Art is always about reinvention, about taking the elements of the past and reimagining them. In today’s vast network of ideas, sounds, and media, the way new life and energy comes to older artistic forms is in flux--and in the hands of young artists worldwide.

OneBeat, a public-private cultural diplomacy initiative of the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and Bang on a Can’s Found Sound Nation, is bringing together 25 young and adventurous musicians from 17 countries September 20 to October 23, 2017 to explore how the arts can renew and restore perspectives, spaces, and societies. OneBeat takes inspiration from its residency and performance partners, from Caldera in Central Oregon to the Music District of Fort Collins, Colorado.

This year’s fellows include South African vocalist Nonku Phiri; Aisaana Omorova, a komuz (traditional three-stringed strummed instrument) player from Kyrgyzstan; Chicago-based producer Elijah Jamal; and Belorussian producer and singer Natalia Kuznetskaya.

The program kicks off with an in-depth two and half week residency at the Caldera Arts Center in central Oregon to encourage fellows to create musical events for specific spaces, sites and communities on the road that go beyond the typical concert tour. The events could be performance-, workshop- and/or installation-based, but they will all embody the spirit of creative collaboration and of music as social practice. It continues with stops in Idaho (in partnership with Treefort Music Fest and the City of Boise), Wyoming (in partnership with Jackson’s KHOL radio), and Colorado, concluding in a series of special events coordinated with Ft. Collins’ bustling local scene.

“This project, and ones like it, are part of the zeitgeist of cultural connections - egalitarian, peer-driven exchanges that forge new musical genres, and allow for new socially engaged artistic practice that serves both cross-cultural understanding and the health of local communities,” explains Jeremy Thal of Found Sound Nation/OneBeat. “OneBeat is an incredible mechanism for the proliferation of deep listening, the contagion of funky rhythm. It’s a rare international space where there is no competition, no graduation ceremony, no negotiation of territory — but rather an open forum for the bright light of the human creative consciousness to shine through one another.”

OneBeat uses person-to-person interaction, improvisation, and collaboration to encourage and refresh international ties between Americans, American artists, and creative minds from all over. It’s a grassroots way to build a different kind of diplomatic dialogue that deepens trust, builds networks,  and creates opportunities that promote entrepreneurship and creative leaders.

“There is so much talk fueled by fear and anger these days, delivered incessantly through our phones, laptops, televisions. It’s imperative to counter these narratives, and to me that means interacting with people face to face, trying our best to connect in deeply honest, sometimes challenging ways,” says Found Sound Nation’s Elena Moon Park. “The process of collaboratively creating original music and art does this — it necessitates dialogue and compromise, listening and sharing, vulnerability and humility.”

The arts create opportunities and can also build community resources, boosting economic activity and the social environment. OneBeat will offer fellows tools to address this side of art-making, by holding business and development masterclasses with experts from industry-leading services like Apple Music and Kickstarter.

Since its inaugural year in 2012, OneBeat has invited 140 musicians from 41 countries and territories to the U.S., visited 26 U.S. communities in 14 states, produced 75 free and low-cost public performances for more than 25,000 people in the United States, and collaborated with over 5,500 students, teachers, and leaders in U.S. schools and community organizations.

“Only by listening and sharing the stories of real humans can we grow as individuals and as a society. Bringing together voices from around the globe to express themselves creatively is a means of celebrating human potential and of voicing human struggle and joy,” muses Park. “Such celebration, the kind we try to foster via OneBeat, is urgently needed right now, to break through the noise of divisiveness and fear.”

What if Ludovico Einaudi was the resident composer on the Starship Enterprise? What if an entire song revolved around a cozy cup of hot coffee, as an entire South Asian city hums around you? Or around the heartache that climate change is poised to wreck on us all?

Chennai-born, New York-based violinist, vocalist, and composer Harini Raghavan spins quirky speculation into grooves and expansive melodies. She draws on her decades of Carnatic music training and her years at Berklee, shifting South Asian classical elements toward pop and jazz sensibilities in a refreshing, organic way. Using Ableton Live to expand the possibilities of her instruments, Raghavan and her band RINI mix the meditative and the funky, the technical and the catchy on Maya. (release: December 8, 2017)

Raghavan’s grandmother urged her and her siblings to study Carnatic music. After taking classes for a time, she found her guru. She adored lessons, feeling increasingly connected to the rich repertoire and technically demanding artform. “I felt spiritually connected. It really centered me,” Raghavan recalls. “I love the technical stuff, but that wasn’t what I thought about then. It was more about what I felt. Singing was one of the most important moments in my day. That was something that made me feel I should just keep going.”

She applied her passion for singing to all sorts of other music, from the American pop ballads she heard on the radio to favorite Bollywood songs she sang as part of school performances. Through the eclectic world of Bollywood compositions, Raghavan caught elements of jazz, blues, and other styles that intrigued her.

As she performed in Chennai, however, she realized something was missing: “After a point, I didn’t feel complete. I was learning songs and singing and playing, but I had this deeper connection to what I was listening. I felt like I could create something. I wanted to develop the skills where I could start composing. I wanted to meet people from all over, hear their stories and learn how they put everything together.”

That quest eventually took her to Berklee in Boston, where she specialized in electronic music. “Toward the end of my time there, I formed RINI,” she recounts. “That was the first time I put a band together, and from our first performance, I loved it.” She had gotten her wish: to explore musical expression with a multicultural group of talented musicians. “The band is comprised of people from all over, from Luxembourg to Indonesia. It was amazing to share the music with them, to create with them.

This spirit of sharing frames Raghavan’s experiments and experience in electronic production, sounds that are front and center on much of Maya. “I love the textures and love how it blends with Indian elements,” says Raghavan. “I use Ableton and lots of loops, as well as sing and play and conduct the band.”

Raghavan moved to New York, where she kept playing and kept the band together. She wrote songs, some fanciful (“Warp 9,” an homage to Star Trek and the restrained drama of Einaudi’s work) and fun (a Tamil lullaby-inspired song to soothe Raghavan’s hyperactive puppy, “Lullaby”), and some serious conceptual explorations that looked at science and belief, at devotion and reason.

Inspired by a talk by writer Amitabh Ghosh, “Maya” reflects the delusion that all is well and the starkly contrasting reality of the threat of climate change, painting two sonic pictures with a tip of the hat to Beats Antique. “The Red Moon,” a modal piece based on a classical raag, incorporates mantras chanted during solar eclipses, asking listeners to reflect on our susceptibility to misreading cosmic phenomena in limited human terms. She also paid tribute to her hometown, capturing the pleasures of a strong cup of coffee during the classical music season on “Filter Kapi,” a tribute to Chennai’s favorite drink.

Raghavan liked what she was crafting, but wasn’t sure when she would feel ready to record an album. Then the country experienced a peculiar political moment in early November 2016. The urgency increased for Raghavan. “I kept thinking about everything that affects us, from the stupidity of our newsfeeds to the challenges of our religious beliefs,” she reflects. “We need to look to the future and work backward. We need to stop focusing on petty things. That’s what I wanted to shout to the world. I had so many tracks. It was time, I decided.”

She forged ahead, creating music as multilayered as her intellectual influences and nuanced emotions, thanks to RINI. With her bandmates (many of them fellow Berklee alums), “We put Indian music in a global context,” she muses. “It feels like the right place to be.”

“The world is ready for this,” says Tina Turner. “The world is feeling this depression. The first thing we think of is prayer, something beyond presidents and preachers.”

Turner lends her voice to Awakening Beyond (release: November 24, 2017), a project that embraces spiritual insights from around the world. Women from six different backgrounds and traditions--the US, Israel, Syria, Nepal, Switzerland, and India--raise their voices, finding that unitary resonance meant to lift us out of our everyday trials, toward something greater. “When we pray, we’re all sending it in the same direction,” Turner reflects. “I believe that that fusion can help change the world.”

The project has its roots in an early morning ritual nearly a decade ago, when Swiss vocalist and co-founder of the Beyond Foundation Regula Curti had a flash of enlightenment as the sun rose, an intense sense of presence, of the glory of being alive. She longed to share this moment with everyone she could. “I wanted to bring music to the world, to help other people have that same experience,” she recounts, “the experience of being fully alive, of having the strength to change something in their lives. To feel fully connected to the world, with love and with acceptance.” This longing inspired Curti to create a series of projects that used music and recitation to transformative ends. The first album was blessed by the Dalai Lama.

Awakening Beyond, the fourth album the Beyond Foundation has created, strives to spark this transformation by gathering women’s voices and supporting them with a lush orchestral score composed by Syrian-American composer Kareem Roustom, performed with exquisite feeling and precision by the Philharmonia London Orchestra. The palette is expanded by resonant traditional instruments from each region the vocalists represent, as well as thoughtfully employed electronics.

Yet the heart of the double album flows from the singers. Each vocalist brings something unique to Awakening, from an Arabic plea to God for rain in a time of desperate drought, a lullaby born in Spain but carried to Israel. The songs, poems, and prayers are deliberately chosen to reflect the healing and calming practices that vary yet harmonize across cultures. “The bigger picture was always to unite five important cultures,” explains Curti. “For several of the tracks, we focused on Asia and turned to [Nepali singer] Ani Choying’s healing voice. Of course, I knew we needed an Indian voice because of the healing quality of mantras and invited Sawani [Shende Sathaye], who learned mantras and songs from her grandmother.”

Many of the pieces are energetic and uplifting, yet the album’s conclusion, entwining the voices and languages into an expansive meditation, brings the listener into a place of contemplation and rest. The variety points to the many facets of music’s spiritual power. “Music can work wonders,” muses Sathaye. “It has meditative values and it can bring peace to those in trouble or in illness.”

The link between music, healing, and spiritual change is one Curti and Turner have been exploring for years. Curti, with her husband Beat, created the Beyond Foundation as a vehicle for promoting a more unified world, free from the dividing principles of culture, faith, and nation. This album is the latest in their ongoing efforts to increase dialogue, respect, and engagement via education and creative projects.

Turner feels equally strongly that it’s time for us to all move beyond the division, into greater spiritual connection and mutual recognition. She puts it in deeply personal terms: “I’ve had bad times, as we all have, though I hope it doesn’t show,” smiles Turner. “But now the good times are here and I’ve made the decision to go beyond and I would like to take as many people with me as possible.”

Mi Mundo introduces a shining new star on the world music firmament. This is the solo debut of Brenda Navarrete, a Cuban-based singer, songwriter, percussionist and bandleader of rare skill and musical originality.

