New Mexico's Annual Celebration of World Music & Culture
2022 ARTIST INFO
Scroll Down for 2022 Festival Schedule
Kiran AHLUWALIA (India)
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 23
Kiran Ahluwalia had a small epiphany as she wrote what eventually became the title track for her latest album 7 Billion: The eruptions of intolerance and violence plaguing societies around the world had to be directly countered. Yet the focus on divisions and difference neglected a central fact, that we are all united in our difference and uniqueness. “There are seven billion of us now on Earth and every person has their own unique perspective and set of experiences,” she reflects. “We each have our own way of dealing with things, of hearing things, of moving through life.”
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Sounds like that fits the ¡Globalquerque! mission nicely!
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Kiran Ahluwalia is a modern exponent of the great vocal traditions of India and Pakistan which she honors intensely yet departs from in masterful, personal ways. Her original compositions embody the essence of Indian music while embracing influences from Mali and Western blues, rock, R & B and nuances of jazz. With her 5-piece group of electric guitar, accordion, organ, tabla and drum kit, Ahluwalia creates boundary-breaking songs that invite us to explore the human condition, transcending the self by losing ourselves in a trance of groove and melody.
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Her ease of manner on stage makes her a unique and inspiring performer whose legion of fans continues to grow with every captivating performance. We are thrilled to welcome her back to the ¡Globalquerque! stage.
AL BILALI SOUDAN (Mali)
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 24
Al Bilali Soudan is the ancient name for the city of Tombouctou (Timbuktu). It is also the moniker of an improvisational tour de force of traditional rhythms and scales. Tehardent is name of their traditional stringed instruments. A precursor of the modern banjo, the tehardent has accompanied griots, bards, dancers and vocalists for centuries. The members of the group hail from a well-known Tuareg family which has performed this music for generations.
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Abellow Yattara, is a renowned virtuoso of the instrument, and the group's leader. He is joined by his uncle, Aboubacrine Yattara who plays the bass tehardent. Other members of the group include Mohamed Ag Abellow, Tchiale Ag Aboubacrine, Mohamed Dicko and Abdoulaye Ag Mohamed. Their ease with one another is obvious in the verve of their relaxed performance. While their work represents cultural preservation and may now be considered folkloric, Mr. Yattara dazzles with his mastery and demonstrates the true source of the desert blues electric guitar. Loops, flashes of punk, and shouts energize the group’s music with a contemporary charge.
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New Mexico & Southwestern Debut!
ARKAI (USA)
FRIDAY & SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 23 & 24
ARKAI is an award-winning string duo that redefines the boundaries of musical genre — fusing classical virtuosity with the electricity of a rock band, the spontaneity of a jazz combo, and the beauty of a string quartet.
ARKAI is made up of two artistic entrepreneurs driven by a vision for the future of the performing arts — a world in which the arts are accessible to all, where artists bridge societal divides and champion the beautiful possibilities of multiculturalism, and where artists change the world through innovative social impact programs. Jonathan Miron and Philip Sheegog represent a new generation of young Asian-American artist-citizens intent on using their music to challenge preconceptions, bridge social and cultural divides, and cultivate peace-building — representing the best of America in art and action.
Among their many commissions, the duo was recently commissioned by the Museum of Chinese in America to compose a work for their new exhibition Responses: Asian Americans Resisting the Tides of Racism. We are happy to add a ¡Globalquerque! commission to the list. (More below)
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ARKAI is currently creating its debut album, Aurora, in collaboration with seven-time Grammy-nominated producer Joel Hamilton.
ARKAI is presented in part by the kind support of Chamber Music America
New Mexico & Southwestern Debut!
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BAZURTO ALL STARS (Colombia)
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 24
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The Bazurto All Stars was born in 2009 in the heart of Cartagena, Colombia in the Bazurto Market, amid the myriad colors, sounds and smells of that epicenter of Caribbean and African culture.
