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World Music Focus: Arts Presenters 50th Anniversary
By Evangeline Kim
January 29, 2007
Co-Published by www.afropop.org and Giant Step
Over four days, January 19 - 22, New York City was a cultural cornucopia overflowing with a profusion of receptions and parties, speeches and awards, performances and showcases, pre-conference sessions and workshops, conference tracks, a glorious globalFest 2007 edition, and unexpected surprises during the Association of Performing Arts 50th Anniversary Celebration Conference www.artspresenters.org.
World music focus during the conference over the past few years has grown to become exceptionally strong this year among fans, media, publicists, presenters, agents, labels, managers, and of course, the artists themselves through the concerted efforts of the North American World Music Coalition.
As the largest global performing arts marketplace, this year’s conference drew a record-breaking attendance of 4,400 registered attendees from the U.S. and all over the world, close to 2700 showcase performances at the Hilton and around town, 28 countries represented, and 120 media attendees. The theme for America’s Arts Presenters’ anniversary is “Presenting America - an opportunity to create visibility for presenting and touring as an industry, and to showcase the world's diverse cultures in communities throughout the United States and globally.”
 The North American World Music Coalition organized an excellent world music pre-conference day of workshops and panels that packed rooms at the Hilton. To the great credit of Sandra Gibson, Arts Presenters President and CEO, the conference incorporates this program in their annual schedule as a free-to-the-public service, and each year, it’s the invaluable one day in the New Year to explore what is critical to the growth of the world music industry: cutting-edge thinking from the field and network synergies with colleagues.
One of the most useful and informative sessions, “Digital Explosion and Live Performance: Strategies for Linking World Music Tours, Records, and Fans in the New Economy” was facilitated by Dmitri Vietze, the ever-dynamic and brilliant world music publicist based in
Bloomington, Indiana , who presides over www.rockpaperscissors.biz.
Here is Dmitri’s description of the session:
When the popularity of illegal downloads emerged a few years ago, there were articles  about the end of the music industry. Yet music has not only survived, it has thrived with the emergence of download sharing, free blogs, and social networking sites, though the financial model is still not clear. Many asked, "What will the new model be?" The answer is: there is no single model. We must all pursue several paths simultaneously to reach increasingly dispersed niche audiences. This open discussion brings together world music presenters, agents, artists, and record labels about how they are using new technologies to reach their audiences and fans in new ways.
Six months ago, Dmitri created the online world music industry journal www.DubMC.com where he has just posted a summary of an intriguing creative marketing strategy that was presented during his Digital Explosion session: “Vieux Farka Toure: An Emerging Case Study on the Simultaneous Convergence of Remix Culture, Niche Marketing, and New Source Material.”
Vieux Farka Toure is the son of the late, great Malian musician, Ali Farka Toure. Modiba Productions in Brooklyn has produced Vieux’s first album that, to be released on the World Village label. There will be a DJ “Vieux Remix” party at Pachita’s coming up on February 2nd with a live performance by Vieux with West African dancers promoted by Giant Step (info: www.giantstep.net/events/719/) and a more traditional performance by Vieux at Joe’s Pub on February 8th (info: www.joespub.com). At the end of this report - see Coda I below - Dmitri gives us a wrap-up view of his perceptions about his technology focus session and the conference. Jesse Brenner, President and Co-Founder of Modiba Productions www.modiba.net, who master-minded Vieux’s market launch strategy recaps his Digital Explosion thinking on branding, communications and technology - see Coda II below.
It remains critical to insist upon and maintain within the recording industry high quality, 3-dimensional sound despite the expediency of mp3 downloads and the ubiquitous iPod, wherein digitized sound qualities are not optimal. The cold, flat 2-dimensionality of these listening experiences may endanger the future of good recordings. Further, where would the DJ be today without the foundations of great world music recordings to sample and mix? Needless to say, digital technology can be extremely useful, but the phenomenon requires continuous, judicious evaluation. The internet itself is, after all, still in its infancy stage of development.
