Silvia
Palumbo's strong,
surprising voice illuminates this CD, while guitar, drums--and
zings of sound accompany her. Aprendiza de
Luna was first released
in Buenos Aires in 2002. Coming before the end of 2006: music by
unknown women musicians in Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay.
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Joyful. This album, made by Ayo (whose name means
Joy in Yoruba), features a dozen original songs that
dwell on love, struggle, perseverance and hope. Her
voice is light and soulful; her lyrics reflect her multi-
cultural life (German, Gypsy and Nigerian, she has
lived in the UK and France)
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Putumayo has just released Women of the World Acoustic. And earmarked a portion of the proceeds from this wonderful CD for the Global Fund for Women. My favorite on Women of the World Acoustic, is Tamara Obrovac’s music from Istria.
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Putumayo also offers Women of Africa; Women of Latin America; Women's work; Women of the World-Celtic II and Women of Spirit, and donates a portion of the proceeds to a Cross-Cultural Initiative to inspire children to explore and connect with diverse cultures. Each CD contains music from many countries.
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Joanne Shenandoah’s Matriarch, is rich with Iroquois chants and songs about women. As custodians of Mother Earth, Oneida women controlled the
land and all activities that placed life at risk (including war).
These clan mothers nominated and deposed leaders, had the final
say about marriage and divorce, were spiritual advisors, political
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Word
Music Institute, co-founded by Helene Browning, offers over 5,000
recordings, videos
and books of traditional and contemporary world music for sale at their
office, at their
concerts or via mail order catalogue; labels include Nonesuch, Arhoolie,
Shanachie,
Green Linnet, Traditional Crossroads and Music of the World, as well
as internationa
labels such as Ocora, Auvidis, Long Distance, Network and Wergo.
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Libana’s Borderland is a virtuoso musical journey through continents
and cultures by a group of women who’ve perfected others’
language and instruments. Since 1979, Libana has been known for
songs handed down via women’s traditions. Libana was a 10th
century Moorish Musician and poet whose name symbolizes women’s
creativity. LISTEN
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Angelique
Kidjo, Benin-born, is the most popular African female artist
on the world- music scene. Her “Best Of” collection
is from her five CDs between 1990 and 1998. Fluent in French, English-jazz
and her country's traditional zilin vocal techniques, Kidjo often
sings in her native Fon/Yoruba language, performing funk, Latin,
jazz, gospel, Caribbean zouk, Congolese rumba,
and Afro pop.
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Spanish Susana Seivane could play the bagpipe when she was three. She is the thirteenth
generation in her family to build bagpipes and her music ranges
from bouncing to haunting. Besides the bagpipes, she plays
drums, tambourine, djembe and darbuka.
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Cuba's Omara
Portuondo, the woman who stars in Buena Vista Social Club
music, has been singing since the 1950’s. Her rich voice sings
life’s sweet and difficult truths: “If only we could
make all our dreams come true, you would love me like you did twenty
years ago. How sad it is to see love slipping away…”
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Portuguese Fado songs
lament “fate or destiny.” In the 1800's the legendary
Fadista Maria Severa, daughter of a
tavern owner, committed suicide after a class-challenging love affair
with an aristocratic bullfighter. Fado singers still perform in
black shawls to honor her. Amalia Rodrigues, Cristina Branco, Mafalda Arnauth and Misia sing lyrics like: “I spread my wings and without fear was
flown! I was to become everything I'd always wanted to be, for we
are the ones who define our limits and rid ourselves of them if
we wish to.”
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For the Lady, from Rhino Records, is dedicated to freeing Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi and the courageous people of Burma. It includes music by Paul McCartney, Ani De Franco, Bonnie Raitt, Avril Lavigne, Indigo Girls and Natalie Merchant among others, plus a U2 cut, "Walk On," which was banned by the repressive Burmese regime. Click here for information on the campaign for Burma. MORE
Sweet Inspirations, Sista Monica Parker’s new CD
rings with powerful songs of hope and inspiration
—and includes one of Paola Gianturco’s images.
Broadly talented as a lead vocalist, songwriter,
arranger, recording artists and CD producer,
Sista Monica credits her faith--and these songs
--with her survival from cancer. In “an epiphany
of compassion,” she decided to share these moving
gospel songs, four of which feature her lyrics.
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Lila
Downs has been nominated for the BBC “Radio 3” World
Music Awards in 2005; click here to hear the title song from her
new CD, One Blood. She’s Scot and Mixtex Indian, grew up in
Minnesota and Oaxaca, studied anthropology and
opera. You heard her songs in the movie, Frida.
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Copper
Wimmin, a trio that’s been singing
together since they were twelve, weave
their voices so intimately that you can barely tell one from another.
Their acappella music on Etheric Bodies is energetic and
provocative: a hurricane of sound that can leave listeners in tears.
This is music like ancient women used to sing in caves before time
began.
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Oumou
Sangare,
from southern Mali, is six-feet-tall. Her throaty alto is an open
affirmation of female sensuality. Her lyrics
sing out against polygamy and the subjugation of women, which has
irritated conservative elders but delighted her contemporaries.
In
vibrant music on a CD titled Oumou, she conveys one message:
“Live well and with compassion.”
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Andrea Echeverri spent ten years as the lead singer of the popular Colombian
rock band Aterciopelados. Her first solo album, Andrea Echeverri, is inspired by her passage into motherhood, and is full of ethereal
electronica and soft, rocking lullabies.
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Rokia
Traore’s Bowmboi uses her clarion voice plus
rhythms from her native Mali to describe her homeland land: “O
Mali… your teachings comfort me, Respect in adversity, Dignity
in privation, Generosity and good humor….Come with me and
discover the land of my ancestors.” She sings of youth and
death, obligation and celebration, memory, unity and solitude. In
other words, of life.
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Brazilian Bossa Nova singer Rosa Passos has
the precise pitch and the rhythm that made Joao Gilberto famous.
But the New York Times said her sound is “in many
ways more agreeable to hear: sweeter, more playful, less astringent,
less withdrawn.” Sony’s Amorosa is Rosa’s
North American debut and it’s all about her natural, easy
voice and her acoustical guitar.
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Singer/songwriter Chava
Alberstein, “First Lady of Israeli Song,” has
captured the
Israeli people’s pulse on almost 50 albums. Singing in Hebrew,
English and Yiddish, she performs everything from love songs to
prayerful ballads to defiant pleas against oppression. Her newest
album is End of the Holiday.
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Cesaria
Evora, born in the Cape Verde islands
west of Senegal, sings on stage in bare feet in support of the disadvantaged
women and children of her country. Her mornas mix
folk tunes with sadness at her islands’ slave trade history:
“Walking such a long way in the darkness with my hoe on my
shoulder, my feet have grown old from stumbling so often in the
glow of dawn…” LISTEN
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France's Helene
Grimaud, exceptionally talented at the piano, took her first
lesson at age 9 and was already fascinated by Beethoven sonatas
at 13. Now in her early thirties, she is a classical piano virtuoso.
An animal lover, she lives on a spacious reserve where she is licensed
to keep wolves, which are her second passion.
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Zap
Mama’s CD, Adventures in Afropea
1, features the original instrument, the primary instrument, the
most soulful instrument: the human voice. Pygmies use only body,
breath and vocal chord vibration; Marie Daulne, born in the Congo/Zaire,
leads five Afro and European women to sing as you’ve never
heard before. It is beautiful.
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Laisa
Vulakoro is one
of the most popular singers in Fiji. Her new CD, Laisa Live in Savusavu is vintage Vude, music that combines Disco, Rock, country
and Island style. Many of the tunes are original and some have never
been recorded.
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