IN THE PRESS
NYC JAZZ RECORD
Artist Feature - L. Shankar
By John Pietarro
April 1, 2022
To describe L. Shankar as a chameleon is nothing short of trite. The violinist’s drive toward change has continuously been in the service of growth. Shankar’s
tapestry embraces Indian classical, free jazz, fusion, folk and world music, pop, rock, dance and no wave. This global view guided his founding of Shakti with
guitarist John McLaughlin and cast a mind-numbing CV boasting Jan Garbarek, Don Cherry, Lou Reed, Alice Coltrane, Frank Zappa, Ed Blackwell, Swans,
Peter Gabriel, Kenny Wheeler, Public Image Ltd and Madonna. And while reveling in such creative ventures, Shankar, so committed to the experience, developed a reputation as vocalist rivaling his fame as a violinist and has been known to alter both name and appearance to fit a given musical moment. Such
fluidity is born of an inexhaustible spirit. “I know it is confusing,” Shankar explained, brushing back the strawberry-blonde locks of recent years. “For the last
two albums I went back to ‘L. Shankar’, though many recall my ECM years when I was simply ‘Shankar’. But I’ve been billed as ‘Shenkar’ on pop recordings. This
gives you a clean slate. I’ve been around for some time and listeners sometimes don’t want anything else, so I become what’s needed.” Read full article here...
Artist Feature - L. Shankar
By John Pietarro
April 1, 2022
To describe L. Shankar as a chameleon is nothing short of trite. The violinist’s drive toward change has continuously been in the service of growth. Shankar’s
tapestry embraces Indian classical, free jazz, fusion, folk and world music, pop, rock, dance and no wave. This global view guided his founding of Shakti with
guitarist John McLaughlin and cast a mind-numbing CV boasting Jan Garbarek, Don Cherry, Lou Reed, Alice Coltrane, Frank Zappa, Ed Blackwell, Swans,
Peter Gabriel, Kenny Wheeler, Public Image Ltd and Madonna. And while reveling in such creative ventures, Shankar, so committed to the experience, developed a reputation as vocalist rivaling his fame as a violinist and has been known to alter both name and appearance to fit a given musical moment. Such
fluidity is born of an inexhaustible spirit. “I know it is confusing,” Shankar explained, brushing back the strawberry-blonde locks of recent years. “For the last
two albums I went back to ‘L. Shankar’, though many recall my ECM years when I was simply ‘Shankar’. But I’ve been billed as ‘Shenkar’ on pop recordings. This
gives you a clean slate. I’ve been around for some time and listeners sometimes don’t want anything else, so I become what’s needed.” Read full article here...
NEW YORK MUSIC DAILY
Thrills and Transcendence at Tar Lute Virtuoso Sahba Motallebi's New York Debut
By Delarou
OCTOBER 26, 2016
Sahba Motallebi hit a sharp staccato chord on her Iranian tar lute. Then she paused, Then she hit another one. Then another pause, then another stilletto swipe. Then she lit into a seemingly endless flurry of righthand chord-chopping that made Dick Dale’s pick-melting intensity seem wimpy by comparison. A series of minutely nuanced harmonics, meticulously precise pull-offs and hammer-ons followed that. The crowd was silent, completely mesmerized. There is no rock guitarist, no oud player, possibly no musician anywhere in the world with such subtle yet fearsome chops on a fretted instrument. Read full article here...
NEW YORK MUSIC DAILY
The Dastan Ensemble Put on an Unforgettable, Intense Performance in Brooklyn
By Delarou
SEPTEMBER 30, 2015
Arguably the best concert in any style of music in New York this year took place when the Dastan Ensemble brought an alternately stately, somber and exhilarating mix of new and ancient Iranian music to Roulette Saturday night. The esteemed four-piece group, which has been through a few lineup changes over the years but remains undiminshed in vision and intensity, was joined by up-and-coming singer Mahdieh Mohammadkhani, making a riveting and powerful New York debut. Read More...
AM NEW YORK
A World in Trance: Interview with Robert Browning
By Hal Bienstock
APRIL 22, 2015
As much as New York City has changed in the last 40 years, one thing has remained constant: Robert Browning putting on world music concerts. In 1975, Browning co-founded the Alternative Center for International Arts on the Lower East Side, and in 1985 he and his wife founded the World Music Institute. Browning retired from the Institute in 2011 but has continued to periodically curate performances. His latest is a four-day festival at Brooklyn's Roulette called "A World In Trance," featuring musicians from Guinea, Mauritania, Morocco, Pakistan, Tuva and the U.S. in styles that range from African blues to throat singing. amNewYork spoke with Browning. Read More...
