Gustav Mahler

Either way, the message is the same: peace through music. This week, the World Orchestra, made up of 95 musicians from 35 countries, will be playing both to commemorate World War II and to celebrate 200 years of peace.

On September 1, the World Orchestra performed in Krakow, Poland, in a concert marking the 70th anniversary of the start of World War II. The program included Mahler’s “Symphony no. 5 in C# Minor”, as well the world premiere of a commissioned piece called “Prelude to Peace,” by Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki.

The orchestra will follow this somber event with a celebration in Stockholm, Sweden on September 2 at the Baltic Sea Festival. The festival’s theme this year is appropriately named “peace and reconciliation,” chosen for the 200th anniversary of a peace treaty between Sweden and Finland.

The World Orchestra for Peace was founded by the highly influential conductor Georg Solti, a Jewish-Hungarian who was forced to flee his homeland at the start of World War II. He first organized the orchestra at the request of the United Nations to celebrate their 50th anniversary in 1995.

The idea had been brewing in Solti’s mind since a concert at Buckingham Palace three years before, when 13 of the world’s most prolific musicians came together and performed in celebration of his 80th birthday. Solti later said, “I could not escape one very essential idea. Isn’t it amazing that we musicians can produce a united Europe or more… even a united world. Why can’t the politicians?”

Sadly, Solti passed away in 1997, and Valery Gergiev, the Principal Conductor for the London Symphony Orchestra, has led the group ever since, giving concerts in cities like Moscow, Berlin, Beijing, Jerusalem, and Budapest.

The World Orchestra is an elite organization which only admits musicians by invitation. These citizens, representing dozens of cultures and languages, sit side by side, often unable to communicate with words but still in perfect harmony. As Solti said, it would be nice if one day politicians could do the same.

Colombian singer Juanes, in concert; Photo: Julio Enriquez

Artistically speaking, it’s been a banner year for Cubans.

In July, the Royal Ballet of London came to Havana for a joint performance with the Cuban National Ballet, appearing before a crowd so enormous that the Cuban government was forced to set up outdoor screens so the performance could be seen by those who hadn’t been lucky enough to snag a ticket.

The same week, the New York Philharmonic announced its intentions to perform in Havana this October.

But before then, the wildly popular Colombian pop singer Juanes is scheduled to play in a “Peace Without Borders” concert alongside beloved Cuban folk musician, Silvio Rodriguez, and the perennially popular Los Van Van.

He’s even met with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to seek her support, asking her to permit U.S. musicians to visit the island to take part in the event (they’d be the first to do so since Audioslave’s 2005 concert, which drew more than 60,000 Cuban fans).

The concert, scheduled to almost coincide with the United Nations’ International Day of Peace, is the latest stop on Juanes’s Peace Without Borders tour, the first leg of which kicked off on the Venezuelan/Colombian border in March, 2008.

Juanes, like his fellow Colombian superstar musician, Shakira, has been actively involved in using his music as a means of supporting causes he cares about– he’s also started a foundation to help survivors of land mine explosions. But not everyone–especially certain sectors of the Cuban American community–view Juanes’s Peace Without Borders tour as an act to celebrate.

The singer, who lives in Miami, has been the target of outspoken criticism. Some Miami Cubans have been reported to be burning his CDs in the streets there. Even his wife, who is eight months pregnant, has been threatened.

In the Spanish language newspaper El Pais, Juanes responded to the criticism that he’s being insensitive to Cuban exiles’ concerns. Some highlights from the interview, translated by this writer:

“I am convinced that art plays an important role in the construction of peace.”

“I’m not interested in the government of Cuba. I’m interested in people, in the youth….”

“I’m fed up with us asking one another whether we’re Muslim, gay, Cuban, or Venezuelan.”

“Why can I go to Spain and no one asks me if I’m singing to the president, but if I go to Cuba, [everyone thinks] I’m singing to Castro?…. Just let us sing!”

