World Music Festival Chicago 2008 Preview

By Chuck Sudo in Arts & Entertainment on Sep 19, 2008 3:25PM

It's been a season of milestones for the city-sponsored music festivals. Today marks the 10th anniversary of the World Music Festival. What started out as a small festival centered in Chicago's notable places for international music has evolved into a city-wide event, with artists performing throughout the city limits. WMF highlights Chicago's reputation as a city of neighborhoods. In incorporating most of the major club venues, WMF also does more to shine a positive spotlight on our vibrant music club scene in one week than venue owners often do themselves. Only the ongoing resistance to the promoters ordinance can unite club owners as well.

Much of the credit goes to the persistence of Mike Orlove at the City Department of Cultural Affairs. If you haven't read Karl's splendid interview with Orlove (who also books Summerdance and Millennium Park "Music Without Borders" series), it's a good look into the obstacles Orlove faces while he and his team curate the festival. Already, Three Rivers One Source, a Vietnamese group featuring musicians from that nation's three geographical regions, canceled due to not being approved for visas. After two years of what seemed like Brazilian-centric acts, this year's installment of WMF is one of the more diverse in recent memory. Following are some of our recommendations.

Tonight

• Little Cow and Chicha Libre at Martyr's: Fans of Gogol Bordello should be able to find some common ground with Little Cow, a Budapest-based band that fuses gypsy and ska with a little bit of funk. Opening is Chicha Libre, a Manhattan-based band that plays homage to a Peruvian musical m&3233lange of Andean melodies, surf guitar, sped-up Cuban cumbia rhythms and Doug Sahm-style organ. This is the dance party to jump-start the festival; it'll also be simulcast on Chicago Public Radio's "Radio-M" program. (3855 N. Lincoln, 9 p.m., $12. Little Cow also plays the Hideout Block Party at 2:30 p.m. Saturday.)
• Chiwoniso and Baye Kouyate et les Tougarakes at Old Town School of Folk Music: A pan-African double bill. Chiwoniso sings of the ongoing struggles of living under the oppressive Mugabe regime in Zimbabwe in English and several African dialects, following in the footsteps of countryman Thomas Mapfumo. Her musical influences range from Afropop to good old-fashioned American soul. Kouyate is a Malian master of the talking drum and well-versed in Latin, jazz and Caribbean rhythms. His ace band features the incomparable Leni Stern on guitar. (4544 N. Lincoln, 8 p.m., $15)

Saturday

• Reelroad at World Music Company: This Russian ensemble infuses traditional Russian songs and instruments with a modern youthful sensibility. Their concerts often incorporate lessons in Russian dance, although you might wind up dancing however you feel if so inclined. (1808 W. 103rd St., 8 p.n., $15)
• Vieux Farka Touré at Hideout Block Party: Some of the best guitarists we've ever seen live have come from Mali. The country's musicians have a sensibility for the blues that rivals the Mississippi Delta. In that regard, it's fitting that the son of the legendary Ali Farka Touré provide the final crowd warm-up for Neko Case. (1354 W. Wabansia, 7 p.m., $25).

Sunday

• Savina Yannatou, Rachel Unthank & The Winterset at Old Town School of Folk Music: Greek singer Yannatou and her band Primavera en Salonico make their second WMF appearance with her sublime interpretations of Baroque, Renaissance and Sephardic songs. Fans of theatrical singing styles such as torch or fado should give her a listen. Unthank takes the folk songs of northeast England and gives them a twist that fans of The Magnetic Fields would find themselves drawn toward. (7 p.m., $15)
• Gaida Hinnawi Ensemble featuring Amir ElSaffar at Jazz Showcase: Hinnawi is a Syrian-born, Manhattan-based vocalist and composer whose songs draw upon Syrian folk and Arab song structures, but leave her the freedom for fierce flights of improvisation. Her band features Iraqi Maqam singer and jazz trumpeter ElSaffar. This looks to be a unique but fitting combination of artist and venue. (806 S. Plymouth Ct., 8 p.m., $15.)

Monday

• Etran Finatawa at the Cultural Center: Hailing from Niger, this band of desert nomads features three musicians each from two occasionally feuding tribes, the Tuareg and Wodaabe-Fulani, living side-by side in the Nigerian desert. Music often forms a bridge for people to find common ground, and this band explores their with a hypnotic musical style. (78 W. Washington, noon, free.)

Tuesday

• La Musgaña at Instituto Cervantes: This Spanish quartet brings a lively punch to traditional Iberian folk songs, with a range of instruments from bagpipes and accordion to fiddle and hurdy-gurdy. (31 W. Ohio, 7 p.m., $15)
• Jayme Stone & Mansa Sissoko at the Museum of Contemporary Art: the parallels between Malian and American blues are explored in depth with this pairing of Canadian banjoist Stone and Malian griot and kora (a West African version of a harp or lute) player Sissoko. (220 E. Chicago, 5:30 p.m., free)

Wednesday

• Mor Karbasi at Martyrs: This 21-year-old singer based in London sings in Hebrew, Spanish and Ladino, a Judeo-Spanish dialect that spread throughout the Mediterranean after Spain expelled its Jewish settlers in 1492. Karbasi's voice has a trilling vibrato reminiscent of the Mozambiquean fado sensation Mariza. The two also share an uncanny ability for imbuing traditional songs with renewed, youthful vigor. (8 p.m., $12)
• Vasen at Schubas: This Swedish folk trio should appeal to fans of "newgrass" acts like Nickel Creek, Crooked Still and the Duhks. (3159 N. Southport, 9 p.m., free)

Thursday

• Calexico with special guests Salvador Duran, Mariachi Luz de Luna and Zazhil at Jay Pritzker Pavillion Calexico is the proverbial shit! Rather than explain everyone else, we'd rather let you see and hear what to expect: