WIDR World

Western Michigan University will showcase 15 countries and cultures during this year’s International Education Week, which runs from Monday through Saturday, Nov. 16-21.

International Education Week is a joint initiative of the U.S. departments of State and Education, the week promotes programs that not only prepare Americans for a global environment, but also attract future leaders from abroad to study, learn and exchange experiences in the United States.

The local celebration is being organized by WMU’s Haenicke Institute for Global Education. Most events are free, open to the public and taking place on the University’s main campus.

Learn more here

Over the next few weeks you’ll be able to start wrapping your ears around the new release from Brazil’s Os Mutantes (The Mutants). They haven’t released a new studio LP in 35 years… so this IS something of an event for them. Well, if you’re enjoying the bits that you hear on WIDR World each week (and throughout the week — it IS in our current rotation), then perhaps you’ll be interested to listen to a full concert from the band from NPR’s web site. You can find the concert here. Keep listening to WIDR World for more tracks from their new CD.

Mercedes Sosa, an Argentine musician and activist, has passed away at the age of 74. The singer was a supporter of leftist causes, and as a result spent several years in exile in Paris and Madrid. She was named a Goodwill Ambassador by UNESCO, and won several Latin Grammies for her work. Though her focus was on traditional folk music in Argentina, she eventually worked with a wide range of other musicians, including Cuba’s Silvio Rodiriguez, opera singer Luciano Pavarotti, pop musician Sting, and many others. Find a great article about her life at the Washington Post’s web site.

Listen to today’s program for a few selections from her enormous catalog of recordings.

Over one million people jammed into the Plaza of the Revolution to hear the music of Colombia’s Juanes this afternoon. Also slated to take the stage were Spanish guitarist Miguel Bose, Cuban legends Silvio Rodriguez and  Los Van Van, Olga Tanon from Puerto Rico and several others. Juanes organized the concert as a statement of peace, but there was a fair amount of negative talk leading up to the event, including death threats against Juanes. Cuban-American performers like Gloria Estefan, who is critical of the Cuban government,  were invited to perform, but declined.

I understand that when things like this happen, they become political just by their very nature… but why can’t it just be about the music? Boggles the mind….

The British Library has taken a huge collection of sounds online. On the Library’s site, you’ll find over 2,000 hours of field recordings, radio broadcasts and rare and out-of-print material spanning the entire globe. There is traditional English music, of course, but lots of sounds from India, Fiji, West Africa and beyond. While we in the United States can’t download the material, you can listen to it for free. The notes which accompany each track provide extensive information about when and where the recordings were made and performers, when available. This is a HUGE collection of sounds… so take a plunge and keep your ears and mind wide open!

World Music Festival Chicago 2009 is set to take place at venues all over the Chicago Area between September 18-24, 2009. This is the eleventh installment in this weeklong celebration of global sounds, and people will have an opportunity to hear music from Japan, Mali, India, Algeria, Bosnia, France, Ghana, Israel, Ireland, Morocco, Hungary, Brazil… and many others! There will be a good contingent of international sounds from the many bands right there in the Chicago area as well. Many of the events are free, so it’s certainly worth making the trip to Chicago if you are interested in such things… for more information, take a look at the festival web site.

Jul 12 – 5:32 PM Tunji Oyelana & The Benders Ifa Nigeria 70: The Definitive Story of 1970s Funky Lagos

Jul 12 – 5:27 PM The Elcados Ku Mi Ca Hankan Nigeria Rock Special: Psychedelic Afro-Rock & Fuzz Funk in 1970s Nigeria

Jul 12 – 5:21 PM Bostich & Fussible Mama Loves Nortec Tijuana Sound Machine

Jul 12 – 5:17 PM Los Fabulosos Cadillacs Hoy La Luz del Ritmo

Jul 12 – 5:12 PM Gonzalo Yañez Maldigo del Alto Cielo Gonzalo Yañez

Jul 12 – 5:05 PM Astor Piazzola & His Quinteto Tango Nuevo Verano del 79 Escualo

Jul 12 – 5:02 PM Gotan Project Diferente Lunátco

Jul 12 – 4:56 PM Juana Molina Los Hongos de Marosa Un Día

Jul 12 – 4:47 PM Guitar Wolf Time Machine of Tears LOVEROCK

Jul 12 – 4:44 PM Asobi Seksu Mizu Asobi Citrus
Jul 12 – 4:36 PM Joji Hirota & The Taiko Drummers Harvest Japanese Taiko

Jul 12 – 4:33 PM Terukina Choichi Group Kana-Yo Bushi Music of Okinawa

Jul 12 – 4:29 PM Shoukichi Kina Don-Don Bushi Peppermint Tea House

Jul 12 – 4:25 PM Agatsuma Ushibuka Haiyabushi En

Jul 12 – 4:22 PM Yoshida Brothers Madrugada Yoshida Brothers

Jul 12 – 4:14 PM Visible Le Jour Se Leve BIPPP : French Synth Wave 1979-85

Jul 12 – 4:11 PM Autour de Lucie Les Brouillons Autour de Lucie

Jul 12 – 4:08 PM Les Sans Culottes Tout va bien Fixation Orale

Jul 12 – 4:07 PM Charlotte Gainsbourg Tel Que Tu Es 5:55

Jul 12 – 4:02 PM Coralie Clement On était Bien Toystore

Jul 12 – 3:53 PM A.R. Rahman Aiyaiyo Kanavaa Mondo India (Compilation)

Jul 12 – 3:35 PM Ravi Shankar & Ali Akbar Khan Raga Ramdas Malhar Ragas

Jul 12 – 3:30 PM Amadou & Mariam Batoma Welcome To Mali

Jul 12 – 3:22 PM Saba Furah Jidka (The Line)

Jul 12 – 3:18 PM Maulidi Juma Sheria Yatukataza Zanzibara 2: 1965-1975 / Golden Years of Mombasa Taarab

Jul 12 – 3:11 PM Ayalew Mesfin Isn’t It Love? Ethiopiques 13: Ethiopian Groove

Jul 12 – 3:00 PM Maryam Mursal Hamar (The Big City) The Journey

Well, not the whole world. Just the WIDR World Web site.

I killed it. I’m not proud. In fact, it’s very frustrating. So I’m starting afresh. We’ll see how it goes.