They are known as a pure party machine, and the best Champeta band in Colombia whose 7 musicians put on an unrivaled stage show. Their concerts hook the audience from the first note with an explosive show full of contagious energy and dancing. In 2016, they won the prestigious Congo de Oro, with their mega hit "La Pupileta" which became the 2016 anthem for the Carnaval de Barranquilla, the 2nd largest carnival in the world after Rio. Immediately adopted by the carnival city, their track “Vacílatela con Fefi” was the carnival queen’s official theme in 2017. The Bazurto All Stars won the esteemed Congo de Oro a second and third time in 2018 and 2019.
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The Bazurto All Stars now are ready to bring the party to ¡Globalquerque! for their New Mexico and Southwest debut.
Yes. There will be dancing.
New Mexico & Southwestern Debut!
DAKHABRAKHA (Ukraine)
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 24
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As ¡Globalquerque! returns this year to it's regular full blown trip around the globe, we couldn't think of better friends to invite to return to the festival than DakhaBrakha! And our arms are not only open in welcome but in solidarity, support and love.
DakhaBrakha is a quartet from Kyiv, Ukraine, that was founded in 2004 as the house band for Dakh, the experimental theater company led by Vladyslav Troitskyi. The group’s name is a play on the Ukrainian words for “give” and “take.” Originally experimenting with Ukrainian folk music, the foursome then added rhythms from surrounding countries and around the globe into their music, thus creating a style they describe as “ethno-chaos”, creating a world of unexpected new music, weaving ancient Ukrainian folk melodies into a subversive musical tapestry that embraces indie rock, pop, hip hop, the avant-garde, and traditional instrumentation from around the world. DakhaBrakha has honed an evocative musical approach based around eerie vocal harmonies and thunderous percussion, augmented by ethereal cello and accordion sonorities
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The group's numerous honors include the 2009 Sergey Kuryokhin Prize, named for the late St. Petersburg-based composer and experimental artist. In 2020, they won the Shevchenko National Prize, Ukraine’s highest state award for achievements in culture and the arts.
New Mexico & Southwestern Debut!
New Mexico & Southwestern Debut!
Kolonien (Sweden)
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 23
Kolonien is a four-member family band from Sweden that has been one of the leading voices of the new wave of Swedish folk for over a decade. With a sound that blends acoustic roots music with anthemic, sing-along pop, Kolonien has a fresh, appealing sound that brings multiple musical worlds together.
Kolonien is made up of brothers Erik and Arvid Rask, their cousin Anna Möller and their childhood neighbor, and “brother from another mother,” Mischa Grind. The members of the band were raised in and around Järna, a community south of Stockholm that is known as a back-to-the-land destination for progressives and people seeking an alternative lifestyle. As teenagers they started writing their own songs and left their countryside home to travel and perform as protest singers in the Swedish green movement. In 2010 they were invited to perform at a festival in Tanzania, and it was there that they officially formed the band Kolonien.
Kolonien's lush vocal harmonies have been likened to Fleet Foxes, their Nordic folk-pop sound might remind some of Of Monsters and Men, and their hipsters with strings vibe makes them Sweden's answer to Mumford & Sons. At the same time, Kolonien's music and inspirations are deeply rooted in the Swedish folk tradition as well as the natural environment and progressive philosophies of the alternative-lifestyle community where they were raised.
MAKING MOVIES (Panama/USA)
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 24
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Making Movies is a band that makes American music with an asterisk: because their sound encompasses the entirety of the Americas, not solely the country inarguably centered in mainstream everything.
It’s through this broader perspective that Making Movies crunches classic rock into Latin American rhythms — African-derived percussion and styles like rumba, merengue, mambo and cumbia — in a way that feels oddly familiar, yet delivers the invigorating chills of hearing something singularly special.
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Each member — Enrique Chi, vocalist, guitarist, and songwriter; his brother Diego Chi, bassist and experimental vocalist; percussionist Juan-Carlos Chaurand; and Duncan Burnett, newly incorporated into the band on drums — is enthusiastically committed to music history, to uncovering connections between genres and cultures both their own and otherwise. They’re all lifelong musicians too, hailing from disparate yet similar backgrounds — parents that cherished music, fathers that kickstarted cultural movements, families in which gospel is critical to their very existence.
“The goal is to create music that includes every bit of our individual identities,” Enrique says. “Music is our way to find a deeper understanding of our own stories. It’s a healing of sorts.”