The concert is still scheduled for September 20.

If you’re not familiar with Juanes’s music, here’s a clip from the Venezuela/Colombia “Peace Without Borders” concert:

Community Connection:

To learn more about the New York Philharmonic’s scheduled performance, read “New York Philharmonic to Perform in Cuba?”

Photo: Justo Ruiz

I was 90 minutes north of New York City last night, getting ready to enjoy an outdoor Shakespeare performance, when the news spread across the lawn of picnickers: Michael Jackson was dead.

“Michael Jackson is dead? I don’t believe it, I don’t believe it,” the girl at the concession stand said over and over as she totaled my bill. After she took my money, she started crying.

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This morning, I logged onto Facebook.

Andy Carvin, National Public Radio’s social media guru, wrote:

“How’s this for irony – powerful, graphic #IranElection protest video, set to Michael Jackson’s ‘They Don’t Care About Us’.”

Friends from South Carolina to New York had taken the “What Michael Jackson Song Are You?” quiz and posted their results.

The BBC reported that a Nigerian DJ broke down on air, unable to complete her show, after she began talking about Jackson.
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I’m (surprisingly) in agreement with the Reverend Al Sharpton, who wondered aloud why the world that ridiculed and all but abandoned Jackson in recent years suddenly lionized him. But then I thought about some of Jackson’s best songs and collaborative projects, and realized that he used his music to remind us of our shared humanity. Here are three of his best:

“Man in the Mirror”

“Black or White”

“We Are the World”

Community Connection:

How did Michael Jackson’s music impact your life– or not? And where’s the most unusual place you’ve ever heard a Michael Jackson song? Share your memories in the comments.

The spiraling popularity of “daggering” — a “lewd” dance style with accompanying, explicitly-lyric’d dancehall tunes — has led the Jamaican government to take an unprecedented step: an all-out radio and TV ban on songs and videos with blatantly sexual content.

Here’s the background, from MOJO blogger David Katz:

The storm began brewing when a series of “daggering” hits gained widespread airplay… To the uninitiated, “daggering” is a super-lewd “dance” that leaves little to the imagination, in which groin-locked couples enact rapid-speed dry-humping. “Daggering” dancers basically enact simulated sex, since the term is roughly the Caribbean equivalent to “cabin stabbing.”

(Am I the only one who paused at this point to google “cabin stabbing”? And regretted it?)

Grumbles about the craze were already building, and things came to a climax (har har) when the Vybz Kartel and Spice duet, Rampin Shop, hit #1 on the local charts.

Katz again:

Five days later, the Jamaican Broadcasting Commission took the unprecedented step of banning all songs with explicit sexual content from radio and television, as well as songs that glorify gun violence, murder, rape or arson. The ban is absolute, meaning that such songs can no longer be aired as “clean” versions that make use of “bleeping.”

Responses to the ban have been extremely mixed. Some feel the government’s stance is hypocritical: Given that human rights campaigns have fallen on deaf ears for years, why should it take a bit of dry-humping to bring action?

I’m torn on this one.

On the one hand, I’m never a fan of censorship — and this full-on ban seems to be casting a pretty wide net. Who gets to decide what constitutes “explicit sexual content,” after all? If we let them come for our daggering tunes first, will they be after our Marvin Gaye albums next?

But on the other hand, I do worry about the overly sexualized world kids seem to be inhabiting these days. (I bet there are a lot of young’uns that wouldn’t have had to google “cabin stabbing”…) Jamaican reggae singer Horace Andy is quoted in the MOJO blog post: “I don’t think it’s right to play those kind of lyrics on the radio, cause if you beep it out, the kids still know. My daughter is four years old, and she knows every word of ‘Rampin Shop’.”

Check out a few examples and see for yourself.