She has previously made an impact singing in the internationally-acclaimed Cuban group Interactivo, performing at clubs and festivals in the U.S. and Canada, but she now takes a giant creative leap forward with Mi Mundo. Set for worldwide release on ALMA Records 2-16-18, the album was recorded in Havana with producer Peter Cardinali (ALMA’s founder), award-winning engineer John “Beetle” Bailey, and an all-star cast of Cuban instrumentalists.

“Being able to record Mi Mundo in Havana is a dream come true,” Brenda explains. “Havana is where I was born. Cuba is my country, my homeland, and having the opportunity to record here with musicians who know me and who understand my musical style is amazing. The energy of Cuba and Havana is very important to me, and I think that we have captured that force on this album”.

The stylistically eclectic album features a variety of group settings, with the primary instruments consisting of drums, piano, electric bass and percussion, including batá and congas played by Navarrete. Renowned special guests include Horacio ‘El Negro’ Hernandez, Rodney Barreto and Jose Carlos on drums, Roberto Carcasses, Rolando Luna and Leonardo Ledesman on piano, Alain Perez on bass (he also arranged several of the songs and wrote “Taita Bilongo”), Adonis Panter on quinto and Eduardo Sandoval on trombone.

Brenda’s initial musical reputation centered on her ability as a percussionist, on batá, but it is her warm and fluent voice and songwriting ability that take centre stage on Mi Mundo. Four of her original compositions appear on Mi Mundo, including “A Ochun.” “That song is very special to me,” says Brenda. “It was my first composition and one of my first recordings. Ochun is the goddess of love and it’s a song that I wrote while sitting on the bank of a river, where Ochun is said to live. Most of the song came out that first day and I finished the arrangement at home and dedicated it to her when it was recorded.

A genuine highlight on an album devoid of lowlights, “A Ochun” is a dynamic and delightful treat that begins with percussion and call and response vocals, which then fade away in favour of gentle piano and flute stylings.

Navarrete describes Mi Mundo as “a World Music record, with an Afro-Cuban flavour. I chose that title because this is a reflection of my musical world. I have a tremendous range of influences, having grown up in a very musical environment.

“When I was a little girl, my sister and I loved to listen to jazz greats like Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday. I also gravitated to artists like Nat King Cole, John Coltrane, Bobby McFerrin, Miles Davis, Yellow Jackets and Cassandra Wilson, but also BoyzII Men and Take 6. My home environment also featured music from great Cuban artists like Cecilia Cruz, Benny More and Celeste Mendoza.

“All those artists and musical styles have contributed to my musical growth since I was a child. All of that energy and the different rhythms, colours and styles of Afro-Cuban, Latin Jazz and World Music have inspired me as a composer. I adore Cuban music, and mixing all of those styles together with traditional Cuban music is powerful and exhilarating.”

An example of this original and compelling fusion is “Caravana,” Brenda’s distinctive take on the Duke Ellington classic “Caravan.” “Rumbero Como Yo” is full and powerful, featuring six musicians imparting an intoxicating rumba feel, while “Taita Bilongo” is an infectiously rhythmic number boosted by trumpet and a guest male vocal appearance by the song’s composer, Alain Perez. Another sparkling gem on Mi Mundo is “Anana Oye.” Featuring bubbling bass, rollicking piano, breezy flute, and strong backing vocals and percussion, its seductive melody will transport you to a warm and carefree place.

Navarrete’s formal musical education included studying percussion at the Amadeo Roldán Music Conservatory in Havana. “I was trained in symphonic and Cuban percussion on a variety of instruments, as well as piano,” she recalls. “I also studied the history of universal music, Cuban music and music theory, but learning batá was more of a street classroom experience along the way. As for singing, it was very spontaneous, without any formal training. I just sang what I felt, without ever really wondering whether it was good or bad. It was just what I felt.”

Her skill as a percussionist was confirmed in 2010 when Brenda won the Bata drum competition at the Fiesta del Tambor in Havana, and she was subsequently endorsed by Canadian cymbal-maker, Sabian, as well as the Gon Bops percussion company. She has played on the recordings of many notable Cuban artists, and Brenda recently guested on batá and vocals on Contumbao, the upcoming album from Cuban-Canadian pianist/composer Hilario Duran.

Brenda Navarrete’s focus is now firmly set on Mi Mundo. This beautiful expression of her musical universe is now going out into the world, and it deserves your close attention.

introduces a shining new star on the world music firmament. This is the solo debut of Brenda Navarrete, a Cuban-based singer, songwriter, percussionist and bandleader of rare skill and musical originality.

She has previously made an impact singing in the internationally-acclaimed Cuban group Interactivo, performing at clubs and festivals in the U.S. and Canada, but she now takes a giant creative leap forward with Mi Mundo. Set for worldwide release on ALMA Records in January/18, the album was recorded in Havana with producer Peter Cardinali (ALMA’s founder), award-winning engineer John “Beetle” Bailey, and an all-star cast of Cuban instrumentalists.

“Being able to record Mi Mundo in Havana is a dream come true,” Brenda explains. “Havana is where I was born. Cuba is my country, my homeland, and having the opportunity to record here with musicians who know me and who understand my musical style is amazing. The energy of Cuba and Havana is very important to me, and I think that we have captured that force on this album”.

