World Music Fest Brings Musical Spices to Chicago
By Chuck Sudo in Arts & Entertainment on Sep 15, 2011 8:20PM
Boubacar Traoré plays Millennium Park Sept. 21. (Image credit: René Goiffon)
World Music Festival: Chicago 2011, as much as Jazz Fest before it, is a sign that Chicago is heading into autumn as the chill in the air and leaves falling.
We've written about the reasons we love World Music Fest before and they hold true today. World Music Fest is the one music festival that incorporates venues across the city in a packed series of free and low-cost events bringing musicians from around the globe to Chicago.
Here are some of our highlights for this year's festival. All of these featured events are free. For a full schedule to World Music Festival: Chicago 2011, download it here or use the festival smartphone app (Android only):
Boubacar Traoré
This self-taught Malian singer and guitarist is equally influenced by American blues and kassonké, a traditional music style from the Kayes region. Traoré's voice and songs of freedom became synonymous with Mali's independence movement in the 1960. He's no stranger to Chicago stages or World Music Fest, having appeared in 2001 and 2005. Traoré brings his trio to Millennium Park on Sept. 21 on a 6:30 p.m. double bill with Nawal, a native of the Comoros Islands whose blend of Sufi trance rhythms and Persian, Arabian, and Bantu musics, sung in French, Arabic, English and Comoran, brings an Islamic message of peace and love not normally found on your airwaves.
Joaquin Diaz
Starting as a street musician at the age of 9, this Dominican accordion player's music is a blend of traditional and original songs heavily influenced by merengue. Diaz will be playing Summerdance tomorrow night at 7:30 p.m. (free Bachata dance lessons at 6 p.m.) and will perform at the dock at Montrose Harbor Saturday at noon.
This ensemble celebrates the history of their Haitian descendents enslaved to the Caribbean from West Africa through vibrant dance and spectacular harmonies. The Creole Choir’s ten remarkable singers come from Camagüey, Cuba’s third city, down towards the eastern end of the island. They grew up and studied music in this old colonial town, designated a UNESCO World heritage Site in 2008 for its colonial architecture. They have nurtured music passed down in their families since the early 19th century, gradually adding modern Haitian sounds following their own first visit to a Haitian festival in 1996. (Sept. 22; Chicago Cultural Center's Preston Bradley Hall; 9:45 p.m.; free)
Continental Drift - Abigail Washburn, DePedro and Luisa Maita
WNUR-FM's "Continental Drift" radio program will be broadcasting regularly during the festival from the Cultural Center. Tuesday's triple bill with Illinois-born, Nashville based clawhammer banjo player Abigail Washburn, DePedro (the solo project of Spanish singer-songwriter Jairo Zavala) and Brazilian singer Luisa Maita will be one of the best sets of the fest. We're huge fans of Washburn's forward thinking music but are very interested to see Maita, who draws comparisons to jazz legends like Billie Holiday, her Brazilian contemporaries Céu and Bebel Gilberto and indie rock darlings Feist and Cat Power. (Sept. 20; Claudia Cassidy Theater; Noon-2 p.m.)