Here’s Bragga’s “Dagga Dat”:

And Mr. Vegas, “Daggering”:

Finally, a homemade daggering demonstration, to the hit track “Hundred Stab”:

Call me desensitized, but they don’t seem much more objectionable than your average rap video. (But of course, just because we allow tracks like “Candy Shop” to play in prime time doesn’t mean Jamaica necessarily should, too…)

What do you think of the “daggering” craze? Harmless or sinister?

Top photo by sick of goodbyes (Creative Commons)
Bottom photo by Alex Barth (Creative Commons)

Oh, and did I mention it’s a rap?

Bakhtawar Bhutto Zardari is just 18 years old, and a student at Edinburgh University. She wrote and produced the track herself.

Billy Johnson Jr., blogger at Hip Hop Media Training, was impressed by the rookie effort.

“I wasn’t expecting much,” he writes. “But I was surprised by not only her candid lyrics, but her pitch and conversational rhyme flow.”

See for yourself:

It’s been 40 years since the iconic Beatles album was released — and hey, in honor of the milestone the Vatican has even sent a present, of sorts.

Vatican City’s daily newspaper appears to have forgiven John Lennon for his notorious quip about being more famous than Jesus.

Reuters quotes the daily:

The remark by John Lennon, which triggered deep indignation mainly in the United States, after many years sounds only like a ‘boast’ by a young working-class Englishman faced with unexpected success, after growing up in the legend of Elvis and rock and roll…

The fact remains that 38 years after breaking up, the songs of the Lennon-McCartney brand have shown an extraordinary resistance to the passage of time, becoming a source of inspiration for more than one generation of pop musicians.

Nice to hear they’re willing to, y’know, forgive.

Still, I doubt if “Why Don’t We Do It In The Road” will be getting much air time on Vatican radio any time soon.

Here’s my favorite track off the legendary four-sided album: Revolution 1

Nicknamed Mama Africa, Makeba was known throughout the world not only for her singing but for her stand against South Africa’s apartheid regime. As this BBC story notes, Nelson Mandela has called her both the “mother of our struggle” and “South Africa’s first lady of song.”

Miriam Makeba was the first black artist to win a Grammy award, in 1965.

Here’s one of Makeba’s signature tracks, The Click Song, and another famous one, Pata Pata:

Finally, here are a couple of performances from Paul Simon’s final stop on the Graceland tour, a massive outdoor show in Zimbabwe in 1987.

First, Miriam Makeba performing Soweto Blues, and then a group rendition of Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika, the anthem of the anti-apartheid movement and now a part of South Africa’s official national anthem.

The travel blogosphere has been aflutter with all sorts of news about Twitter.

First, blogger Pam over at Nerds Eye View shared her story about how Conde Nast editor Wendy Perrin happened to be following Pam’s tweets, liked what she saw, and invited Pam to come on out to NYC and do some blogging for Conde Nast about a conference they were hosting.

Then, Matador member Christine Gilbert wrote that the LA Times picked up a tweet–one she didn’t even write–about her American Airlines Can Bite Me Contest–and featured the contest on their online travel section.

Written Road’s resident tech expert, Tim Shisler, signed the site up for its own Twitter account, joining Boots-n-All, the Travel Channel, the NY Times Travel section, and other travel specialty sites.

And then, the NY Times reported this weekend, the U.S. State Department finally jumped on board and started showing off its tech-savvy. Its country profiles and travel advisories are now being broadcast via Twitter. Personally, I don’t think I can handle 24/7 feeds about dangers around the world, but if you’re the type of traveler who checks State Department warnings before you plan your travels, then you may want to add this to the Twitter accounts you’re following.

Photo: Robert Scoble (Flickr creative commons)

“Our way of life,” write the Ginger Ninjas, “threatens our way of life.” For that reason, they started the Pleasant Revolution.

Who, exactly, are the Ginger Ninjas?

Well, they’re the rock-n-roll group that’s taking “roll” seriously… rolling all the way, in fact, from North San Juan, California to southern Mexico.

On bicycles.