Carlos Gutierrez, New York based cultural promoter and arts consultant states:
Despite the current fascination with technology, with all of its capacities and potential, I’m not just jumping to the bandwagon just yet.... I have several doubts that the way we’re using technology will solve many of the issues that we’re currently facing. This is not to say I am a technophobe… after all, technology is only a tool… however my feeling is that we’re so fascinated with technology as a means in itself that we’re completely overlooking the basics of communicating. I’m not against using You Tube or Flickr to promote the artists – it might work in some cases as part of a larger, and perhaps inexpensive, promotional campaign. However, I think we won’t be successful with the new technologies if we’re not to understand and take the time to properly enounce and listen. The problem is that we’re too obsessed with technology and this is creating a lot of noise in the environment, and as I see it, the way we’re using it is creating more miscommunication problems that might be more harmful than beneficial. I guess the secret will always be in remembering that technology is just another tool.
Present during Dmitri’s Digital Explosion session was Benjamin de Menil, Record Producer with  www.iasorecords.com. Having launched his independent world music label just a few years ago, he is producing some of the best available Afro-Latin, Dominican meringue, and bachata recordings, superb traditional West African music and more to come from other parts of the world. (He may be dashing off to Kashmir soon to record indigenous love songs in danger of falling into extinction!)
What gives his work quality are live recording techniques that he discusses at the end of this report –see Coda III below - along with his astute views on technology usage. His is a rare, at once state-of-art-technologically-hip yet “old-fashioned” live-recording breed of producers. Chances are that the ‘classic’ recordings he’s producing may very well outlive many others on the market. He possesses a finessed musical ear and a keen technical understanding, a rare mix.
 During the conference, Benjamin was in the midst of recording the great kora master Djeli Lankandia Cissoko, the “Lion of Senegal,” from
Casamance, , in the IASO Records Studio in the city. Djeli Lankandia is the pedigreed son of the legendary, late Mande kora player Djeli Mori Cissoko and whose grandfather is reputed to have introduced the kora to Casamance several decades ago. It was a pleasure to sit in on the vibrant, warm 3-dimensional live recording of a very special and specific style of kora-playing, which is much more percussive and “hotter” than the kora albums we have heard from and . The forthcoming album promises to be quite extraordinary with accompaniment of mbalax or sabar dance drumming, balafon and konting (the fretless lute also called ngoni). More information about the recording is available on the IASO Records website.
Coinciding with the Arts Presenters 50th Anniversary Conference, Sean Barlow, Afropop Worldwide President and Executive Producer, celebrated his 50th birthday in the elegant home of Josh Mailman, Afropop Board Member, an avid collector of exceptional African art. The evening was a memorable party event with many Afropop supporters present, delicious food, a birthday cake, good cheer, and of course wonderful live music and dancing.
Banning Eyre, Afropop’s Senior Editor, an accomplished guitarist, teamed up with Niger’s master guitarist Abdoulaye “Abdallah” Alhassane and Dirk Westervelt on bass and performed a splendidly beautiful after-dinner concert of ancient court songs from Niger’s Sonrai people. Following this, the popular local group, Timbila charged the evening with infectious dance rhythms and ringing harmonies with their “Afrodelic xylophone funk” from , and New York’s
East
Village , and everyone danced the night away.
On Sunday evening, world music fans and presenters were treated to the crowning glory world music event showcase of the conference, the by now eagerly anticipated annual globalFEST. See Banning Eyre’s “globalFEST 2007: Bigger and Better” review and photos.
Maybe it was the switch this year to the larger venue, Webster Hall, maybe it was the synergy of celebrating some of the best in world music today along with Arts Presenters 50th Anniversary. For certain this year’s 4th annual globalFEST was by far the most impressive, at once spectacular and full of clear musical contrasts and unexpected surprises.
 The strongest acts veered away from fuzzy fusions and were at ease with mixing musical specificities from their countries. The expansive Ballroom stage held the best surprises of the evening. ’s Recife-born singer Lenine, solo on stage with his guitars, was able to captivate and enthrall the crowds without a blazing band behind him. He presented himself as a rock-balladeer, uninhibited in deeply intense expressiveness, gentle and poetic by moments and then, suddenly rock-explosive in his chord phrasing. Lila Downs possesses a soaring, beautiful, trained voice and infuses ’s diverse regional traditions in her peppy cumbias and tearful rancheras. Compared to her quiet performances with a few musicians in Joe’s Pub over the past few years, she rose to the challenge of Webster Hall’s biggest stage and became a rock-star with a full band  and a Jarocho harp. No small feat to have dramatized her performance with video projections of photos of Mexican workers on the backstage screen, occasionally superimposed with live-feed images of herself. The charming, wonderful pop Cambodian singer, Chhom Nimol with the group Dengue Fever anchored her backing ‘60’s style psychedelic rock band with her beguiling, haunting vocals and seductive dancing. It’s heartening to know that Cambodian pop music had managed to survive despite the country’s terrible history.
