New Mexico's Annual Celebration of World Music & Culture
BALKAN PARADISE ORCHESTRA (Spain/Balkans)
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 27
Since they began their journey in early 2015 in Barcelona, Balkan Paradise Orchestra has shown, in every performance, their potential as an unusual and ground-breaking group. Composed of all female wind and percussion players, the10 member Balkan Paradise Orchestra (aka BPO) is a breath of fresh air on the global music scene.
Despite taking as a starting point the sounds of Balkan roots, their compositions mix different rhythms and traditions from around the world, resulting in an eclectic and festive music. BPO has a surprising capacity to generate empathy with the public, bringing joy and the desire to dance to every audience.
In their first year, Balkan Paradise Orchestra won the Projecte Cabal Musical 2015 prize from Taller de Músics de Barcelona, 2017 found them garnering 1st Prize at Haizetara 2017, the International Street Music Competition from Amorebieta-Etxano (Euskadi), Sons de la Mediterrània in Catalonia. At the pretigious Enderrock 2018 Awards they were recognized with three nominations: Best Folk Album, Best Video and Best Young Talent Band, walking away with Best Folk Album honors. In 2019, they received Acadèmia Catalana de la Música Premis Alícia 2019 for Best New Talent and in 2022, they received the Premis Arc for Best International Tour.
Not slowing down, and now touring their 2024 album Nèctar, we are excited to welcome BPO to ¡Globalquerque! with their effervescent, at times wild live show!
New Mexico & Southwestern Debut!
CAÑA DULCE y CAÑA BRAVA
(México)
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 28
The women-led Caña Dulce y Caña Brava offers a performance which exhibits the music, poetry, dance and traditional attire of Veracruz, Mexico, interpreted by artists who are beneficiaries of the jarocho culture and noteworthy performers with years of experience on both national and international stages. The group stands out as an artistic project that highlights feminine poetry and voices. Creating an experience that connects the spectator with distinct emotions, one is taken on a voyage through multiple rhythms, accompanied by traditional string instruments such as the harp and the jarana, percussion and zapateado, poetic improvisation in rhyme and the projection of visual effects. Offering a assortment of colors, textures and images to diverse and multi-generational audiences, the ensemble is defined by an original aesthetic concept that unites the traditional with the vanguard in a contemporary stage proposal. Since its formation in 2007, the group has carried the seal of feminine strength and beauty within the traditionally masculine world of Mexican son.
The sounds of the strings interweave with the poetic messages written from a woman’s perspective, create a facet not before seen within this musical genre.
New Mexico & Southwestern Debut!
CHA WA (New Orleans, USA)
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 27
New Orleans brass band-meets-Mardi Gras Indian outfit Cha Wa radiates the energy of the city’s street culture. Like their colorful and exuberant live shows, My People, the band’s follow up to their Grammy-nominated album Spyboy, feels like pure joy, a distillation of generations of New Orleans expression. But it also never fails to remind us how hard-won that joy was and still is: not least in the tense, funky and explosive title track, with its declaration “My people, we’re still here.”
“Mardi Gras Indian songs are inherently songs about freedom,” the band’s drummer Joe Gelini says. “And that struggle is as relevant today as it’s ever been.”
The clattering, hollering song of Mardi Gras Indians on the move is primal and powerful. There’s a feeling that you’re somehow witnessing a deeper, stronger spirit breaking through the structures that govern city life, and the only thing more arresting than the sound is the sight of it: the Indians wear towering, elaborate suits that require months’ worth of work, topped with billowing ostrich plumes in riotous colors and festooned with painstakingly hand-beaded patches and panels that glitter in the sun or under streetlights: Some of the beadwork art might be Native American or African imagery, in homage to the culture’s roots, and some might depict images from an Indian’s own community, or personal life.
"I’ve seen the future of New Orleans music and its name is Cha Wa."
- Paste
The FOREST with Special Guests
(Spokane/Guinea/South Africa/Taos/USA)
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 28
The Forest is a cooperative percussion ensemble that for ¡Globalquerque! will feature Andrew Drury, Gustavo Aguilar, Fara Tolno, and čnaq'ymi, along with very special guests Robert Mirabal and Melanie Scholtz for an improvisational tour-de force performance.
The artists of The Forest possess deep experience with collective performing, improvising, and composing, all while in dialogue with a range of African, Asian and Indigenous diasporic practices, among other musicing approaches and philosophies.
The Forest engages in collaborations, performances, and workshops with diverse communities through the development of newly composed works and the exploration of performance techniques in unconventional physical settings and acoustic spaces. The resulting sonic experience represents a cultivation of each members’ artistic vision, centering a unique perspective on musical form and play.
The Forest's first studio recording—(D)ruminations - released on June 16 - is already getting critical notice with Marc Medwin at the NYC Jazz Record enthusing that the album is "an extraordinary manifestation of size in flux and diversity matched only by the breathtakingly vivid recording."
The Forest will be presenting a series of ¡Globalquerque! outreach and workshops in the days leading up to their performance at ¡Globalquerque!.
FRÄNDER (Sweden)
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 27
FRÄNDER is a powerhouse Swedish folk-rock group that began in 2015 with the purpose of combining modern influences with the sounds of tradition. Brothers Gabbi and Daniel Dluzewski and sister Natasja Dluzewska grew up in the village of Håga, one of Scandinavia's great Viking strongholds during the Bronze Age nd a region with the enduring riches of Nordic oral and musical traditions. From those deep roots, from the musicians' various intensive musicological studies, and from their shared passion for popular music, the inspiration for a new modern acoustic music began to take shape, pushing stylistic boundaries. Fueled by the creative freedom within the expressive modern sound of Nordic folk music and the traditional music of their ancestor, they have never been interested in merely reproducing the past but strive to find new paths back into the future.
