Cuba will probably always be a place of longing and nostalgia, yet nothing seems to slow the breakneck pace of Cuban musical innovation. It’s as unstoppable as a freight train. The sheer number of prodigious professors, tempered in street rumbas and trained in top conservatories, nurtures Cuba’s penchant for combining classical lyricism and rhythmic abstraction […]
Sylvia Pfeiffenberger
Bio: Sylvia Pfeiffenberger lives in Durham and hosts a weekly Latin music show on WXDU.
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In oBeying drums
Though he began his career as an opera singer, the venerable Chief Bey’s claim to fame is as a living repository of African drumming traditions: “He’s the oldest African-American drummer standing right now. He’s 90 years old.” That’s how Duke percussion instructor Bradley Simmons describes his mentor and former teacher, whose weeklong visit to the […]
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In Bollywood benefits
For many South Asian women, the Western model of intervention does not work,” says KIRAN’s website, a fledgling non-profit founded in the Triangle to help South Asian communities in North Carolina deal with domestic violence. “They often come from backgrounds very different than what is standard for the U.S. Ideas of family, authority, independence, and […]
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In laud music
Barbarito Torres, the wild man of the laud (a Cuban style of mandolin) and acoustic guitar, is at it again with a new eponymous album of country music a lo cubano just released this September. This comes hot on the heels of the June reissue of Havana Cafe–his 1999 solo debut, which became a world […]
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Cesaria Evora
Cesaria Evora has been likened to some of the world’s greatest vocalists: Billie Holiday, Amalia Rodrigues and Edith Piaf. While such comparisons evoke the Cape Verdean singer’s stature and authority, they don’t prepare one for the experience of hearing her unique alto: smoother than Holiday, mellower than Rodrigues, more mournful than Piaf. For almost three […]
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The Miles Davis of mariachi
Tucson-based Calexico have been boldly blending jazz and alt-Latin sounds into the international indie rock scene since 1996. That makes all the sense in the world, since co-founders John Convertino and Joey Burns had previously joined forces in Giant Sand and Friends of Dean Martinez, two alt-country bands with a southwestern feel. On Calexico’s 1998 […]
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In South American folk
Laura Fuentes y Calicanto perform Chilean music Wednesday night at 8 p.m. at The Trails clubhouse, six miles west of Chapel Hill. Fuentes, born in Chile to North American parents, was later exiled to the U.S. where she studied voice. She currently lives in Santiago with husband, Pedro Villagra, a member of Calicanto, and the […]
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Latin Beat
With their long, rock star hair, and earthy tropical threads, you might not know at first glance if Solazo’s three frontmen are sensitive world fusion guys, or hard rockers. The answer is both–if they have it their way. Pepe Aranda, Kike Rodriguez, and Miguel Benitez have been singing together–in Solazo, their world fusion band, or […]
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Revolutionary sounds
Cuban music in Africa could be said to resemble a snake biting its own tail: Like the ancient alchemical symbol of the ouroborus, it represents unity and change all at the same time. This is because Cuba’s family tree goes back to Africa on both sides–on the one side circuitously through Moorish Spain to North […]
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Calling all Latino Democrats
The recently chartered Hispanic Democrats of North Carolina will hold their first statewide convention at the North Raleigh Hilton on Saturday, June 21. U.S. Representatives from North Carolina Bob Etheridge, David Price, Mel Watt, Frank Ballance, Mike McIntyre and Brad Miller are already slated to address the convention, with New Jersey Congressman Bob Menendez, chairman […]