79rs Gang

79rs Gang

New Orleans Black Masking Carnival music
New Orleans, Louisiana

Among the most riveting sights on Mardi Gras Day in New Orleans is the city’s Black Masking Carnival gangs enacting ritualistic musical battles in the streets, decked out in impossibly colorful, intricate costumery. Things can get tense, and rivalry between different neighborhoods, or wards, is common. When former rivals Jermaine Bossier, Big Chief of the 7th Ward Creole Hunters, and Romeo Bougere, Big Chief of the 9th Ward Hunters, teamed up to form the musical powerhouse 79rs Gang, they not only bridged a historical divide but set in motion what would become a revolutionary new sound.

Andre Thierry

Andre Thierry

zydeco
Richmond, California

The brightest star in the underappreciated West Coast zydeco scene, Andre Thierry has deep roots in the raucous, accordion-driven Creole dance music native to South Louisiana. A soulful singer and virtuosic accordionist, he plays a blend of traditional and original music he calls “accordion soul.” Andre is a bold innovator within a music tradition that has thrived in California’s Bay Area since the mid-20th century—enticing folks of all generations and backgrounds to don their cowboy boots, grab a partner, and hit the dance floor.

Art of Noise RVA

Art of Noise RVA

deejaying
Richmond, Virginia

Local hip hop legend DJ Lonnie B is the mastermind behind the turntables at his curated, immersive music experience, the Art of Noise, which has been creating community in Richmond for the past decade. He has been a central figure cultivating and nurturing the city’s hip hop community since his days with the SupaFriendz, who put Richmond hip hop on the national stage. While the Art of Noise is built on hip hop techniques like deejaying’s sampling and scratching, it draws from diverse sounds and pop culture samples, delving into musical history in a way that goes beyond nostalgia to create a shared experience perfectly curated for the minds and bodies in the seats or, more likely, on the dance floor.

Beòlach

Beòlach

Cape Breton
Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia

Over 20 years ago, six dynamic performers came together at a late-night session during the Celtic Colours International Music Festival and sparked the creation of the award-winning band Beòlach. After a short hiatus, to great excitement, expectation, and acclaim original members Wendy MacIsaac (fiddle, piano, stepdance), Màiri Rankin (fiddle, stepdance), and Mac Morin (piano, stepdance, accordion) re-formed the group three years ago as a quartet with new member Matt MacIsaac (bagpipes, whistles, guitar). With innovative arrangements of traditional tunes, Beòlach’s energy on stage demonstrates their mastery of and passion for Cape Breton's distinctive musical inheritance.

Black Umfolosi

Black Umfolosi

a cappella imbube singing
Bulawayo, Zimbabwe

The mesmerizing Zimbabwean quintet Black Umfolosi calls their music a “vocal newspaper,” delivering news that is both educational and entertaining through a cappella imbube singing and traditional Zulu dance. Imbube singing first emerged out of Zulu vocal traditions in the 1920s among rural migrant workers in mines and factories in southern Africa. With four-part harmonies with a high lead and often doubled bass voices, it remains popular throughout Zimbabwe. Black Umfolosi’s dynamic approach, with eye-catching performance dress and beautiful choreography, delights and inspires audiences. As co-founder Thomeki Dube has said, when people “are absorbed into a performance, then it stays for a long time in their memories.”

Bnat el Houariyat & Esraa Warda

Bnat el Houariyat & Esraa Warda

Moroccan chaabi women’s ensemble
Marrakech, Morocco, and New York, New York

The women of Bnat el Houariyat perform women’s celebratory music from the heart of Marrakech. Percussion and call-and-response vocals build into a deeply transporting sonic experience rooted in the joys and sorrows of daily life, creating for their audiences a feeling of universal human connection. As dancer Esraa Warda told Vogue Arabia, these women “are famous, older, well-respected musicians. They are not world superstars. But most big-time artists in North Africa have learned rhythm and percussion from them.” Esraa continues, “They break barriers around being women artists, Africans, Arabs, Berbers, and Muslims in public space.”

Cedric Burnside

Cedric Burnside

hill country blues
Holly Springs, Mississippi

Cedric Burnside is heralded as a torch bearer and innovator of the North Mississippi hill country blues tradition. Spanning three decades, Burnside’s work bridges the music’s legacy and future, communicating the collective hardships, joys, and daily lives of Black families who have called the region home for centuries. Transmitting deeply held blues stories through a fresh, contemporary voice, Burnside roots this distinctly spellbinding blues tradition firmly in the 21st century.

Felipe Hostins

Felipe Hostins

Brazilian forró
Blumenau, Santa Catarina, Brazil, by way of New York

Though only in his twenties, accordionist Felipe Hostins has been thrilling audiences for over a decade. Hostins is a forrozeiro, or forró musician, from Blumenau, in the Brazilian state of Santa Catarina, known for his stellar musicianship and for playing like he has “an entire orchestra in his accordion.” Like many musicians from Santa Catarina, Felipe Hostins first learned rhythms typical in southern Brazil, but a chance encounter with a forró recording in his grandfather’s records set him on the path to mastering this signature dance music from Northeast Brazil’s ranching culture.

Fran Grace

Fran Grace

sacred steel guitar
Toledo, Ohio

Fran “Lady Strings” Grace is among a small sisterhood of women trailblazers playing sacred steel guitar in African American Holiness-Pentecostal worship services. A masterful lap-steel guitarist, she leads a powerhouse family band specializing in the ecstatic, steel-guitar-driven gospel music she grew up with in church. Should any uncertainty remain as to the link between gospel and rock and roll, Fran and her family band’s electric, spirit-filled performances will surely clear that up. “We’re from a country church,” Fran chuckles. “We’re down to earth, and we can play some music.”

