World Beat Weekend

Niyaz - August 9

Persian electronica featuring a Sufi dancer

Azam Ali, Loga Ramin Torkian and Carmen Rizzo make up the Persian-Indian music trio Niyaz, which blends modern electronica with old Persian folk songs and mystical Sufi poems.

Ali, the vocalist, is also an accomplished hammered-dulcimer player, having learned how to play the instrument under the tutelege of a Persian master. Ali, who was born in Iran and moved to India when she was four, and her husband Torkian, a native Iranian, recently moved to Canada after several years in Los Angeles.

Ladysmith Black Mambazo - August 10

Africa’s superstar a cappella group, made famous on Paul Simon’s Graceland album 25 years ago and still singing strong

For more than forty years, the voices of Ladysmith Black Mambazo have married the intricate rhythms and harmonies of their native South African musical traditions to the sounds of gospel music.

Assembled in the early 1960s, in Durban South Africa, by Joseph Shabalala (still currently leading the group) – then a young farmboy turned factory worker –Joseph took the name Ladysmith Black Mambazo – Ladysmith being the name of Shabalala’s rural hometown; Black being a reference to oxen, the strongest of all farm animals; and Mambazo being the Zulu word for axe, a symbol of the group’s ability to “chop down” any singing rival who might challenge them.

DJ Rekha with special guests blue 13, Dohl Nation - August 11

DJ Rekha spins Bhangra and Bollywood music

British born, New York City based, DJ Rekha, has been called the “Ambassador of Bhangra” by the New York Times and named one of the most influential South Asians by Newsweek. Rekha is among the first DJs to merge classic Bhangra and Bollywood sounds into the language of contemporary electronic dance music.

Rekha’s musical accomplishments include sound design for the TONY-winning Broadway Show, “Bridge and Tunnel,” as well as the Off-Broadway show, “Rafta Rafta.