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Robert Mirabal (Taos Pueblo)
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 24
WORKSHOP SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 24
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Robert Mirabal’s Native American heritage and the Taos Pueblo homelands where he was born and raised have always been an integral part of his music and his very being as an artist and storyteller. He has dedicated his life to sharing the rich culture and traditions of his people through song, dance, poetry, painting, acting, composing and working the land. We are happy to welcome our old friend - and multi-Grammy, multi-Native American Music Award-winner - back to ¡Globalquerque! with his full electric band.
Robert has a unique talent for merging mystical elements of ancient cultures with modern influences (from rock to classical) in his music. He keeps a foot in both worlds, effortlessly drawing upon both for inspiration. His creative evolution has been continuous since he first started playing and making flutes at the age of 18. He still recalls the fateful first moment when the instrument changed the course of his life forever.
“Adam Trujillo, a man in the Pueblo from my grandpa’s society made flutes and donated one of them to a pow-wow, and for some reason I really wanted that flute,” he remembers. “And as soon as I began playing, people would ask me to perform. They say the flute chooses you, and it certainly has changed my life – since then, I’ve spent most of my time traveling and playing music. I had no clue what was going to happen with all of it, but after awhile I realized how valuable the flute was for me. That piece of wood gave me a life, a way to survive. And it gave me a way to communicate.”
Nueva Luna (New Mexico)
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 24
WORKSHOP (Rob Martinez) SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 24
Lara Manzanares, Rob Martinez and Felix Peralta - aka Nueva Luna - are no strangers to ¡Globalquerque! stages. All have performed at the festival over the years in different configurations and Rob Martinez - who happens to also be New Mexico's State Historian has done workshops at ¡Globalquerque! throughout the years (he's even MC'd a time or two!) - be sure to catch his Saturday Afternoon presentation New Mexico History Through New Mexico Music during our Free Global Fiesta.
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So, yeah, we are fans of all of them. So much so that we asked them to come together and present a 20 minute New Mexico "guitar pull" set for our benefit concert for New Mexico wildfire victims we produced with The Lensic Theatre in Santa Fe this past June.
They, of course, nailed it.
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In fact, they so nailed it that we commissioned them to expand on the idea for ¡Globalquerque! with a full festival set. Separately they are all compelling, unique, award-winning artists and songwriters; together they are more than the sum of their parts, working with together create a beautiful overview of Nuevo Mexico music, whether with traditional songs or their own tunes, proving along the way that the tradition is in very good hands. Get ready to see what we mean when Nueva Luna hits the stage
New Mexico & Southwestern Debut!
PUULUUP (Estonia)
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 23
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What to get when you mix a pinch of surrealism, a bit of modern folklore, a heaping helping of talharpa revival and blend it together through effect blocks and loopers? The answer is the neo-zombie-post-folk Estonian duo Puuluup! The subject of the first episode of the ¡Globalquerque! Sojourns documentary series, 2022 found Puuluup take home Band of The Year and Folk Album of the Year at the Estonian Music Awards.
Ramo Teder and Marko Veisson have virtually resurrected the ancient talharpa (bowed lyre), popular in Northern Europe since the early middle ages and played on Western Estonian islands until the beginning of 20th century.
Puuluup directs the vibrations of the talharpa’s horsehair strings through effects, using alternative bowing and rhythm techniques. The mellow sighs of talharpa are paired with electronically amplified echoes, knocks, creaks and crackles, while still maintaining the instrument’s natural sound. And it is all presented with a unique sense of humor and originality. The melodies are a mixture of their various musical memories and improvisation. The music may have a dancing beat, or resemble a dark film soundtrack, or a glimpse into the chambers of ancient talharpa players, or evoke a journey to far-away lands. The lyrics are based on everyday neuroses, or the writings of Max Weber or trees. They sing about wind turbines, heroes from Polish TV series, zombies, fat cakes and the uncomfortable feeling that your neighbor’s dog might try to bite you while you take out the trash. Sometimes they sing in their own invented language.
As the duo states: “We draw inspiration from Vormsi nights, trams in November, junkies in love, criminals from Odessa and Antonio Vivaldi.” Indeed.
