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Worldview: 1.3.13

Thu, 03 Jan 2013 11:55:00 -0600

Worldview: 1.2.13

Wed, 02 Jan 2013 11:34:00 -0600

Understanding the K-Pop explosion

Wed, 28 Nov 2012 12:01:00 -0600

South Korean pop star PSY has topped the YouTube charts with his video Gangam Style. He’s taken over Just Bieber’s record with more than 810 million views. The artist is a product of South Korea’s K-pop scene, a musical genre that’s a mix of dance, electropop, hip hop and rock. It’s also a growing subculture around the world and gaining popularity here in the U.S. Morning Shift host Tony Sarabia explains how the music got started and why it’s become such a global phenomenon.

Featured tracks:

1 Gangnam Style - PSY

2 Butterfly - Super Junior

3 Lonely - 2NE

4 R.E.A.L - Wonder Girls

Worldview 11.28.12

Wed, 28 Nov 2012 11:42:00 -0600

Brazil's forro: Music 'for all'

Wed, 25 Jul 2012 10:00:00 -0500

Quick, name two forms of Brazilian music. I bet most of you picked bossa nova and samba. They are after all the most known genres to come out of Brazil in the last 50-plus years.

What about forro? This genre of Brazilian music has not only influenced samba and bossa, but has swept Brazil and New York City in the past few years. Sadly there isn’t much of a presence here in Chicago, although the band Swing Brasileiro is a good example. They played a set for us on Eight Forty-Eight in June.

Just so you know, in Portuguese, the double-R is not rolled, like it is in Spanish. In fact, the letter "R" sounds more like an "H." Hence forro's pronunciation: FOH-hoe.

One theory behind the origins of the word forro is that it’s a mispronunciation of the phrase "for all." According to lore, British landowners would throw dance parties "for all" who could come.

The music’s origins have more to do with cowboys and farmers than bastardized English, though. Forro is the sound of the fertile farmland and desert of the northeast of Brazil known as sertao.

Forro’s syncopated rhythm is called the baiao and it has roots in African circle dances; it also incorporates polka and schottisches. The main instrument is a drum called the zabumba — a bass drum that’s played with a mallet on one hand and a stick in the other.

The godfather of modern forro is Luiz Gonzaga (1912-1978). He’s credited with mixing the rural sound with a more urban feel and bringing instruments such as the accordion and triangle to the mix. As a matter of fact, the zabumba, and those two other instruments, are now considered the classic forro line-up. Gonzaga’s tune "Asa Branca" is perhaps the most popular and beloved forro song. People from the Northeast would migrate to the favelas (slums) during the dry season and would often sing with nostalgia of returning to the land when the rains came. The protagonist in "Asa Branca" sings of having to leave the land and his lover because there’s no rain and he can’t make a living. Yes, it’s a sad song; but he does promise to return.

In this video, you can watch the great Luiz Gonzaga wears the traditional sertao cowboy outfit doing some fancy forro dance moves.

At times forro sounds like Cajun music, especially with the accordion. But at its core, it’s good ol’ fashioned Brazilian country music for dancing.

Unearthing the strange sounds of Indian psych

Wed, 11 Jul 2012 11:04:00 -0500

One of the best things about hosting Radio M is the number of musical discoveries I get to make — especially psychedelic music from all corners of the globe. Brazilian, Thai and African psych are three of my favorites, mainly because of the juxtaposition of Western fuzz guitar with each country’s respective indigenous musical traditions. There’s seemingly no country left untouched by Western rock, beginning in the 1960s through the 1970s; that seems to have been the “golden era,” and it usually blows me away.

Not all global psych, though, takes that route. Case in point: psychedelic music from India. Indian psych sticks closely to the Western traditions but still manages to sound different.

The results are no less exhilarating. My latest find is a now-defunct band called Atomic Forest, courtesy of the fantastic L.A.-based label Now-Again. This was the only ‘70s Indian psychedelic band to record an album; other recorded Indian rock belongs more in the garage rock category. Their recently re-issued album is called Obsession; it’s a collection of the band’s songs, solo work from the band’s founder, Keith Kanga, and unreleased material that includes a song from an Indian stage production of Jesus Christ Superstar!

The story of this band is as weird as their take on some well-known rock tunes: The band was originally called 100 Ton Chicken. Kanga, apparently, grew up in a wealthy family, and when both his parents died, he lived in the family mansion with a Rolling Stone-reading grandmother who used part of the mansion as a brothel.

