Old songs, bold harmonies / US Known for the innovation of their arrangements, Windborne’s bold harmonies are unpredictable and showcase the profound power and variations of human voices. Lauren Breunig, Jeremy Carter-Gordon, Lynn Rowan, and Will Rowan share a vibrant...
Punjabi anthems / India Sonny Singh’s music is spiritual and rebellious, “vibrant, ebullient, and energized . . . a prayer for our ailing world” (JazzTimes). His first musical outlet as a child of immigrant parents in North Carolina was singing Sikh devotional music...
Occitan polyphony / France Occitan polyphony is the starting point for this six-voice and percussion collective who see themselves as modern troubadours. Their compositions use the Occitan lan- guage as a rhythmic instrument, combining poetry with hypnotic vocal...
Taos Pueblo / US Grammy Award-winning musician Robert Mirabal performs worldwide, sharing flute songs, tribal rock, dance, and storytelling that reflect his life in Taos Pueblo in New Mexico, where he grew up. He speaks the Tiwa language and still participates in the...
Haitian roots music / Haiti From its home base at the Hotel Oloffson in Port-au-Prince, RAM has toured for more than 25 years, bringing Haiti’s rasin (a.k.a. Haitian roots music) to audiences around the world. The music is a stew of Vodou lyrics and instrumentation —...
Pan-Latin Dance Music / US Nosotros has been drawing music lovers to their distinctive Latin groove for over 20 years. What began as a guitar trio in 1994 quickly took on a life of its own, becom- ing one of the most recognizable and original Latin bands in the...
Ladino song / Spain, the Netherlands “What I like about writing in Ladino,” says Noam “Nani” Vazana, “is that when I look at the past, I see the future. They are intertwined and relevant and alive today” (Song- lines). She is one of the only artists in the world to...
Mariachi / Mexico Under the direction of Javier León, Mariachi Perla del Medio Oeste is an ensemble sponsored by the Indiana University Latin American Music Center at IU’s Jacobs School of Music. With more than a dozen players and singers, Perla del Medio Oeste...
Latin rock / US Making Movies blends pulsing Afro-Latino rhythms, psychedelic jams, and rock ’n’ roll swagger into powerful live performances. This Kansas City band punches out one high-energy song after another, crunching classic rock into Latin American rhythms —...
Cajun / US Ann Savoy, Jane Vidrine, Anya Burgess, and Lisa Trahan play Cajun French musicfrom southwest Louisiana — from dancehall Cajun to primitive Creole, from house music to front porch ballads — gleaned from a wealth of Cajun jewels found in their extensive...