Vox SAMBOU (Haiti)
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 23 and SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 24
WORKSHOP SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 24
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Vox Sambou comes from Limbé, in the north of Haiti, a town made that was also home to Dutty Boukman a vodou preiest and the first leader of the Haitian Revolution.
From this lineage it is perhaps no coincidence then that Vox Sambou is a committed artist and activist who is not afraid to denounce injustice, social imbalances and inequities. He holds a BA in Psychology and Anthropology and has worked as the Executive Director for more than 10 years The Youth House of the Côte-des-Neiges, a non-profit organization whose mandate is to prevent delinquency among teenagers in the district of Montreal’s Côte-des Neiges. Vox Sambou is also crucially involved in the achievement of educational and community projects based in Limbé. He is a founding member of Solid’Ayiti, an artists and activists initiative working for a long-term solidarity between Montreal and movements fighting for social justice in Haiti,a ccording to the principles of self-sufficiency, education, decentralization and reforestation.
Musically, Vox sings in Haitian, English, French and Spanish. He is a founding member of Montreal-based hip-hop collective, Nomadic Massive. He has performed across North America and around the world with his 9-piece band delivering his joyous fusion of the traditional rhythms of Haiti with Afrobeat, reggae and hip-hop.
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Along with performing at ¡Globalquerque!, Vox will present a workshop during the Saturday Free Global Fiesta: Hip-Hop Culture In Haiti - An Exploration
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Vox Sambou is presented in part by the kind support of Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation
New Mexico Debut!
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New Mexico Debut!
Bette SMITH (USA)
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 23
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Get ready to discover the force of nature that is Bette Smith!
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Acclaimed rock & soul singer Bette Smith traces elements of her life-affirming new album ‘The Good, The Bad and The Bette’ to her childhood in rough Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. Musically, it connects to the gospel music she heard in church and the soul music on the corners.
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“My father was a church choir director. I was singing since I was five years old. I take it to church. I just break out, start speaking in tongues." Bette enthuses. She also heard gospel around the house every weekend. “My mother listened to nothing but gospel,” she recalls, citing Mahalia Jackson and Reverend James Cleveland. “Every Sunday morning, she would get up and put on these records while dressing and praising the Lord."
This injection of soul music and gospel into rock & roll powered a breakout in 2017’s ‘Jetlagger,’ which received raves from NPR, Paste, American Songwriter, Billboard, MOJO, and a feature in the New York Times. Billboard scalled it "A rugged, chugging southern soul record... Like Betty Davis or Betty Wright before her, she imbues tracks with shingly, sawtoothed texture, capable of breaking off a high note with a throaty cry or scraping so low and wide that she threatens to put her bass player out of work."
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Bette Smith isn’t on fire, she is the fire.
Son Rompe Pera (México)
THURSDAY & FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 22 & 23
Born & raised in the deep outskirts of Mexico City, the Gama brothers are keeping alive the legacy of marimba music running through their family with their group Son Rompe Pera. While firmly rooted in the tradition of this historic instrument, their fresh take on this folk icon challenges its limits as never before, moving it into the 21st century garage/punk world of urban misfits.
Originally performing alongside their father at local events as kids, los hermanos Gama now find themselves at the forefront of the contemporary international cumbia scene with their sonic explorations of the classic marimba. Their absolutely unique blend comes from a typical youthful rebellion, when as teenagers they left behind their upbringing and began to play in various punk, rockabilly and ska bands. Now they’ve gone full circle with the return of the marimba on lead, and mixing all of their influences together with an energetic take on the popular instrument, giving it a new twist never before seen in Mexican folk music.
Their live shows are a sweaty mess of dancing fans, and Son Rompe Pera never disappoints on stage. Their authenticity shines through as they give their modern interpretation of Mexican, Peruvian, and Colombian classics, as well as their own original material and some surprise covers. The contrast of the traditional marimba with their - let's say - exuberant attitude and street sense connects the audience to the past while dancing into the future.
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Son Rompe Pera will also perform at this year's FREE ¡Globalquerque! Opening Dance Party, Thursday, September 22 outside at the National Hispanic Cultural Center
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New Mexico & Southwestern Debut!
