Through several strong CD and DVD offerings, Te Vaka have come to represent the new sound of Pacifica. Spreading from the atolls of Tokelau throughout the South Pacific and on to the rest of the world the band has had time to gel a sound that’s characterized by sugar cane-sweet harmonies and punctuated by tribal fits of broiling percussion on the pate (the log drum, not the chopped liver). On their latest album, Olatia, Te Vaka has come closer than ever to perfecting their recorded presentation. Not that the material is so much stronger than on previous outings, but the balance between the beautiful conscious ballads (often focused on environmental issues) and the log drum instrumentals is strangely reminiscent of the way the tunes on Celtic albums are often arranged. Call it a formula if you will, but it works exceedingly well for the band. Singer/composer Opetaia Foa’i continues to grow into a confident and poetic voice for the preservation of the islands of paradise in the wake of the new global environmental reality. Working from such a resonant perspective, Te Vaka is destined to win the hearts and loyalty of global music fans around the planet.

 Key Tracks: Lelei Ilo Tenei (Better Than This), Te Kupu (The Word)

Those who celebrate world music can never forget where it all began — the mother continent of Africa.  And of course, music is still such an important part of life in all parts of that huge, diverse, and often troubled place.

The New York Times recently wrote on two very different, very fascinating music festivals from Northern Africa. The images that accompany the articles are — what? Amazing? Fantastic? Magnificent? All of those and much more.  My western vocabulary desserts me.

First, the Festival au Desert, which takes place every January in Essakane, Mali, showcasing Taureg musicians as well as visiting acts from around the world.  The stages are set up right in the desert, which stretches “boundless and bare” around the audiences. As writer Kevin Moloney says,

My eyes and ears were separated by hundreds of years.

The audio slide show is here.

Then the Gnawa and World Music Festival in Essaouira, Morocco, held in June.  Last year

Midsummer revelers heard more than 30 other jazz fusion, rock, reggae, African, Brazilian, Afro-Cuban and hip-hop acts from more than a dozen countries — as well as Hoba Hoba Spirit, a crowd-wowing multilingual “Moroc ’n roll!” band from Casablanca — performing on nine festival stages scattered in and around Essaouira’s walled, maze-like medina.

The audio slide show for that article is here.

Just looking at those slide shows makes me want to pack up my burnous and get out of town.  Surely that music is worth 40 degree heat and a few sand fleas.

For those of us who want African music without leaving North America, we can always find it closer to home.  The Wall Street Journal has a story on African guitarist Lionel Loueke.

And if I don’t want to leave my back yard, New Music West is starting today.  It may not be world music, but all music has African influences.  It’s in our musical genes.

Cal Koat mentioned the deminse of local distributor Festival Music in his world.beats update.

Tom Harrison paid tribute to Festival in his column in today’s Province.

Intelligent TV.  An oxymoron?  Not this time.

National Geographic Green Guide has turned us on to a wonderful new PBS children’s show, Mama Mirabelle. 

It reaches and teaches children about animals — in the wild — and uses music (yes, world music) to get the message across.

It’s been quite a while since I sat down in front of a children’s show, (OK, I’m rather fond of Pocoyo) but this is worth it. 

SUNDAY, May 11th @ 10pm
IN THE SPOTLIGHT
with
NICK URATA OF
DeVotchKa

Strip away the exotic, layers of DeVotchKa’s arrangements and you will inevitably find something pure and simple … a pretty, little pop song.  It’s a recipe that’s echoed in the film Little Miss Sunshine, which may have been what made DeVotchKa a perfect fit for it’s score … a contribution that earned them a Grammy nomination.

Their latest album continues the dance between old world sounds and new world pop but with a hint of dark intrigue in the title borrowed from Edgar Allen Poe. Nick Urata from DeVotchKa joins Vanesa with more on ‘A Mad And Faithful Telling’.

 + LOTS OF NEW VIDEOS: from Los Fabulosos Cadillacs’ founder, Senor Flavio, Bonobo – The Monkey King and groovy melted chocolate from Chile’s Funky C! 

FUNKY C

INSIDE THE BEAT: This hour we’ll also pay tribute to eighty years of Canadian-Japanese relations with a unique alliance between two sets of brothers: The Yoshida Brothers; virtuosos of the Tsugaru-shamisen, and Monkey Majik, a Japanese pop band fronted by Canadian brothers Maynard and Blaise Plant. The Yoshidas are revolutionizing the largest in a family of instruments that goes back five centuries in Japanese history. The Plant brothers came to Japan to teach English but ended up courting success on the J-pop scene. We’ll reintroduce the Yoshidas and then debut their collaboration with Monkey Majik. That’s later, Inside The Beat
 

Enjoy world.bEAts Saturdays at noon and Sundays at 10pm on channel m, Cable 8 with your host, Vanesa Tomasino.