This is Banning Eyre’s report and photographs from some of the fantastic live acts that took place in New York between January 8-11, 2026, during the Arts Presenters conference. Because he had a gig (see below), he missed most of the weekend’s premier event, globalFEST at Lincoln Center. But Afropop colleague Bill Farrington provides a few images from this year’s globalFEST. There’s no way to catch all the action, and it continued on beyond the weekend. But here’s a slice of life from New York’s traditional live music kickoff.
Stay tuned for videos!
Ah, New York City in January. Always a feast of music. That's when all the arts presenters from around the country gather at the Hilton Hotel downtown and the city just bursts with showcases featuring artists dying to be programmed. I pursued a slightly different take on things this year because there were some new events, starting with the Unfit Music Showcase, which took place at two clubs in the East Village, Drome and Berlin.
I spent the evening mostly at Berlin because the lineup was so spectacular, starting with Pippo Romero, a terrific flamenco guitarist. Pippo augmented his sound with foot-controlled percussion, adding a lot of oomph to the act. I'm not sure he really needed that because he is such a great guitarist, but it did have impact. My favorite part was when he went off mic at the end and played a gorgeous instrumental version of a Carlos Gardel classic from Argentina.
Next came the incomparable Bia Ferreira from Brazil. Once again, this was a single artist with a nylon string guitar. But in Bia's case, no electronic percussion was necessary. Bia can make that nylon string guitar sound like a complete Brazilian rhythm section. With her uniquye finger techniques and her ability to coax rhythms and textures by tapping and slapping various parts of the instrument, she is a rhythm machine. She also has a terrific, hurricane force voice, and she's extremely outspoken, humorously and delightfully so.
At one point, she got the whole crowd singing along as members of the Church of Lesbitarianism. We have much to speak about with Bia and are in pursuit of an interview, so stay tuned for that.
Max ZT is a virtuoso of the hammer dulcimer, and his trio of similarly talented players produce music that is both hard to classify and pure magic. It was great to hear in this intimate setting. Max excused himself as exhausted with a new baby. Mozletoff! But it sure didn't show in the playing.
Next came Senegal...
This past summer, Senegalese singer Cheikh Ibra Fam was scheduled to play at Drome. Unfortunately, the show did not happen due to low ticket sales. It was the dog days of August. But here he was with his fascinating multinational band featuring musicians from Nigeria, Jamaica, the U.S., and of course, the singer himself from Senegal.
The fierce spirit of Senegalese mbalax is there, but in a fused and somewhat toned-down context. Ibra Fam has a fabulous voice, and the set went down very, very well with the audience at Berlin. We will surely see and hear more from this emerging artist.
On Friday night, we moved into the zone of the Winter Jazz Fest, another longstanding event that happens during this particular week, and one Afropop has rarely sampled.
At Le Poisson Rouge, we heard some absolutely slamming jazz. The standout was Lakecia Benjamin, saxophonist and bandleader extraordinaire. She controls her band with incredible style and panache. I thought of her as a female Fela Kuti for her playfulness, severity and complete control over her crack musicians. Although, unlike Fela, she also has a million-dollar smile.
Then I popped over to Zinc to catch a little bit of Laura Anglade, who delivers gentle but vibrant chanson stylings with her beautiful nightingale voice. Our visit was short but sweet. Zinc has become a marvelous venue for smaller, quieter groups. And the atmosphere is wonderfully intimate. We’ll be back.
Then it was back to La Poisson Rouge for Obed Calvaire, a Haitian percussionist who's worked in all sorts of professional settings in New York. This was his own band, provocatively titled 150 Gold Francs. Haitian rhythms met jazz intensity with fantastic results. A terrific way to close out another deep night of music.
Probably the highlight of the weekend was the Winter Jazz Fest lineup at the Brooklyn Bowl on Saturday night. Wow. It started out with the Ether/Orchestra from Boston playing tunes from their recent, and second, album from the sensational Éthiopiques album series.