 All the showcases in the Marlin Room were eminent crowd-pleasers. Belize’s Andy Palacio and the Garifuna Collective must be seen live to experience his power as a great punta rock star. He was joined in a cameo appearance by the Belize singing legend, 78 year-old Paul Nabor with a wizened brown face - like a beautiful piece of old wood - who brought the house down decisively for Andy Palacio’s Garifuna groove. France’s Les Primitifs du Futur is a lovely, retro experience into the bal musette from the ‘30’s and the ensemble carries the nostalgia of the era into the present with grace, while sparking it with terrific vocal jazz scatting and bluesy riffs. ’s Julia Sarr is rising to stardom on the sheer strength of her voice and quietly commanding stage presence. She is working with Patrice Larose, the French flamenco-inspired artist and a French-Vietnamese percussionist and the three-some can spell- bind with soulful intimacy. The Palestinian brothers Le Trio Joubran who are based in are fascinating to watch and hear on their ouds together. That they are brothers resembling each other enhances the live experience of watching their performance and seems to give them an unusually balanced, aural cohesion, as they strum and pluck away together in their modernized classical oud improvisations.
As the Downtown Room was a traffic-jam of crowds, it was very difficult to squeeze in there and catch all the acts. But there was a jewel-like performance as finale to the whole evening, by ’s delightful Lucia Pulido and Palenque who has  been based in
New York since 1994. As if in a far-away trance and longing to be home, she sang traditional and Colombian street songs with a sweet flute-like voice. Her music filters through the prism of
New York, the most culturally diverse city in this country, with her musicians from different ethnic backgrounds in the city. But her rhythmic mix works exceedingly well, as her spirit is so capable of unifying the band’s sound.
Although Cape Verde’s Sara Tavares was part of globalFEST in the overcrowded room downstairs, she also had another showcase at SOB’s where it was possible to have a second  chance to catch her live. Now living in Lisbon, where is there is a universe of immigrants from several Portuguese-speaking countries from Africa and Brazil, she captures all the strands of upbeat rhythms from those other countries and weaves them into her silken and stylish vocals.
India’s Kiran Ahluwalia also had her showcase at SOB’s. A superb singer of traditional music from India and Pakistan, her voice glides and quivers with all the exquisite melismas that characterize the emotions in ghazals and Punjabi folk songs. Watching her perform live is to share in her ecstasy. Her harmonium and tabla players are part of her entrancement.
 This year’s Arts Presenters closing reception took place at the Rubin Museum of Art that features a tremendously fine collection of art from the
Himalayas and surrounding regions. For the occasion, the Museum commissioned a special performance by Andrew Sterman and his ensemble. As an American jazz musician and composer, his abiding interest in the Museum’s art collection has had a profound influence on his music. There is a calm, meditative, and healing quality in his playing, as he reflects on many ancient principles in the myriad details of Tibetan art. Tim McHenry, the Museum’s Programming Director, is one of the most innovative live event and concert producers in
New York . This morning’s Museum e-announcement from him reads:
Some will be preparing for the Super Bowl this weekend. We at the Rubin Museum of Art are gearing up for the Mongolian New Year with horse roping, wrestling, archery, throat-singing, masked dances, all culminating in a Mongolian vodka tasting of seven different spirits straight from the steppes to the door of our Mongolian ger (nomadic tent) at 5 p.m. on Sunday February 4. One of these eau-de-vie has flecks of 22-carat gold suspended in its 80 proof contents. Come start the weekend celebrating the first anniversary of the K2 Lounge with a Listening Party for Yoko Ono’s new CD Yes, I’m a Witch followed by Hendrik Hertzberg introducing Frank Capra’s Lost Horizon at Cabaret Cinema. Full details on www.rmanyc.org/calendar.
It’s all for love. Speaking of the latest buzz word in world music, “the long tail,” here are a few.