The stylistically eclectic album features a variety of group settings, with the primary instruments consisting of drums, piano, electric bass and percussion, including batá and congas played by Navarrete. Renowned special guests include Horacio ‘El Negro’ Hernandez, Rodney Barreto and Jose Carlos on drums, Roberto Carcasses, Rolando Luna and Leonardo Ledesman on piano, Alain Perez on bass (he also arranged several of the songs and wrote “Taita Bilongo”), Adonis Panter on quinto and Eduardo Sandoval on trombone.

Brenda’s initial musical reputation centered on her ability as a percussionist, on batá, but it is her warm and fluent voice and songwriting ability that take centre stage on Mi Mundo. Four of her original compositions appear on Mi Mundo, including “A Ochun.” “That song is very special to me,” says Brenda. “It was my first composition and one of my first recordings. Ochun is the goddess of love and it’s a song that I wrote while sitting on the bank of a river, where Ochun is said to live. Most of the song came out that first day and I finished the arrangement at home and dedicated it to her when it was recorded.

A genuine highlight on an album devoid of lowlights, “A Ochun” is a dynamic and delightful treat that begins with percussion and call and response vocals, which then fade away in favour of gentle piano and flute stylings.

Navarrete describes Mi Mundo as “a World Music record, with an Afro-Cuban flavour. I chose that title because this is a reflection of my musical world. I have a tremendous range of influences, having grown up in a very musical environment.

“When I was a little girl, my sister and I loved to listen to jazz greats like Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday. I also gravitated to artists like Nat King Cole, John Coltrane, Bobby McFerrin, Miles Davis, Yellow Jackets and Cassandra Wilson, but also BoyzII Men and Take 6. My home environment also featured music from great Cuban artists like Cecilia Cruz, Benny More and Celeste Mendoza.

“All those artists and musical styles have contributed to my musical growth since I was a child. All of that energy and the different rhythms, colours and styles of Afro-Cuban, Latin Jazz and World Music have inspired me as a composer. I adore Cuban music, and mixing all of those styles together with traditional Cuban music is powerful and exhilarating.”

An example of this original and compelling fusion is “Caravana,” Brenda’s distinctive take on the Duke Ellington classic “Caravan.” “Rumbero Como Yo” is full and powerful, featuring six musicians imparting an intoxicating rumba feel, while “Taita Bilongo” is an infectiously rhythmic number boosted by trumpet and a guest male vocal appearance by the song’s composer, Alain Perez. Another sparkling gem on Mi Mundo is “Anana Oye.” Featuring bubbling bass, rollicking piano, breezy flute, and strong backing vocals and percussion, its seductive melody will transport you to a warm and carefree place.

Navarrete’s formal musical education included studying percussion at the Amadeo Roldán Music Conservatory in Havana. “I was trained in symphonic and Cuban percussion on a variety of instruments, as well as piano,” she recalls. “I also studied the history of universal music, Cuban music and music theory, but learning batá was more of a street classroom experience along the way. As for singing, it was very spontaneous, without any formal training. I just sang what I felt, without ever really wondering whether it was good or bad. It was just what I felt.”

Her skill as a percussionist was confirmed in 2010 when Brenda won the Bata drum competition at the Fiesta del Tambor in Havana, and she was subsequently endorsed by Canadian cymbal-maker, Sabian, as well as the Gon Bops percussion company. She has played on the recordings of many notable Cuban artists, and Brenda recently guested on batá and vocals on Contumbao, the upcoming album from Cuban-Canadian pianist/composer Hilario Duran.

Brenda Navarrete’s focus is now firmly set on Mi Mundo. This beautiful expression of her musical universe is now going out into the world, and it deserves your close attention.

When Taína Asili took a cathartic sledgehammer to a TV playing news clips in the video for her protest anthem “No Es Mi Presidente” (Not My President) people took notice. But Taína wasn’t satisfied: “The video featured important activists from my community, but no one heard their stories.” Taína makes sure those stories will be heard on Resiliencia, her third album (release: April 19, 2019).

Taína Asili, a New York-based Puerto Rican singer, songwriter, activist and filmmaker, has been creating fiercely political music since her teen years. After the 2016 election, a bigger audience has caught up to the artist Huffington Post named one of “12 Freedom Fighting Bands to Get you Through the Trump Years.” That’s when Taína performed at the Women’s March in Washington DC, and her whip-smart protest songs “No Es Mi Presidente” and “Freedom,” inspired by social movements against white supremacy, mass incarceration, and police violence, were lauded by the likes of Rolling Stone and Billboard. The attention Taína Asili has earned is bringing her new opportunities to speak and sing, at conferences like Columbia University’s Beyond the Bars and at venues like Carnegie Hall with Toshi Reagon.

Resiliencia is just as political, but its power springs from personal stories. “I’ve been so inspired by the powerful, resilient stories of women of color in my life and I wanted to lift them up in song.” Taína explains. “Before I started writing songs, I conducted interviews with women from New York and California to Montreal and Puerto Rico.” While Taína met many of these artists and activists through social justice networks, their conversations delved into the common ground of personal experiences with adversity and resilience, from surviving cancer, hurricanes, and domestic violence to the joy of creating art. Taína tapped into the powerful connections she explored in those conversations to write the songs on Resiliencia.

