The Republic of Georgia, tucked into the Caucasus Mountains along the Black Sea, is an ancient land whose musical heritage receded under Soviet rule and is threatened by the global culture of now. Formed after the USSR’s collapse

 Congas, shakers, marimbas, udu drums, something called a karkabou, something else called a bendir—all populate the world music, Afrobeat and spacey postmodern grooves of Mop Mop. But any disc that even moderately features

The self-titled debut album by Painted Caves has become a quiet

World music can sometimes resemble fusion cuisine, becoming a contrived novelty whose appeal is paper-thin. However, disparate ingredients can sometimes produce a pleasing dish. In the case of music, The Spy From Cairo pulls off a coup on its latest CD...

The port of Marseille has always been a magnet for many nations, and like New York nowadays, it's also become a high-speed cultural blender. The French Mediterranean city is home to Kabbalah, whose new CD often sounds like an Orthodox...

“World music” is often a catchphrase for exotic mediocrity. Niyaz is among the great exceptions, a trio in cosmopolitan exile, retaining their Iranian roots but seamlessly fusing the quiet ecstasy of age-old melodies and rhythms with contemporary...

Congo Sanchez has been an active contributor to Funk Ark and other dance bands in Washington, D.C. With Vol. 1, the multi-instrumentalist steps into his own thing: supple grooves rooted in rock and soul (and with more ancient echoes)...

Tinariwen has earned a reputation among world music fans for reconnecting the African-American sound of electric blues-rock with its African roots. The band originates in the hot, stony outback where Mali meets Algeria, a contested region in the southern Sahara. Somehow these musicians, born of the nomadic Toureg people but living now in cities, forged a sound that find the organic link between ...

With hopes of better weather than last year, when rain put a good-sized dent in attendance, Alverno College released the lineup for its 2009 Global Union festival, a two-day world-music concert in Bay View's Humboldt Park. With just six headliners, the lineup is smaller than in recent years, but it's typically varied: � Saturday, Sept. 19, 2009 Mucca Pazza:  1 p.m....