ADRIAN WALL TRIO
(Jemez Pueblo/Diné)
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 23
Led by award-winning multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and visual artist Adrian Wall, The Adrian Wall Trio brings together the music, history and stories of Native America, with an innovative style, using their music to as a platform to express cultural identity.
The trio combines traditional indigenous music with contemporary western influences of Americana, Pop, Rock and Jazz, combining story-telling to their performances, presenting a new voice to the Native American traditional canon.
The Adrian Wall Trio consists of Adrian Wall (Guitar, Flute, Vocals), Ehren Kee Natay (Percussion, Vocals, Flute) and Romeo Alonzo (Keyboard and Saxophone).
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WASSA ENSEMBLE (Guinea)
FRIDAY & SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 23 & 24
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Wassa Ensemble was founded by master drummer Soriba Fofana from Guinea, West Africa. The ensemble was created out of the artist's life work as a musician in the city of Conakry, and captures the essence and spirit of Guinean dance and music culture. Wassa Wassa is a call for celebration, to share the happiness and joy of wontanara being together.
Soriba and his crew will join us both nights in two distinct configurations of Wassa. On Friday evening, Wassa Ensemble will capitave you with intricate djembe arrangements and driving dundun rhythms. Dancers converse with the solo djembefola and acrobats take flight in a display of pure expressive energy. On Saturday, Wassa Trio will touch your heart with warming tones from the n’goni harp. Traditional songs and melodies intertwine with calabash, djembe and dundun percussion, taking the listener on a sonorous journey into the heart of Guinean traditional music.
Gili YALO (Ethiopia)
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 23
Gili Yalo incorporates sounds from traditional Ethiopian music into a contemporary music production. The result is an exceptional, rich, vivid melody accompanied by Gili’s unique voice with lyrics in both English and Amharic.
The music made by Yalo embodies his personal story. And what a story he has to tell: Operation Moses was the covert evacuation of Ethiopian Jews from Sudan during a famine in 1984. These Ethiopian Jews - including Gili's family - fled from their native land on foot to refugee camps in Sudan. In the course of this exhausting and emotional journey, the music encouraged Gili and his family to keep on moving.
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Today Gili Yalo’s music gives a new meaning to traditional Ethiopian music. The expression of his story through an advanced music production represents his own personal triumph.
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Gili launched his solo career in 2015 following a stint as lead singer of Zvuloon Dub System. Gili Yalo’s band is made up of five musicians, including guitar, bass, keyboard, drums, and trumpet. His music effortlessly weaves Ethio-jazz funk and Afropop with unexpectedly futuristic synths and rich swirls of electric guitar creating an entrancing rhythmic groove, beat and flow.
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"An artist who knows his roots and aims to actualize his own potential." - Pop Matters
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New Mexico & Southwestern Debut!
YAMMA ENSMBLE (Israel)
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 24
WORKSHOP SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 24
Formed in 2010, Israel’s Yamma Ensemble performs original contemporary Hebrew music that stays true to the character of the Middle East, where its members were born and raised. In Hebrew yamma means "to the sea"; in Arabic it means "mother". The group’s soulful music is accompanied by ancient musical instruments from the region—such as the kopuz, duduk, ney, and oud, as well as various percussion instruments.
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Several of the band’s songs draw on its members’ Sephardic roots and are sung in Ladino or Arabic dialects. The pieces reflect the band members’ diverse musical styles, injecting jazz improv into a traditional Bukharan niggun, or a Klezmer trill into a psalm - their runaway hit with nearly 8 million views on YouTube is a setting of Psalm 104 with a complex musical arrangement by the group's wind player Yonnie Dror. What was the last piyyut (liturgical song) to accomplish that feat?
The ensemble also performs the traditional music of various Jewish diasporas—including songs from the Jewish communities of Yemen, Babylon, and Sepharad—as well as Hasidic music, with fascinating forms and rhythms that have been preserved by generations of Jewish traditions.
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Special ¡GLOBALQUERQUE! / Chamber Music America
Commissioned Cross-Genre Performance by
ARKAI + members of
NOSOTROS & NOHE & SUS SANTOS
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 24
WORLD DEBUT!
