"World music" is an English phrase for styles of music from non-English speaking countries, including quasi-traditional, intercultural, and traditional music. World music's broad nature and elasticity as a musical category pose obstacles to a universal definition, but its ethic of interest in the culturally exotic is encapsulated in Roots magazine's description of the genre as "local music from out there".
Wayne Shorter was an American jazz saxophonist, composer and bandleader. Shorter came to mainstream prominence in 1959 upon joining Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, for whom he eventually became the primary composer. In 1964 he joined Miles Davis' Second Great Quintet, and then co-founded the jazz fusion band Weather Report in 1970. He recorded more than 20 albums as a bandleader.
The mangue bit or manguebeat movement is a cultural movement created circa 1991 in the city of Recife in Northeast Brazil in reaction to the cultural and economic stagnation of the city. The movement largely focuses on music, but it has its own fashion and slang, and encompasses aspects of visual art. It mixes regional rhythms of Brazilian Northeast, such as maracatu, frevo, coco and forró, with rock, soul, raggamuffin, hip hop, funk and electronic music.
Andy Vivian Palacio was a Belizean punta musician and government official. He was also a leading activist for the Garifuna people and their culture.
Ricardo Lemvo is a Congolese singer of Angolan descent who lives in Los Angeles, California. His music is a blend of African soukous, kizomba, samba and Cuban salsa.
Wakarusa Music and Camping Festival was a four-day music festival held annually in early June from 2004 to 2015 at Mulberry Mountain near Ozark, Arkansas. Named for the Wakarusa River, the festival was first held at Clinton State Park immediately outside of Lawrence, Kansas. It moved to its new location, just outside Fort Smith and Fayetteville, Arkansas in 2009. The festival is known for an eclectic mix of music and has featured artists like Grammy award winners the Black Keys, The Flaming Lips, Wilco, and Bela Fleck and the Flecktones. Activities other than music included disc golf, yoga, hiking, and swimming in the Mulberry River.
Brian Q. Torff is an American jazz double-bassist, songwriter and composer.
Sunny Jain is an Indian American dhol player, drummer, and Indo jazz composer. He is recognized as a leading voice in the burgeoning movement of South Asian-American jazz musicians. His albums have received international acclaim for their "groundbreaking synthesis", as he brings together the ancient sounds of his cultural heritage, jazz and a host of other sounds.
The Melbourne Jazz Fringe Festival is an annual international jazz festival held in Melbourne, Australia in April or May. The festival was formed in 2005 to celebrate Melbourne’s creative jazz scene.
The Wisconsin Union Theater is a performing arts center in Madison, Wisconsin, located in the University of Wisconsin–Madison's Memorial Union. Wisconsin Union Theater performances include world stage, concerts, dance, jazz and other special events.
Chrisavgi "Kristi" Stassinopoulou is a Greek singer, lyricist, and fiction writer. A native Athenian, she is an internationally known artist of the world music circuit. She is accompanied by composer, arranger, co-producer and multi-instrumentalist Stathis Kalyviotis. Their music combines traditional Greek rhythms and sounds, Byzantine vocal lines, rebetiko music, psychedelic rock, ambience and electronica.
Rivotrill is a Brazilian instrumental group formed by Junior Crato, Rafa Duarte (bass) and Lucas dos Prazeres (percussion), which presents a fusion of Brazilian, Latin and African rhythms with progressive rock and jazz.
Ferit Odman is a jazz drummer based in Istanbul, Turkey.
Jack Cooper is an American composer, arranger, orchestrator, multireedist, and music educator. He has performed with, written music for and recorded by internationally known pop, jazz, and classical artists.
Troker is a jazz and psychedelic music band from Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico.
Ádám Pettik is a Hungarian musician, singer-songwriter, percussionist and instrument creator. He is the founder of the world music band Besh o droM.
Carmen Souza is a Portuguese jazz singer and songwriter of Cape Verdean heritage. She combines traditional forms of Cape Verde with contemporary and traditional jazz.
Doreen J. Ketchens is a virtuoso American jazz clarinetist who performs Dixieland and trad jazz. She has performed at concert halls, music festivals, and U.S. embassies, as well as in decades of weekly performances in Dixieland's tradition in the Royal Street Performing Arts Zone in the French Quarter of New Orleans with her band, Doreen's Jazz New Orleans. Ketchens has performed for four U.S. presidents– Bill Clinton, George H. W. Bush, Ronald Reagan, and Jimmy Carter– and was described by Nola.com in 2012 as a cultural ambassador of New Orleans.
Itamar Borochov is an Israeli jazz trumpeter.
Amir Gwirtzman is a musician, multi-instrumentalist, composer and producer. The New York Jewish Week of The Times of Israel described him as one of Israel's leading jazz musicians and "a kind of cultural ambassador for the Jewish state". He is also one of the few musicians in the world who mastered more than 20 woodwind instruments from various cultures and places: Saxophones, Clarinet, Bass Clarinet, Flute, Bagpipes, Zornas, Duduk, Arghul, Quena, Piri, Shofar, and Indian, Irish, Vietnamese, Arabic, and Chinese flutes, and many others. In honor of 60 years of diplomatic relations between the Kingdom of Thailand and the state of Israel, the Thailand post issued a special edition of postal stamps with Amir Gwirtzman as a notable Israeli musician. Gwirtzman has been described by Chicago Tribune's Jazz critic Howard Reich as a "charming anomaly in Jazz" whose music makes "epochs speaking to one another as he switches between one instrument and the other".
