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A few fans may find Latin roots-pop pioneer Lila Downs' return to old-fashioned, romantic ranchera music to be a retrograde move, but her commanding presence and the astonishing skill and economy with which she embellishes these old-school Mexican ballads with modern rock, electronica and even a tasteful dash of hip-hop will blow your mind, if you give it a close listen. Similarly, she weaves in the rich rhythms of Cuban son and Central American cumbia, reconciling and uniting several strands of Latin American popular music. The repertoire blends striking originals with classics from Jose Alfredo Jimenez, while Downs' dark, husky vocals give more than a mild nod towards the great Mexican diva, Lola Beltran, while Tex-Mex accordionist Flaco Jimenez anchors the album in a solid border vibe. You have to be willing to get into the style (and not everyone is, including plenty of folks who listen to other kinds of Latin American music...) But if you give it a chance, this is a pretty cool album, particularly how it points the way to a canny revitalization and modernization of one of the hemisphere's liveliest and most musically conservative genres. Oh, and Downs' old fans will not be disappointed: she's as authoritative, innovative and charismatic here as on anything she's done.

All about the Berklee School of Music in Boston MA USA. Wish, wish, wish with all my heart I could go. Wish I HAD gone when I had the youth, the money... Is 58 too old? Hmmmmm.

Pagode is a Brazilian style of music which originated in the Rio de Janeiro region as a subgenre of Samba. Pagode originally meant a celebration with lots of food, music and dance.

A lot of Sephardic music utilizes the maqam, a distinctly Turkish microtonal scale system.

The origins of qawwali probably predate the birth of Muhammad. The earliest Islamic scholars discussed the spiritual effects of music, but it was only in the time of al-Gazali (1085-1111) that these principles were refined and codified. These principles were then expanded by the Chisti school of Sufism. It is this order that has been responsible for the propagation of Qawwali in India and Pakistan for the last few centuries.

Her schooling included music, and she became a pianist, eventually moving to Jerusalem and recording highly unique pieces that filter the traditional Ethiopian pentatonic scale through classical technique-- in the end sounding like impressionistic jazz."

When K'Naan Warsame was 11, he found what he thought was a rotten and strangely skewered potato. He pulled out the pin, threw the 'potato' and blew up half his school.

Zeng Chengwei 曾成偉 Associate Professor 1958- Shu (Sichuan), Chengdu. Highly-regarded guqin maker as well as transmitter of the Shu School.

Lin Youren 林友人 1938- Guangling. Transmitter of the Guangling school. 國家級非物質文化遺產項目(古琴藝術)代表性傳承人.

The Roma's signifiers are still source of both reverence and derision in the West. While their cultural product, from the great Django Reinhardt to the pop chart-ready sound of the Gipsy Kings, has been happily consumed, as a people they have been held at arm's length by a Europe still fixating typecasts of the thief and the mystic. Today, the Roma remain one of the most persecuted communities in Europe.

Famous Padma Shree Hans Raj Hans, Sufi musician/singer from Punjab, India. Claptstem Productions

Guqin 古琴