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World Music Festival Preview: Tuesday - Thursday

By Alexander Hough in Arts & Entertainment on Sep 21, 2009 4:40PM

2009_09_17_WorldMusicPreview1.jpg
Courtesy: NASA / Goddard Space Flight Center
The Chicago World Music Festival keeps rolling this week, with tons of concerts going on throughout the city through Thursday. If you didn't make it to any performances this past weekend, you're in luck. Not only are there still lots of good acts, apparently most of the venues got tired of taking money. Look at all the free concerts!

Tuesday, September 22

  • Mikrokolektyw (noon, Chicago Cultural Center, FREE)
    Having already played at The Hideout, Elastic, and the Hungry Brain, the Polish duo (trumpeter Artur Majewski and substitute drummer Wojciech Romanowski) will continue to show Chicago their minimalist, electronics-tinged post-bop.
  • Marta Gomez Quartet (7:00 p.m., Columbia College Conaway Center, FREE)
    Colombian Marta Gomez and her quartet play original pan-Latin music. Gomez has easily the most intoxicating voice of the Festival; it's so silky, we're going to use it to make a set of sheets. She'll also perform at noon at the above Cultural Center show.
  • Mohammed P.R., Rebel Diaz (8:00 p.m., Martyrs', FREE)
    Political hip-hop from Palestinian Mohammed P.R. and Puerto Rican/Chilean group Rebel Diaz. Truth be told, we're not that crazy about their music, but in a genre like rap that's become, in more instances than not, generic and forumlaic, a message and novelty go a long way.
Wednesday, September 23
  • Rhythm of Rajasthan (noon, Chicago Cultural Center, FREE) With so much multicultural and fusioned music on the Festival's docket, we've tried to point out the instances of non-distilled folk music. This group performs traditional dance and music from the Langa, Manganiar, and Kalbelia communities from the western Indian desert-state Rajasthan.
  • Tambours Sans Frontieres (6:30 p.m., Washington Park, FREE) Currently based in Chicago, Tambours Sans Frontieres ("drums without borders") plays percussion music in the Congolese and West African styles.
  • Hanggai, Rahim AlHaj (8:00 p.m., Martyrs', $10) Punk rocker-turned folk musician Ilchi formed this band to get back to his family's Inner Mongolian roots. Their adapation of traditional folk music includes the hauntingly beautiful hoomei throat-singing technique. Also on the concert is Iraqi Rahim AlHaj. AlHaj, who was forced out of his country for his anti-Saddam activism (and just returned in 2004), is a master of the oud, the ancient, fretless Middle Eastern lute.
Thursday, September 24
  • Rahim AlHaj (noon, Chicago Cultural Center, FREE) See above.
  • One World Under One Roof (6:00 p.m. - 11:00 p.m., Chicago Cultural Center, FREE) The closing event of the Festival includes performances by several acts, including ones we plugged above, such as Mikrokolektyw, Rahim AlHaj, and Tambours Sans Frontieres. Be sure to stay to the end to hear to the soul-infused gospel of Naomi Shelton.