While Resiliencia was taking shape, adversity took on tragic proportions in the form of the devastation wrought by Hurricane Maria. “I had already planned a trip to Puerto Rico, but after the hurricane it became more urgent than ever before to witness and record what happened on the island,” Taína recalls. The album’s title track distills the emotional interviews Taína conducted and her experiences there, channeling anger at U.S. neglect of Puerto Rico’s suffering into a hard rock guitar lick that testifies to Taína’s punk past and adds a defiant edge under the Afro-Latin melody.

Taína’s music draws from the Puerto Rican and Afro-Latin rhythms of her upbringing and from her own artistic journey, which ranges across operatic vocal training, punk rock, and spoken word. Taína confidently shifts and weaves between cumbia, reggaeton, ska, salsa, Afrobeat and rock to give Resiliencia a texture that’s unique yet rooted. With an energetic horn section and infectious rhythms on timbales, drums, and congas, Resiliencia urges people to get on their feet, not only to march for justice, but to dance to the rhythm of rebellion. This movement is a joyful one.

Resiliencia also developed against the backdrop of the burgeoning #MeToo movement, and Taína saw ideas she’d been working with suddenly echoing all over the media. The reggae-inflected track “Even If” had been growing out of Taína’s experiences with women asserting their right to safety and autonomy in a culture that still asks, “what was she wearing?”

Resiliencia is full of women’s stories of the kind that have gone ignored for too long, like “En La Verdad,” a meditation on the power of believing survivors of assault and abuse. If you’ve been looking for a soundtrack to power your own daily acts of resistance, you’ll find it here: rock out to “Beauty Manifested” while you defy white hetero-patriarchal beauty norms, and celebrate establishing healthy boundaries with Taína’s energetic salsa fusion rendition of poet Sussy Santana’s “Decir Que No (To Say No).” Fittingly, this feminist album was mastered by Emily Lazar, who just became the first female engineer to take home the Best Engineered Album Grammy.

To amplify Resiliencia’s stories further, Taína is pairing the songs with ‘music video documentaries’ that blend produced music video with footage Taína filmed of the interviews she conducted. “Resiliencia” and “Plant the Seed” are already racking up views, and more videos will follow throughout the year.

Raised in upstate NY by a musician father and dancer mother who centered Afro-Caribbean music and the importance of cultural reclamation, Taína went on to explore different strands of music, poetry and activism. She played punk rock with bands Anti-Product and Ricanstruction, performed spoken word on the Philadelphia poetry scene, and earned a master’s degree from Goddard College in Transformative Language Arts. After the loss of her parents, Taína brought all she’d learned to a deeper exploration of her family’s musical heritage. On Resiliencia,Taína opens her sonic embrace even wider, welcoming collaborators like DJ Johnny Juice, best known as Public Enemy’s producer, and Veena Chandra, a virtuoso sitar player in her 70s.

Taína has a gift for focusing on the point where the individual stories of the women she’s interviewed intersects both with her own experiences and contemporary social currents. Each song has the specificity of an intimate conversation or a personal declaration, but Taína’s poetic sensibility—and powerful singing voice—endows them with the communal power of anthems.

Taína creates magic out of that delicate balance between the individual and the universal. This is music that is rooted in a place and a time, but open to sounds from all over. It’s activist music that acknowledges how collective movements are built on the wisdom and experience of individuals. It’s no wonder the world is catching up to Taína Asili: this is the music we need.

Rupa and the April Fishes’ new album, Growing Upward, is music for the movements of our time (release: April 19 on Electric Gumbo Radio Music). Anthems of resilience, spitfire commentary, and collaborations with indigenous artists make up an album that resounds with joy, love, and transformation.

Borderless ensemble Rupa and the April Fishes has always been rooted in activism—in subject matter and practice. Previous albums have taken on love, loss, and xenophobia in the Bush years and the plight of migrants crossing borders. After a live album was hit with a licensing claim, Rupa faced up to media giant Warner in the legal battle that affirmed the public domain status of “Happy Birthday” and returned $14 million to artists.

There’s a new sense of urgency on their sixth album to match the current political and ecological climate. Its 12 songs took shape over a seven-year span as frontwoman Rupa, a doctor and social thinker as well as a musician, underwent experiences that transformed her: providing medical care to hunger strikers protesting police killings in San Francisco; treating Water Protectors confronting state-supported violence at Standing Rock, collaborating with Lakota/Dakota healers and leaders to decolonize medicine by creating a clinic in North Dakota, becoming a mother. “All those intense experiences are reflecting on the same crisis.” Rupa reflects, “Everything we face is interconnected: the international rise of fascism, the festering of American racism, the increase in police violence, the ongoing oppression of indigenous people, the imminent threat of catastrophic climate change.” The result is an album of impassioned songs energized by Rupa and the April Fishes’ global perspective that offers strength and solace to those already in the fight and a call to action for everyone else.

Multicultural fusion? Global indie rock? It’s hard to pin down the sound of Rupa and the April Fishes, and that’s how Rupa likes it. “I call it purposeful boundlessness. I don’t strive for a style.” Their eclectic sound is shaped by a multitalented string section (Misha Khalikulov on cello, Matt Szemela on violin), diverse rhythms (Aaron Kierbel on drums, JHNO on organ, Daniel Fabricant and Todd Sickafoose on bass), and soaring trumpet (Mario Alberto Silva). The common ground in which each song sprouts is Rupa’s distinctive, expressive vocal style, ranging from ethereal heights to low earthy tones.

One label that does sit comfortably with Rupa is “Liberation Music,” a designation bestowed by Gil Scott Heron, the legendary spoken word poet and godfather of rap. When Rupa spent time with him not long before his death, they spoke about post-national identity, and Heron asked her to contribute to America’s dialogue about race. “What I learned from him was not being afraid to expand my sense of genre,” Rupa recalls. “It’s my job to communicate honestly and passionately using whatever palette I have, to create a sound identity that exists beyond borders.”

Responses to Heron’s challenge shape the album’s most powerful songs. “Yelamu (We Are Still Here),” an electronic track produced by Rupa and Damion Gallegos, amplifies the voices of marginalized peoples. The rhythmic spine of the song comes from radical Chicano performance artist Guillermo Gomez-Peña reciting a “Declaration of Human Rights from The Other San Francisco,” co-written with Rupa. The words “we are still here” spoken in many indigenous languages create a counterpoint. A diverse cohort of activists lend their voices: Kalamaoka'aina Niheu (Kingdom of Hawaii), Tasos Sagris (Greece), Antonio M (Comanche/Otomi/Costanoan), and Tipiziwin Tolman (Lakota Nation). “It was important to me to collect voices from all places we’ve visited,” says Rupa, “and to bear witness to the astounding resiliency of the people we’ve met along the way.”

Listening to and singing with indigenous people is a taproot that feeds Growing Upward. The anthem “Frontline” was written at the request of the grandmothers at Standing Rock. Rupa had already written “Water” and released a recording online in 2005 when Ojibwe matriarch Sharon Brass invited Rupa to record an indigenized version. Rupa collaborated with a circle of native women in British Columbia to create a new track, “Water Song,” that layers their voices— howling, chanting, and serenely singing in languages from along the Pacific Coast— over the haunting sounds of four-foot-tall gongs played by guest artist Karen Stackpole.

The album’s title track Growing Upward explores what reconnecting to indigenous perspectives sounds like. “This song grew out of talking with indigenous people who haven’t lost the capacity to hear nonhuman voices,” Rupa explains. “I tried to imagine what it feels like to be a dandelion seed germinating under asphalt and breaking through.” The track showcases Rupa’s versatile vocal and verbal style, opening with a full-throated sinuous melody that climbs like vine tendrils over a rich sonic undergrowth of strings and marimba. Then a rhythmic break has Rupa reciting tabla bol and rapping about contemporary threats to the wellbeing of seeds and humans alike. Video artist Zen Cohen has directed a powerful music video to be released on April 1, the perfect date for a band named after a French April Fool’s Day tradition.

What Rupa and the April Fishes offer with Growing Upward—both musically and lyrically—is a hopeful map to a better future. “The central idea for this album is encountering indigenous cultures, collaborating, and learning humility from them,” Rupa elaborates. “Confronting past and present wrongs with humility doesn’t have to be dismal or miserable; it can be full of compassion and joy. When we look back with kindness and open-heartedness, we can go forward in the right way and correct past wrongs.”

Artist Mona Caron, internationally known for multi-story murals celebrating the rebellious resilience of weeds and creating art for the climate justice movement, gives visual form to the album with cover art of twelve sprouting seedlings in a mandala-like circle, each growing through one of the April Fishes or their collaborators against a backdrop of the crises we face: state violence, petrochemical pollution, devastating weather events, media manipulated  by nationalist entities. The image is not mere metaphor: the album will be released in a plastic-free form as twelve seed packets so listeners can grow their own medicinal plants, reawakening their own connection with the earth. “We’re in a challenging time,” remarks Rupa, “but when you look at the power of these seeds, you can’t do anything but hope.”

Youssou N’Dour’s new album meditates on moments from a storied career and pays homage to late great African artists, without losing sight of the future ahead. History (Naïve Records release: May 17, 2019) gives new life to tracks from Babatunde Olatunji’s 1970s records, N’Dour’s own cassettes sold on the streets of Dakar in the 1980s, and a 2019 hit by Swedish star Mohombi. N’Dour reinvigorates them all with that inimitable voice—and mature musicianship—that makes Youssou N’Dour the undisputed King of African Pop.

He’s achieved a globe-spanning career, 35 albums, and hits at the top of charts around the world, but N’Dour still sees each project as a chance to explore different directions. 2017’s Seeni Valeur took to new heights the spirited Senegalese mbalax that N’Dour popularized in Senegal and around the world, while Africa Rekk (2016) featured up-to-the-minute Pan-African collaborations with Akon, Fally Ipupa, and producer Spotless, who returns on History.

The new album opens with “Habib Faye,” a moving tribute to the bassist who, as musical director of N’Dour’s band Super Étoile de Dakar, shaped their sound starting in the 1980s. The two giants of mbalax worked on separate projects in recent years, but at Faye’s untimely death in April 2018, N’Dour cancelled shows to be at his funeral. "Habib Faye was my friend, bassist, and music director for almost twenty years.” N’Dour reminisces. “Together we created many songs and played many shows around the world. Naturally, this is the first song I wrote for this album." It‘s serene, not a lament but a contemplative elegy, a prayer with a mbalax beat and smooth sax by Cameroonian Alain Rodrigue Oyono.