This band has spent many, many years absorbing and interpreting Ethiopian music, including touring with the great Mahmoud Ahmed and performing in Ethiopia. Russ Gershorn, the leader, is an amiable front man, but the real force of the band comes from the terrific brass arranging and the two featured singers, including Munit Mesfin and Bruk Tesfaye, who some may remember from his role in another Boston-based Ethiopian music ensemble, Debo Band.
Next, it was Saha Gnawa, a powerful New York City ensemble recently featured in our interview with band leader Daniel Freedman. The band builds around deep Gnawa traditional repertoire, with Maâlem Hassan Ben Jaafer of Fes on guembri and vocals, and Amino Belyamani, both veterans of the New York-based Gnawa ensemble Innov Gnawa, and two other Moroccan singer/percussionists. These four and Freedman form the core of the group, while the other players provide subtle, ambient guitar from Jason Lindner, keyboards, and in this case, trumpet, that enhance the sound and bring it into a more contemporary feel while never losing track of the tradition. This was joyful Ganawa music with beats that ranged from deep meditation to danceable grooves reminiscent of Congolese music.
Then came Annie and the Caldwells, a mostly female, family gospel group out of New Orleans and currently recording for the Luaka Bob label. This was gospel extraordinaire. I joked with one of the Moroccans watching that this was Christian version of tarab, the ecstasy that comes through music in the Arab world. Praise the lord, these ladies are the real thing!
Then came the long-awaited New York debut of Made Kuti. Made is the grandson of Fela Kuti and the son of Femi Kuti. He's a fantastic musician who played all the instruments on his debut album and who pulled together his own band called The Movement for his 2025 album, Where Does Happiness Come From?
In this case, he recruited a team of professional New York musicians, including members of the band Antibalis. Made actually sent written charts for all of his very complex tunes for them to learn in advance, and they nailed it.
You could see how pleased he was to have found musicians capable of tackling music with so many twists and turns and some ferocious tempos to boot. On trumpet, saxophone, and vocal, Made is a more cheerful front man than his father or grandfather. A little more mellow too, but the music is far from mellow. Deep grooves, tour-de-force arrangements. This Kuti is carrying the family tradition into the 21st century with innovation and style.
Closing out the evening was the incomparable Cuban percussion maestro Pedrito Martinez, playing the more timba/pop end of his repertoire with a large band. Pedrito is deep into the African religious music of Cuba, as well as hard core Latin jazz. Here, the dance-happy feeling of timba was predominant. Once again, a fantastic conclusion to one of the best nights of live music I've seen in a long time.
Sunday came globalFest, the traditional capping event of this weekend, with 10 acts on three stages. More on that in a moment… Alas, I missed most of the action because I was performing a few blocks away at the Society for Ethical Culture opening up for Derek Ripper and Ballaké Sissoko on guitar and kora.
These two players have developed a profoundly deep connection. They've been playing together for a few years now, and it's reached the point where they don't talk much or plan a set or name songs. They just start playing. It's kind of like what Keith Jarrett used to do on piano, except using the language of Mande music and the many influences that Derek Gripper brings to the table after all his experiences playing West African and Brazilian music, not to mention Bach and other classical composers' works. These are world-class improvisers so intuitively in synch that is a truly moving thing to see and hear, and this crowd was eating it up.
It's a real testament to New York City that you could have a sold-out crowd at Adler Hall (800 seats) and just a few blocks away, masses of people at Lincoln Center taking in globalFest.
I arrived at globalFest kist in time for the final act, Ukrainian rock band Vopli Vidopliassova This was indeed rock music, grungy, driving and high-spirited. Under normal circumstances, this act might have seemed a little out of place in the grandeur of Lincoln Center’s David Geffen Hall, even for globalFest. But current events in Ukraine added intensity to the performance, and the audience was rapt.
One has you have to say about this particular weekend is that it is impossible to take in even a fraction of the great music that happens all around the city. So take this as one reviewer's slice of life. And if you're making plans for 2027, try to be in New York for this weekend. There's really nothing like it.
Afropop colleague Bill Farrington took in the entire globalFEST evening, and offered these images of bands Banning missed.
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