Gene Tagaban (Guuy Yaau)

Gene Tagaban (Guuy Yaau)

Tlingit storyteller, musician, and dancer
Ruston, Washington

“When you’re talking to the people, talk to their spirit,” Gene Tagaban remembers his mentor once telling him. “That’s where you’re going to see miracles happen.” A renowned storyteller, dynamic performer, and stunning Raven Dancer, Gene uses interactive stories, music, and dance as tools to entertain, inspire, and heal. He brings people of all ages and backgrounds into active participation with timeless Indigenous teachings centered on deepening self-knowledge, strengthening interpersonal connections, and developing compassion and respect for the natural world.

Isokratisses

Isokratisses

polyphonic singing from Epirus
Deropoli and Politsani, Albania

These seven enthralling singers announce their purpose with their name, Isokratisses, which means “the women who sing the iso (the drone).” Its profoundly moving mirologi (pentatonic laments) are an essential accompaniment to life in the isolated mountain villages of Epirus, the region bridging northwestern Greece and southern Albania. This breathtaking ensemble forges a new path for women’s voices often unheard in the current political climate, by means of a music so old and deeply rooted that it touches something elemental in the listener.

Jesse Daniel

Jesse Daniel

honky-tonk country
San Marcos, Texas

Jesse Daniel has a story to tell, and there’s nothing quite like honky-tonk music for delivering tales about life, love, and hard times. At just 30 years old, he’s had a rocky journey and done a lot of living and learning, imbuing his music with a striking honesty and authenticity. With a strong foundation in the Bakersfield sound of his native California, Jesse writes classic country songs with heart and grit, marked with a rollicking, hard-driving sound all his own.

Jimmy “Duck” Holmes

Jimmy “Duck” Holmes

Bentonia blues
Bentonia, Mississippi

Bluesman Jimmy “Duck” Holmes is the greatest living proponent of the Bentonia blues, a highly localized style known for its haunting and eerie sound. Some have dubbed him “the last” master of this distinctive style, but his dedication to preserving and passing on his knowledge, his award-winning recent recordings, and his electrifying stage performances are building a renaissance for the unique music that bears the name of his tiny Mississippi hometown.

Korean Performing Arts Institute of Chicago

Korean Performing Arts Institute of Chicago

pungmul and samulnori
Chicago, Illinois

All the pageantry and vibrant energy of a harvest festival in rural Korea comes together in the flying footwork, brilliantly colored dress, and joyful percussion of pungmul. As Korean society urbanized, samulnori developed out of pungmul, translating these hours-long agricultural celebrations into a stage setting that highlights and intensifies pungmul’s beautiful, complex percussion. Both are breathtakingly presented by the master artists of the Korean Performing Arts Institute of Chicago.

Nani Noam Vazana

Nani Noam Vazana

Ladino traditional song
Amsterdam, the Netherlands

Through her gorgeous songs, singer, composer, and instrumentalist Nani Noam Vazana helps lead the effort to preserve Ladino, the endangered language of the Sephardic Jews—a Jewish diaspora that was once concentrated in the Iberian Peninsula. The catalog of Ladino traditional music is rich but limited, given a history of dislocation and loss, so Nani has begun to chart a celebrated course performing and composing songs that call into being a Ladino with continued vitality in the modern world.

Noura Mint Seymali

Noura Mint Seymali

Moorish griot
Nouakchott, Mauritania

A nationally beloved star in Mauritania, Noura Mint Seymali is among her country’s most innovative artists, pushing her centuries-old music tradition into thrilling new territory. Representing a rich, transitive music culture where sounds from across the Sahara and West Africa have coalesced for generations, Noura’s hypnotic vocal stylings pierce through a pulsating wall of psychedelic electric guitar, bass, and drums, creating an otherworldly sound that is at once ancient and futuristic. Fronting an ensemble comprised of some of the most highly respected musicians in Mauritania, Noura is boldly leading her country’s griot tradition into the 21st century and beyond.

Sideline

Sideline

bluegrass
Raleigh, North Carolina

Raleigh-based sextet Sideline, started as a side project, has emerged as the consummate bluegrass touring band, heralded for their songwriting and their beautifully blended harmonies. It’s a labor of love, repaid by the adulation of traditionalists and newcomers alike across the Carolinas and far beyond. Their latest album, 2021’s chart-topping Ups, Downs, and No Name Towns, is a testament to their dedication; as guitarist Skip Cherryholmes says, “In so many ways this tattered old guitar case [on the album cover] represents the beating our band and career took through the pandemic. The fact that it still stands symbolizes our resilience and ability to persevere.”

Son Rompe Pera

Son Rompe Pera

Mexican marimba and cumbia
Naucalpan de Juárez, Mexico

Rooted in a rich legacy of marimba music in Mexico City, Son Rompe Pera is taking the world by storm with their explosive blend of traditional marimba music with cumbia, punk, and ska. Bringing together their various musical and cultural worlds into a cohesive whole, the group is a visceral example of a living tradition in motion. “Son Rompe Pera has been developing since we were kids—the music and streets are in our blood,” says bandmember Kacho Gama. “We decided to carry the marimba with us and create this musical project from our own roots, mixing in rhythms which we thought would never be musical brothers … the sounds of our barrios and our everyday lives.”