History honors another late legend: Babatunde Olatunji, the Nigerian-American drummer, singer, and social activist whose Drums of Passioninspired the likes of John Coltrane and Carlos Santana. “I wanted people to know about Babatunde, a great Nigerian who had an immense impact on his country,” N’Dour explains. N’Dour returns Olatunji to the spotlight with covers of “My Child” and “Takuta,” co-composed with Prince Ayo Manuel Ajisebutu, that feature Olatunji’s original vocal recordings at the center of new arrangements. N’Dour’s own unmistakable voice carries Olatunji’s songs into the present moment.

N’Dour also digs deep into his own history, with fresh takes on three tracks from across his remarkable career. The first recording of the love song “Salimata” dates to 1989’s Jamm, while “Ay Coono La” appeared on Set in 1990. These were electric times for N’Dour: after 10 years as a star in Senegal at the helm of Super Étoile de Dakar, his work with Peter Gabriel brought him international notice, and his 1989 album The Lion attained global fame. Reimagined for 2019, these tracks have a new energy and lush production that leaves space for the emotional colors of N’Dour’s voice to glow.

With “Birima Remix,” N’Dour places the past and future in harmony. From the album Joko in 2000, “Birima” tells the legend of a Senegalese king. Now N’Dour has recreated the song with a new richness in collaboration with Seinabo Sey, a young Swedish singer with Senegambian roots making waves on the Scandinavian electro-soul scene. Sey’s new lyrics pay tribute to her father’s heritage and the immigrant experience, creating a multilayered exploration of African values and ancestors. N’Dour’s remix of “Hello” by Swedish-Congolese singer Mohombi shows that History is not only about the past: “Hello” swept Mohombi to the final of Sweden’s Melodifestivalen competition in March 2019.

N’Dour’s new songs make vivid, current stories a part of History. “Confession,” a collaboration with Mike Bangerz (BGRZ), a French beatmaker of Beninese heritage, chronicles the romantic plight of a young emigrant working abroad. On “Macoumba,” N’Dour, BGRZ, and saxophonist Oyono riff on the characters and sounds of Dakar’s streets, where a macoumba is an unlucky gambler. “Tell Me” rounds out the album with a multilingual plea for connection and trust.

Throughout his extraordinary career, Youssou N’Dour has always been moving forward, creating new sounds even when he makes forays into tradition. Now, exploring his own past and the legacy of friends and heroes, N’Dour makes History his own.

Putumayo is pleased to announce the release of World Peace on June 14th, 2019. It was inspired by President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. and other 1960s leaders’ search for peace and justice. JFK’s historic “peace speech” at American University on June 10th, 1963 led to the first limited nuclear test ban treaty and an easing in Cold War tensions. The themes he expressed, such as ending excessive militarism and “making the world safe for diversity,” resonate to this day.  Excerpts are included in the booklet. 

World Peace features renowned artists Jackson Browne, Nina Simone, Keb’ Mo’, India.Arie, Richard Bona, David Broza, Wyclef Jean, the international collective Playing for Change, and others who have been committed to writing and recording songs of peace and freedom. It begins with contemporary blues artist Keb’ Mo’, who recorded a moving version of the 1975 classic “Wake Up Everybody” with its inspirational lyrics “there is so much hatred, war and poverty… the world won’t get no better, we gotta change it, just you and me.” 

Following Keb’ Mo’, we hear a call for Africans to come together to achieve peace and prosperity in “Africa Unite” by Swaziland’s Bholoja. Renowned singer-songwriter and activist Jackson Browne wrote and recorded “It is One”: “It is one world spinning ‘round the sun, this life is a battleground between right and wrong.” Cameroonian musician Richard Bona and jazz star Michael Brecker follow with their rendition of Bob Marley’s powerful “Redemption Song.” 

The legendary Nina Simone recorded her version of the civil rights anthem “I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free” in 1967 after an Alabama church bombing and the civil rights struggle moved her to address these issues. The album continues with the Keb’ Mo’ recording of the classic peace anthem “Love Train.” Then, 4-time GRAMMY-winner India.Arie sings “One,” in which she calls for a celebration of the similarities that bring human beings together.

We next head to South Africa for Bongeziwe Mabandla and his song “Freedom for Everyone.” Mabandla asks “Oh, what is freedom if there’s no freedom for everyone?” We then turn to the Palestinian/Israeli singer Mira Awad’s beautiful ballad “Think of Others,” a musical adaption of the poem by Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish. Awad sings, “Do not forget those who seek peace… those who have nowhere to sleep.” 

The album closes with two powerful ballads. On “East Jerusalem/West Jerusalem,” Israeli  singer-songwriter David Broza is joined by Haitian-American star Wyclef Jean. They sing, “Spread a little love before you put your head down, maybe when you wake up, the world will be a better place.” The album concludes with John Lennon’s beloved peace anthem “Imagine,” sung by Playing for Change and featuring artists from Brazil, India, Nigeria, Nepal, and beyond. 

World Peace seeks to remind people of the importance of peaceful coexistence and freedom. As President Kennedy concluded in his June 10, 1963 address: “We shall do our part to build a world of peace where the weak are safe and the strong are just.” 2% of Putumayo’s proceeds from the sale of this album will be donated to the National Peace Corps Association in support of their efforts to amplify the Peace Corps community’s global social impact. 