Coda I:
Dmitri Vietze, World Music Publicist - www.rockpaperscissors.biz : Conference Notes
In the "Digital Explosion and Live Performance" session, it was interesting to see that there were clearly two sets of people: those who have been grappling with and experimenting in the emerging digital economy and those who are still trying to wrap their brains around it. The session was structured as a panel-less panel, to capture the energy and ideas of everyone in the room. We heard from a producer of an album remix and how they are utilizing online opportunities to reach new audiences as well as offering both a live concert and a DJ performance to reach niche audiences. We heard from venues (Joe's Pub,
Kimmel
Center , etc.) that were using MySpace and YouTube, offering free MP3s and other exclusive web content like pod casts to audience members, setting up text-messaging offers from the stage for fans to get special content. Fears were expressed by some about what happens to artist development without the support of a real record label. Erich Ludwig at CalabashMusic.com proclaimed that "the biggest threat to the independent artist is obscurity."
 Later I spoke with ACCESS director Ismael Ahmed, who raised the issues of cross-generational disparities in technology literacy and the potential impact of that on our larger society. He thought that half the room had blank stares on their faces, not understanding half of what was being said. But he thought that is a good thing, as people are exposed to new ideas and strategies. At the same time, you could see light bulbs going on in the room with certain people standing up to rephrase what they just heard to make sure they understood new information. (On another note, Ismael sat on the Working with Arab Music panel, which I think did a great job as an introduction to that music, as well as pointing to the continued and under acknowledged role music and performing arts have to play in social change.)
globalFEST reached yet another level of saturation this year, demonstrating its staying power through representing the diversity of so-called world music, and also showing its alive nature with continually shifting hybrids of roots in modern contexts. Meanwhile, the conference's onsite showcases for world music seem to have multiplied and are also starting to hit another demographic, with Barbes Records sponsoring a smokin' hot room with Slavic Soul Party, Hazmat Modine, and Las Rubias del Norte crammed with presenters. I am seeing a lot of new young labels run by new nimble producers, with a less rigid sense of what a label does. They each function very differently.
As I stated in the Digital Explosion session, the decreasing cost of PRODUCTION has done as much or more to change the music industry as has the flattening of DISTRIBUTION. Meanwhile, I think the next frontier of technological innovation is on DISCOVERY that is, helping the fan find new music within these increasingly available niches. This is the area where I think world music will benefit the most, as people discover music in new ways never available before, and the bottleneck of mainstream programming explodes. That's the true digital explosion and the place where the most innovation is occurring right now and tomorrow.
Coda II:
Jesse Brenner, President and Co-Founder Modiba Productions – www.modiba.net
One of the reasons I think Modiba has had so much success with our branding in such a short time is because of our demographic. As relatively young people, we have a familiarity, even an intimacy, with today's technologies with which our parents' generation and beyond did not grow up. We find ourselves squarely in the 18-30 demographic that is so highly sought-after by corporations, and especially those in entertainment. So we often look at what we want ourselves as consumers, find what's lacking, and fill in the gaps. We also take what works for us as consumers and expand it to encompass the kind of meaningful musical and cultural experiences we are trying to create, evolve, and convey to others.
Although 'world music' is often perceived as a fringe industry, many of the basic strategies used for mainstream culture can work for communicating the essence of what makes this musical culture exciting and accessible to us (and, we hope, to other people as well). And in the end, that's what it's all about: communication. Without communication, the most brilliant idea will never be heard. I truly believe that so much of what's happening in 'world music' has mass appeal already built-in, waiting for someone to tap into its potential. The problem in this industry isn't the product; it's the exposition of the product in the languages and channels that people can understand and to which they can relate.
Thus, it's not at all about 'watering down' the music; it's about presenting it in a way that jives with people's framework for experiencing and internalizing art-as-entertainment. In today's world, this means striving to attain a lateral reach across the myriad technologies on offer in the ever-expanding digital universe. Keep the message strong and substantive, but simple and accessible, and broadcast it over any and all technologies accessible to you. That, to me, is the essence of a 'brand,' and it's just as important -- if not more so -- for world music as it is for the pop culture behemoths who have snatched this idea from the individual and made it a word we fear and loathe. It's up to us to take it back and make it work for our think-global/act-local industry.
Coda III:
Interview with Benjamin de Menil, Record Producer -
www.iasorecords.com:
What are you doing in the world music business?