Fränder's music is hauntingly evocative. You will hear alongside the sounds of both Swedish and Estonian traditional music, influences of Led Zeppelin, Jethro Tull and even The Beatles. Their original compositions and their interpretation of traditional music in a rock idiom have drawn well deserved comparisons to Fairport Convention.
Fränder's energetic live show is a showcase of their expressive creative freedom, capped off by extraordinary musicianship, an enviable chemistry and dynamic stage presence. Their energy is infectious, captivating audiences the world over. And while they may play exclusively acoustic instruments, they certainly do rock!
New Mexico & Southwestern Debut!
NATION BEAT (USA/South Africa) featuring Melanie Scholtz
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 28
What makes Nation Beat so special is that it offers no simple answers. When band leader Scott Kettner looks at a map, he sees a direct line that connects the rivers of northeastern Brazil to the parishes of New Orleans and the streets of NYC. A master percussionist, composer and educator, Kettner is the guiding force behind Nation Beat and has been tracing the similarities between the music and culture of northeastern Brazil and the American South for two decades, through recordings and performances as well as educational and community outreach programs. More recently, Kettner has been conceptualizing a new sound for Nation Beat that blends the roots styles of New Orleans and Brazil with his background in jazz and hybrid drumming. In 2018 he began composing and collaborating with tenor saxophonist and arranger Paul Carlon. Together, they shaped the ensemble’s sound for their new phase in cross-cultural explorations, and furthering Nation Beat’s history of being rhythm gatherers, harvesting the fruit of 500 years of cultural crossbreeding resulting in a 21st century mash-up of the thunderous grooves of northeastern Brazil with the strolling swagger of New Orleans via NYC. Nation Beat is a NYC-NOLA-Brazilian collision that parades with an infectious, audacious energy, seamlessly bridging folkloric Brazilian rhythms with classic American roots and jazz in an altogether creative and original manner, and with special guest Melanie Scholtz on hand they have added a dose of South African soul!
NINI (Taiwan/USA)
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 26
FRIDAY, SEPTEMPER 27
Two-time Golden Melody Award Winner (Taiwanese Grammy), NiNi is a woman on a mission. She grew up in Taichung, Taiwan playing and studying Chinese traditional folk instruments, becoming a virtuosa on several including zhong ruan, liuqin, san xian, and pipa. NiNi also performs on a unique electric lute known as the dao yu, which she uses to create a distinctive and modern sound that bridges cultural and musical boundaries. She has also been known to pick up the ukulele and the Irish banjo!
With a deep connection to Asian folklore, NiNi and her band weave mythical narratives into their compositions, bridging past and present with rock/metal power and traditional elegance. NiNi's live performance showcases the rich cultural heritage and traditions of Asia but with a contemporary twist, taking the audience on a captivating journey through the soulful sounds and vibrant rhythms of her homeland's folk music coupled with the thunder of modern rock - Taiwan Folk Metal! Indeed, she has been dubbed "NiNi Van Halen" by Howie Mandel due to her amazing, lightening string skills. NiNi has benn also called: "charismatic", "brilliant" "trailblazing" and with millions of views and streams on YouTube alone, it seems quite a few people agree!
NiNi and her band are set to rock the house as the featured performers at our Opening Global Headphone Dance Party and Concert on Thursday, September 26 at the Albuquerque Museum Amphitheatre.
New Mexico Debut!
SIDY SAMB & AFROFLAMENCO
(Senégal / Spain)
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 28
Sidy Samb is the leader of Afroflamenco, and as the name suggests, the band fuses African music with flamenco.
But there’s more to it than that. Samb is a Senegalese Wolof griot, deeply immersed in sabardrumming, the dynamic percussion has made his home in Spain for decades and is a founding member of celebrated flamenco-fusion hitmakers Mártires del Compás. His latest solo project, Afroflamenco reconnects Flamenco to its African roots, exploring the subtle connections and unique divergences between the iconic sounds of his two homelands. Afroflamenco draws on griot tradition and Roma virtuosity, to create a new, music-fueled, cross-cultural encounter. With lyrics sung in Wolof, Lingala, Bambara, Pulaar, French, English, and Spanish, it’s a simmering polyglot of languages, rhythms and ideas; brimming over with passionate performances at the intersection of African and Iberian traditions. In all, it’s a rich journey guided by a uniquely seasoned ensemble.
New Mexico & Southwestern Debut!
DJ LOWKEY
DJ MALIK
DJ MO
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 26
Our Opening Global Headphone Dance Party features three of New Mexico's most planet-jammin' DJs! From Ethnic House to Latin Groove to AfroFunk, get ready to bounce, shake, and shimmy to the the sounds of the world!
DJ Lowkey
It was while living in Hawai'i that Albuquerque's DJ Lowkey's ears were opened to World music on a grand scale first beginning with indigenous Hawaiian music and continuing on with influences from around the globe including African, Brazilian, East Indian, Asian, Balkan, Cuban, Tahitian, Zydeco and much more. Lowkey is committed to spinning music that spreads a positive message and vibe. LISTEN
DJ Malik
Originally from Pakistan, DJ Malik is a world traveler and a talented musician who "Loves the Flute, Loves the Bass" and creates a compelling balance between Techno, Deep house, and Progressive with Southeast Asian and Middle eastern beats, or as he calls it "Ethnic House". LISTEN
DJ Mo
DJ Mo is a longtime friend of ¡Globaquerque! Monica Bencomo grew up in a Latino household listening to a variety of music influenced by her parents such as cumbias, rancheras, mariachi, oldies, R&B and soul. Her primary genres are cumbia, synth pop, new wave, funk, disco, post punk, and hip hop. She loves ¡Globalquerque! and considers it to be influential in her eclectic musical tastes.
