So, my wife is in charge of a pretty Big Deal event that will have prominent female leaders-of-industry from all over the world in attendance. She has already booked a fairly well-known female act but she has assigned me the task of digging up some additional world music artists (female, solo or group) to have ready as “intermission music” between conference presentations. I know a few (ZapMama, Kitka, Les Nubians) but could use some more recommendations, especially re: specific albums.
Emphasis is on Eastern Europe, Central America, and East Africa, but anything really enjoyable and distinctive (and not too “poppy”) would be appreciated. Thanks!
Archive Guy, I meant a PM here at the board. What’s the time frame on this? I’ll be working on this over the next few days.
I assume this is just for a background music kind of thing, not that you’re looking for artists to perform since you already have an act lined up. Right?
Sure. I’m not sure what form this will take. I’ll probably put together a few different samplers, put them online, then give AG and you the URLs where you can download them.
I’m afraid my music collection is very European-centric, with some Indian. I only have a smattering of African and I’m not sure I have any Central American music. I do have some South American music. I’m lamenting my hard drive crash from a couple of years ago, because I used to have more African but only as mp3s that got munged. I’m ripping some CDs I had, but all I can find is Angelique Kidjo and Sona Diabate.
There are tons of artists on MySpace, but unfortunately few of them allow downloads of their music. and I’d have to be a millionaire to buy music from all the artists I like, so I’m working with what I have in my own collection.
Thanks again Equipoise. My goal is to have a cursory list of prospects (artist & album) by next week. The list will probably have to run a little on the fat side because we’ll need to be able to buy the CDs we plan on using by the first week in March (I live in the Bay Area, so have a ton of music stores at my disposal, and anything that isn’t too obscure or hard to find will probably be available via Amazon, etc.) so have to count on the possibility of not getting everything in time.
I’ll keep an eye out for your PM (it’ll be my first!)
OK, in processing the suggestions so far, I came up with this short list of artists & albums that seem to be right up they alley of what my wife’s looking for (hopefully)
Lila Downs/Border (La Linea) Lhasa de Sela/La Llorina Cesaria Evora/Cafe Atlantico Ofra Haza/Yemenite Songs Angelique Kidjo/Oyaya! Virginia Rodrigues/Sol Negro
I’ve submitted these for my wife’s perusal and hopefully she’ll give me an idea if I’m on the right track with one or more. The main problem I’m running into with the Eastern European business (Hungary/Bulgaria/Yugoslavia) is that so much of it gears more towards dissonance or “wailing” that I think it would be a bit distracting as intermission/“salon” music. The goal is to be diverse but not to the point where it alters the mood or tone of the event.
Thanks again everyone and I’ll report back as things progress.
(and especially Equipoise for your help; do you mean message here on the board, or my personal e-mail?)