The Village Voice
A World in Trance Festival
By Richard Gehr
APRIL 22, 2015
An ecstatic array of non-electronic repetition will be explored during "A World in Trance," four nights of transporting sounds from a half-dozen countries. The powerful Mauritanian griot singer Noura Mint Seymali and her dazzling guitarist husband, Jeiche Ould Chighaly, commence the festivities tonight with Bailo Bah and Sylvain Leroux, who play the pastoral flute music of West Africa's Fula people. Friday is devoted to virtuosic Sufi praise songs via the dynamic Pakistani qawwali group led by Farid Ayaz and Abu Muhammad. Read More...
Time Out New York
A World in Trance Festival
Critic's Pick
APRIL 22, 2015
Let's get one thing straight: The trance in the title doesn't refer to Burning Man. Drop by Roulette and get enlightened by practitioners of ecstatic, consciousness-altering traditional music from Guinea, Mauritania, Morocco, Pakistan, Tuva and the U.S. See roulette.org for details, but we expect that every night will be pure magic.
Read More...
The Village Voice
The French Connection Festival
By Richard Gehr
APRIL 7, 2015
Quebec guards its French identity faithfully, but its music long ago mixed with styles imported by Scottish and Irish soldiers and settlers who helped Britain establish a permanent foothold in Canada. The two bands the French Connection festival comprises vividly remind listeners of the province's hybrid character. Le Bruit Court Dans la Ville (The Word Around Town) consists of Lisa Ornstein (fiddle), Normand Miron (button accordion), and André Marchand (guitar), folk veterans who embody Québécois music's community-enhancing front-porch sound. Dancer-musicologist Pierre Chartrand joins them at tonight's party. On Saturday, Le Vent du Nord (The Northern Wind), a younger quartet with several fine albums under their collective belt, put on a lively stage show and perform traditional tunes with contemporary verve and originals with timeless verve. Read More...
The New Yorker
The French Connection
APRIL 8, 2015
The seasoned world-music impresarios of Robert Browning Associates present a mini-festival of traditional Quebecois folk, a transatlantic cousin of Irish, Scottish, and Breton Celtic music. The opening night features the exuberant trio Le Bruit Court Dans la Ville, with Lisa Ornstein on fiddle, Normand Miron on button accordion and vocals, and André Marchand on guitar and vocals. The band will perform a set and then, during a more sociable portion of the evening, it will be joined by the noted dancer and caller Pierre Chartrand. On the second night, the more progressive group Le Vent du Nord celebrates the release of its eighth album, “Têtu,” a sometimes joyful, sometimes melancholy collection marked by rich vocal harmonies and a mellifluous blend of instruments that includes the hurdy-gurdy, the bouzouki, the mandolin, and the accordion. Read More...
WNYC
GIG ALERT: LE VENT DU NORD
APRIL 10, 2015
“Le vent du nord” is French for “the north wind,” and a band by the same name is blowing down over the northern border this weekend for a festival celebrating French-Canadian culture. The group’s whirling, high-energy interpretation of Quebecois folk features the sounds of hurdy-gurdy, violin, mandolin, bouzouki, and accordion. They’ve won two Juno awards – the Canadian Grammys – and it’s easy to hear why. Read More...
Time Out New York
Critic's Pick
The French Connection: Quebecois Music Festival
APRIL 1, 2015
You might not have the slightest clue what Quebecois folk sounds like, but if you're into bluegrass or Celtic music, you'll feel right at home with this buoyant, rustic, stringcentric style, exemplified here by the groups Le Bruit Court dans la Ville (Apr 10)—joined by ace Quebecois dance leader Pierre Chartrand—and Le Vent du Nord (Apr 11). Read More...
The New York Times
Review: Gypsy Flamenco With Play and Passion, Not Flash
By Alastair Macaulay
MARCH 23, 2015
The art of flamenco has changed and changed again; and nothing has changed it more than the annual circuit of festivals, which usually present flamenco that’s over-choreographed, overproduced and often over-innovative. The “Generations of Gypsy Flamenco” concert at the Town Hall on Friday night, a world premiere that went on to San Francisco on Sunday, was a deliberate turn away from that. Read More...
The New York Times
Styles Collide to Serve Flamenco
By Siobhan Burke
MARCH 15, 2015
When flamenco comes to large theaters, it sometimes gets carried away, with splashy theatrical concepts masking the essence of music and dance. “Generations of Gypsy Flamenco,” an event at Town Hall, promises the opposite: flamenco for its own sake, danced by three revered practitioners whose roots in the form run deep. Concha Vargas, Pepe Torres and the up-and-coming Gema Moneo, all from the southern Spanish region of Andalusia, belong to different branches of flamenco’s intricate family tree. Read More...