The Villalobos Brothers' story starts like a fairy tale, or an adventure story: Once upon a time, three brothers who made beautiful music on their violins left home to seek their fortunes. What they learned on that journey is given musical expression on their new album, Somos (release: July 23, 2019). 

From their three violins, they conjure all the sounds they encountered on the way: the technical virtuosity of their classical training, the flamboyant energy of Son Huasteco, the honeyed melodies of Mexican trova, jazz-inflected dissonance, the charm and energy of pop. Politically aware lyrics respond to injustice and corruption at home and abroad. Somos (We Are) is a musical declaration: “We’re here,” it says, “Hear all that we are.”

Their story begins in rural Veracruz, Mexico, where the three brothers grew up studying violin. As Luis reminisces, “Our formal training was classical, but growing up in Xalapa, its traditional music was always close to our hearts. Our grandmother never trained formally, but she played guitar and sang songs from all over Mexico, from the time of the revolution.”

Nevertheless, the brothers set out to earn advanced degrees abroad, where classical violin was more likely to lead to a lucrative career. First, Ernesto won a Fulbright scholarship to study at the Manhattan School of Music in Pinchas Zukerman’s studio, then Alberto went to Belgium to train with Igor Oistrakh at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels, while the youngest, Luis, became a disciple of Nicolas Chumachenco at the Hochschule für Musik in Freiburg, Germany. 

Their professional futures seemed clear: orchestras, PhD studies, professorships. Then Ernesto issued a surprising summons to Alberto and Luis: Could they come to New York to play a benefit at Carnegie Hall? Oh, and could they compose two hours of original music? They jumped at the chance. Luis says leaping into another musical world just felt right: “My admiration was always with the composers. They have been dead for 300 years, but still many people get together to make their music happen all over again. I wanted to find my voice.”

Creating original music resonated more deeply than performing classical music ever could. Alberto recalls listening to regional Mexican folk music while he was studying in Brussels, out of a need to feel himself represented: “I would listen to the great European composers, and I would wonder ‘where are the brown people, where are my people?’ My Russian professor would never let me tell him how to play Tchaikovsky. But who can tell me how to play the music of my heritage?”

Energized by their Carnegie Hall debut, the brothers now faced the hard work of honing their hybrid sound. They renovated a house in the Bronx where they could live, play, and collaborate with fellow creators. They paid their dues, playing any gig they could book and taking grueling day jobs. After years in the confined circle of classical violin, they delighted in the wide-open sounds of the city. Alberto says, “Every time I listen to something I don’t fully understand, I want to study it and I get excited—that recently happened at a flamenco concert!” 

Their hard work (and a little bit of fairy-tale luck) has paid off, earning them a stint as the house band at the Latin Grammys and an opportunity to perform orchestral arrangements of their original compositions with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. They’ve delighted audiences throughout Latin America, India, Russia, Canada, and the U.S., in settings as diverse as the United Nations on its 60th anniversary, the 66th FIFA Congress in Mexico City, and the Blue Note Jazz Festival. They’ve made guest appearances with stars across the firmament. In fact, you can hear Luis’s violin on Bruce Springsteen’s latest project, Western Stars. 

Along the way, they recorded their own album that reflected another journey—toward U.S. citizenship. Aliens of Extraordinary Ability, named after their initial visa category, explored the brothers’ immigration saga by focusing on the sounds of Mexico from a largely classical perspective. The musical and political horizons of Somos are considerably broader.

Nevertheless, the raw plight of immigrants is never far from their minds—Ernesto is still embroiled in the naturalization process, and the brothers are seeking U.S. residency for their mother. The brothers feature on jazzman Arturo O’Farrill’s “Fandango at the Wall” project with the Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra, a suite first performed on alternate side of the San Diego-Tijuana border as a protest against cruel border policies. Arturo guests on Somos, adding piano to “Xalapa Bang!,” an edgy song about peaceful protests crushed by state-sanctioned violence.

The brothers’ camaraderie has remained a constant. Luis laughs, “I like to tell people that we are like the three musketeers, with bows instead of swords.” And just like the three musketeers, they welcomed a fourth member into their ranks: Humberto Flores Gutiérrez, a friend since childhood, in 2011. Like the brothers, his pursuit of advanced musical training took him abroad—to Italy—but he too felt the magnetic pull of creative collaboration. After years of accompanying the brothers on the guitar and Veracruzan jarana, he has evolved into a full-fledged creative partner, contributing his own original composition and arrangements to their latest album.

The brothers considered naming the album after the track “Hombres de Arcilla,” a powerful, haunting song punctuated by restless strings and impassioned vocals. It’s just one facet of a larger project by Alberto, also a visual artist and sculptor, to commemorate students from a rural teachers' college in Ayotzinapa, Mexico, who disappeared after being attacked by police in 2014. Moved by meeting the father of one of the missing students, Alberto sculpted 43 clay faces—one for each of the vanished—and wrote this song. 

They settled on “Somos” as the album’s title track, and its combination of scintillating music and thoughtful lyrics encapsulates the ensemble’s current sound. The uplifting, pop-tinged violin melody is charged with optimism and joy, while Luis’s lyrics plead for expanding the notion of who “we are” beyond our own family, city, and nation, until it encompasses the entire human race. This is the wisdom the brothers absorbed on their fairy-tale journey: Stay true to your voice, while opening your heart to the world.