With all their gear, including a 1000 watt PA system.

5,000 miles in all.

And what, exactly, is the Pleasant Revolution?

According to the group, it’s a philosophy of not just looking and talking about our way of life differently, but actually living differently.

And so, the Ginger Ninjas are traveling through Mexico, by bike, giving concerts along the way, playing with local musicians, and raising consciousness about sustainable living.

I think it’s pretty cool all the way around, but if it’s a little too granola for you, just check out this video for their song “Dick Cheney (Needs More Love) to confirm that these guys have a great sense of humor:

Photos: dustinj (Flickr creative commons)

There are seven more days left in the 2008 Olympics, but if you’re already anticipating the pains of Olympics withdrawal, don’t worry… Nike has a plan for you.

The Human Race, a 10K sponsored by Nike, is scheduled to take place on August 31 in more than 25 cities around the world.

Riding high on the international spirit of the Olympic Games, the Human Race is already being billed as the world’s largest running event.

Open to any runner, amateur or professional, the goal of the Human Race is to celebrate runners and their sport while uniting athletes world-wide.

Five dollars of each runner’s $35 registration fee will be donated to the World Wildlife Fund, the Lance Armstrong Foundation, and ninemillion.org.

In addition to being treated to “the best geographical locations to showcase some of the most famous landmarks and unique race courses in the world,” runners will get to enjoy live concerts played especially for them at the end of the run.

For more information, check out the official website.

Photo: Sport Communities (creative commons)

Matador member Lola Akinmade–herself a carrier of a well-inked passport leafed with multiple visas–sent in a tip about the website Most Traveled People.

Think you’re well-traveled?

Well, compare your passport stamps to those of Charles A. Veley, who has visited 630 of the world’s 673 “countries, territories, autonomous regions, enclaves, geographically separated island groups, and major states and provinces” and has the stories and pictures to prove it.

Nancy Dockry, though, isn’t far behind, clocking in with an impressive 620 place-visits on the MTP roster.

If you want to start keeping track of your travels, check out MTP’s printable list of places and see how you stack up beside Veley and Dockry.

Or if you think you’ve got what it takes to join the ranks of the world’s most traveled people, start your own account.

According to your own count, how many countries have you visited? Post your travel stats in the comments below!

Photo: disco~stu (creative commons)

He goes on:

For decades, “world music” has basically been reggae. Not in the sense of accent on the three, but as a structure of feeling: songs of freedom punctuated by melancholy domestic plaints, built on a foundation of rhythm guitar and percussive lilt, with a sense of patient endurance and occasional exhortation. A liberal-progressive politics of hope with a beat you can nod along to, convivial both to doobie and dinner party. That in fact describes the other current hero of world music, Manu Chao; you’ll notice that his international breakthrough, Proxima Estacion: Esperanza, is practically named “Politics of Hope.” Manu Chao is excellent, and he is also reggae — sometimes in fact, and always in feeling. He released an album this year with stacks of cred and critical air support and it tanked. And for all its particular failings and delights, it tanked because it required the fantasy of reggae: that the world out there is going to love us into changing; is going to be stalwart and righteous til we get it; that we’re moving forward together, especially if we’re cool and progressive and down; that a better world is not only possible but is seven hugs and four joints away. This was never true; the “world music” we liked sure helped us pretend it was anyway. No more.

Whether you agree with Jane’s somewhat cynical world view or not, it’s a compelling way to describe “world music”.

As for M.I.A., she’s a British/Sri Lankan female rapper – plenty of varied musical traditions to draw on there. Here’s the video for Jane’s favorite song on Kala, “Bird Flu”:

Community Connections:

Awhile back, Matador Trips editor Tim Patterson posted a blog about Somali-Canadian rapper K’naan, and Matador member anne137 wrote about her playlist for itchy feet.

If you’re a world music fan, be sure to check out Traverse’s Music+Art archive, as well as the 10 Ways Music Connects Travelers.