I'm trying to take a different approach to 'World Music.’ On the one hand, I want to be true to the music - not re-cast it to make it more appealing to 'world music' listeners. There's a tendency for world music producers to want to soften the music - make it less edgy - to me, that's removing the essence of what makes music good. The other side of the spectrum is the ethno musicological approach, which is obsessed with the form and not concerned enough about whether the music is actually any good. I mean you can go out in the desert and record a man playing a one string violin in an ancient style, but maybe the man is just not a very good violinist. Or maybe that particular ancient style is pretty boring - add that to the poor quality of the audio and it doesn't make for an exciting listen.
So I’m somewhere in the middle. I want the music to have a 'street sound' - to capture the true feelings, expressions, and humanity of that culture in an uncensored way. But I don't want to be overly ideological in my approach. The most important thing is that it sounds good.
Something I believe in very strongly is live recording without a click track. Music recorded in this fashion just feels much more alive – no pun intended. Feedback between musicians in some cases can be very obvious, like a bongo phrase reacting to a variation played by the guira - and this type of feedback can be imitated in carefully crafted track by track recording (although it often isn't), but there is another kind of feedback which is much more subtle - slight variations of emphasis and energy, or even of tempo - in a live recording you can feel the music breathe - whereas in a track by track it feels by comparison sterile. Not having a click track mark tempo is also important - some people do live recording with click track - you don't want the music to have that metronome feel - it's natural that tempo should change slightly in different parts of a song - and maybe there are even minute natural cycles of tempo change.
I think people are so accustomed to electronic music these days that they don't really know what they're missing in terms of the live feel. On the other hand, I don't think track by track producing doesn't have its place and its merits. I am a great admirer for instance of Jamaican producer Lee Perry - who would endlessly sample and remix.
Certain types of modern music are based on this kind of sound - specifically hip hop and the whole spectrum of 'urban' type music. In these, the 'liveness' factor comes more from main vocalist - the beat is a kind of hypnotic backdrop.
But another problem with sampling and with track by track recording is that the producer and musicians need have neither good tempo nor pitch to put together an ok sounding track - so these two most clear queues of lack of musical talent are absent. In broader terms, technology and track by track recording can help cover up poor musicianship. But the music, while sounding correct, will be uninspiring.
What makes you unusual in the industry?
Well, for one, I have a background in business and technology – my bachelors is in computer science and I have an MBA – especially unusual in that my focus isn't hip-hop or electronica, but what you'd call more traditional music.
 I've also traveled and seen a lot of the world from a young age, and I think this helps me see humanity with less cultural bias. So to some extent I'm able to listen to music with a fresh ear and hear it on its own terms. Music is so tied up with cultural identity - for instance you see groups of kids talking and dressing differently and forming cliques depending on what kind of music they're into - well this behavior mirrors a general human phenomenon - different groups speaking different languages within different traditions - and each with their own music. So to really hear the music of another culture you have to be able to divorce yourself to a degree from your own culture, and put yourself in the other's mentality.
What is your ambition?
I'd like to build a successful label and make a positive difference in people’s lives with the music we produce. I'd like the recording to withstand the test of time, to remain appreciated for a long time. I'd also like to help foster music in the communities I work with. To that end, I'd some day like to get involved in music education. My dream is to help set up a network of music schools all over the world - and to tie the schools to touring and recording outlets so that there be actual employment opportunities for the graduates.
Thoughts on technology usage in your work?
I'm a lover of technology. I use it on the production side, of course, to make recordings  with the best possible sound. An area where I think technology is making the biggest difference is in reaching the audience. I want to create a community online around the music we work with - and not limited to the specific musicians we are working with. What we've started to do with our website www.iasorecords.com is to make it a resource where one can do more than just listen to music - it offers opportunities to discover music in ways that just a few years ago weren't possible - articles with embedded video and music clips and blog-like discussions.
In terms of our own artists, we can film concerts, rehearsals, interviews, etc., and put them on our site - hosted on YouTube so that they take part in that whole community as well. It makes the music more real and intimate, and also makes it easier to discover – through search engines and links.
I believe to some extent in the democracy of capitalism - the more liberty people have to be exposed to everything that's out there the more likely they'll choose better quality products. The problem up to now is that music industry has become a cartel with too much power over what gets released and promoted in the hands of too few. So people haven’t had much choice what to listen to. I hope technology will change this. Right now the cartel is weakening, but it's still very much present.
Contributed by: Evangeline KimFirst published: www.afropop.org, www.giantstep.net
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