The New York Times
Events>> Dance Generations of Gypsy Flamenco
Brian Schaefer
Preview
Some may consider a folkloric dance like flamenco to be a single artistic expression, but as with language, dance also has many regional accents and inflections. Here, three notable Gypsy dancers represent the Andalucía style of flamenco: the mesmerizing veteran Concha Vargas; the fleet-footed Pepe Torres; and the powerful Gema Moneo, part of a new generation that is keeping this tradition alive. They will be accompanied by the vocalist Esperanza Fernández and other musicians.. Read More...
WKCR 89.9FM
Robert Browning on In All Languages
By Myriam Amri
Sat, 21 Feb 2015
Tune in this Sunday Night, February 22nd to a very special "In All Languages," from 11pm to 2am. Robert Browning, New York City's most prolific producer of World Music events will share his personal recordings, highlights from his concerts from over the last 30 years.
Robert Browning has produced over 1,500 concerts of World Music, including... Read More...
PREVIOUS
The New York Times
Robert Browning to Present New Series of Concerts
By Allan Kozinn
January 23, 2014
Robert Browning, the entrepreneur who almost single-handedly created and filled New Yorkers’ passion for world music, had an idea in 2011 that it might be fitting to retire. He was 70, and had presented over 1,800 concerts of virtually every imaginable variety of ethnic music, first for the Alternative Center (which was later called the Alternative Museum) and later at the World Music Institute, which he founded in 1986.
But sitting on the sidelines has not suited him, so Mr. Browning has started a new concert presenting group, Robert Browning Associates, and plans to pick up where he left off. Read More...
The New York Times
Roaring Back With Rumba and Religion
By Jon Pareles
May 8, 2011
It was the final concert for the season of the World Music Institute, and the last one before the retirement of its founder, Robert Browning. For the finale Los Muñequitos brought onstage audience members and Mr. Browning as well, dapper in a white suit and dancing his exit.. Read More...
Roaring Back With Rumba and Religion
By Jon Pareles
May 8, 2011
It was the final concert for the season of the World Music Institute, and the last one before the retirement of its founder, Robert Browning. For the finale Los Muñequitos brought onstage audience members and Mr. Browning as well, dapper in a white suit and dancing his exit.. Read More...
The New York Times
Impresarios of the World Music World; Extending the Meaning of 'Classical' Beyond the European Tradition
By Allan Kozinn
September 4, 1997
Mr. Browning, a tall, unassuming Englishman with long, graying hair, began presenting concerts of traditional, classical and folk music from around the globe in 1974, not long after he founded the Alternative Museum... Read More...
Impresarios of the World Music World; Extending the Meaning of 'Classical' Beyond the European Tradition
By Allan Kozinn
September 4, 1997
Mr. Browning, a tall, unassuming Englishman with long, graying hair, began presenting concerts of traditional, classical and folk music from around the globe in 1974, not long after he founded the Alternative Museum... Read More...
The New York Times
New York’s Pioneering World Music Impresario Announces His Retirement
By Ben Sisario
April 10, 2011
Since 1985 there have always been two things you could count on at a World Music Institute concert: stirring traditional sounds (and dance) from a faraway corner of the planet, and a dry yet thoughtful introduction by Robert Browning, the institute’s founder and executive director. Read More...
New York’s Pioneering World Music Impresario Announces His Retirement
By Ben Sisario
April 10, 2011
Since 1985 there have always been two things you could count on at a World Music Institute concert: stirring traditional sounds (and dance) from a faraway corner of the planet, and a dry yet thoughtful introduction by Robert Browning, the institute’s founder and executive director. Read More...
Village Voice
Simon Shaheen With Rima Khcheich
By Richard Gehr
The composer, oud virtuoso, and educator Simon Shaheen is the epicenter of Arab classical music in the United States. And while he usually appears with his Near Eastern Music Ensemble, he takes the stage here with Rima Khcheich, an astounding Lebanese singer who stands out wherever she appears. The evening offers a rare opportunity to hear duet renditions of ninth-to-15th-century music from the Muslim state of Al-Andalus, along with... Read More...
Simon Shaheen With Rima Khcheich
By Richard Gehr
The composer, oud virtuoso, and educator Simon Shaheen is the epicenter of Arab classical music in the United States. And while he usually appears with his Near Eastern Music Ensemble, he takes the stage here with Rima Khcheich, an astounding Lebanese singer who stands out wherever she appears. The evening offers a rare opportunity to hear duet renditions of ninth-to-15th-century music from the Muslim state of Al-Andalus, along with... Read More...