put Miami on the map as a venerable world music epicenter. This year's lineup drives that message home, featuring acts that reflect a city that has gone from being the gateway to Latin America to being at the center of a whole new generation of global music and sonic cross-pollination. For two days, April 9 and 24, the North Beach Bandshell will become a microcosm of music that reflects the city's eclectic soul and cultural cross-currents. One of Nacional Records' most explosive live acts, Colombian outfit Bomba Estéreo will take the stage this year, as will Brazil's Orquestra Contemporanea de Olinda, Malian guitarist Vieux Farka Touré, and Miami's locally-bred Locos Por Juana.
Bomba Estéreo processes cumbia and champeta through a dance-fusion filter of electronic dub and hip-hop. From Brazil's northeastern state of Pernambuco, the Orquestra Contemporanea de Olinda, nominated for a Latin Grammy for best tropical Brazilian roots album in 2009, make their U.S. tour debut this spring, with stops in Austin's SXSW and the Lincoln Center. Comprised of young musicians who are carrying the torch of the late, great mangue beat master Chico Science, OCO's musical mayhem is a groove-fueled fusion of frevo and forro with drum-n-bass, rock and world rhythms. Vieux Farka Touré, the son of the late, great Malian desert blues guitarist Ali Farka Touré, presents his own unconventional brew; a musical landscape where everything from jam band music to Jamaican dub is anchored by western Saharan roots. For their part, the two-time, Latin Grammy-nominated Locos Por Juana embody the polyrhythmic hybridity of the city that's nurtured them. There's is a funky, pan-Latin amalgam of rock-steady beats, laid-back reggae grooves punctuated by biting social commentary and spitfire raps backed by brass-fueled solos.
1. Sounds awesome!
Posted at 4:11PM on Mar 15th 2010 by Jen