That turned out to be a good thing for Kanga; some of the money from the brothel was used to buy musical gear. But sadly, Kanga’s psychedelic lifestyle caught up to him: He would later succumb to heavy drug use and died as a result. Another member of the band is now a traveling minister living in the U.S. Yet another, onetime vocalist Madhukar Chandra Dhas, also lives in the U.S. He provides some great insight into the band’s history.

From the Beatles to Jethro Tull to movie themes, Atomic Forest Obsession’s music never fails in its quirkiness, coupled with some pretty good musicianship. It was — and is — a find.

Fes festival celebrates world's mystical music

Wed, 27 Jun 2012 10:09:00 -0500

This week on our Global Notes segment we’re heading to Fés, Morocco, site of the 18th edition of the Sacred Music Festival. I just got back from the ancient Moroccan city.

The Festival's theme this year was to "re-enchant the world," in tribute to the great Persian poet Omar al Khayyam. The festival's offerings focused on spiritual poetry made song, in order to "harness hope and glimpse beyond a disenchanted world" and affirm the right of all people to "the quest for beauty and the intangible richness of it all."

Jerome McDonnell and I will check out the beautiful poetic music of Iranian sisters Mahsa and Marjan Vahdat, full of melancholy and longing; the intertwined richness of Guinean storyteller Mory Djely Kouyaté's voice and French artist Jean Phillippe Rykiel's piano playing with a selection from their Tinkiso recording.

Then we’ll check out the driving energy of Moroccan songstress and poetess Cherifa's voice; and the eerie beauty of Bjork's falsetto singing about the moon, from her Biophilia project which she also presented at the Sacred Music Fest.

Come along for the ride.

Track list:

"Golden Straws of Wheat" - Mahsa and Marjan Vahdat

"Moriba Kaba" -Mory Djely Kouyate and Jean Philippe Rykiel

"Isul Isul Umarge Nsh Awadigi" -Cherifa

"Moon" - Bjork

Worldview 5.30.12

Wed, 30 May 2012 09:49:00 -0500

Wednesday on Worldview:

Egyptians head to the polls mid-month to elect a new president; now the field of candidates has been narrowed down to two. Ahmed Rehab, director of the Chicago chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, tells Worldview what this election means for the future of Egypt.

Then, Rehab sticks around to talk about the power of music in this political campaign. Campaign songs and online music videos have played an influential role in Egyptian politics since the uprising in Tahrir Square. Many of the songs were written by underground musicians who flourished during the revolution that ousted Hosni Mubarak. Ahmed, Jerome McDonnell and Eight Forty-Eight/Radio M host Tony Sarabia dissect the lyrics during Global Notes.

And, Worldview talks with director Micha X. Peled about his film, Bitter Seeds. The movie examines the causes of an epidemic of farmer suicides in India—one every 30 minutes. In 2004, an American company introduced genetically modified seeds to the Indian market, with catastrophic results for local farmers. Bitter Seeds screens Wednesday at the Gene Siskel Film Center as part of the Human Rights Watch Film Festival.

Worldview 5.16.12

Wed, 16 May 2012 10:24:00 -0500

Wednesday on Worldview:

It's not just world leaders gathering in Chicago this weekend.

A coalition of 39 groups will also be in town to take part in a "Counter-Summit for Peace and Economic Justice." Their goal? “Imagining an alternative future without NATO.” Worldview talks with Reiner Braun, executive director of the International Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms, who's in from Germany to attend the conference.

We also look at whether this weekend’s NATO summit will have a lasting effect on Chicago’s tourism industry, with economics professor Victor Matheson. To join the conversation call 312-923-9239.

And on our Global Notes segment, Islamic studies professor Ahmad Sadri explains why Iranian rapper Shahin Najafi is causing such a stir with is latest song, “Naghi.” An Islamist website has offered a $100,000 to anyone who kills Najafi.

Worldview 3.14.12

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 14:04:00 -0500

Experts in philosophy, conservation and animal behavior believe dolphins and whales are sufficiently intelligent to justify the same ethical considerations as humans. These experts are calling for support for a “Declaration of Rights for Cetaceans.” Worldview breaks down the arguments with philosopher and ethicist Thomas White, author of In Defense of Dolphins: The New Moral Frontier. Also, the World Music Composers’ Salon features a lecture and performance by a member of Chicago’s world music community, followed by a Q&A session. Worldview's Jerome McDonnell and 848/Radio M host Tony Sarabia chat with the salon’s founder, Andrew Edwards. Plus, Salon-goer Habib Wardak introduces us to the rubab, a lute-like musical instrument originally from Afghanistan.