Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars are a group of musicians who escaped the horrific violence of Sierra Leone’s civil war, landed in a West African refugee camp and formed a band to keep their spirits up and their hopes alive. From these humble beginnings the band has now grown to be an international musical sensation. Their can’t help but dance live shows and their musical message have earned them devoted fans around the world. They’ve known the horrors of war firsthand and have become ambassadors of peace. An unbelievable testament to the human spirit, the journey of Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars exemplifies the universal healing power of music.

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2. Huun Huur Tu w. Red Baraat, De Temps Antan, Hector del Curto, Los Texmaniacs and Lucia Pulido

Date: Monday, January 10, 2011
Time: 7pm
Venue: Highline Ballroom (431 W 16th St, New York, NY 10011, 212-414-5994 )
Ticket: $17
Genre: Tuva traditional music/throat singing

Huun-Huur-Tu  is a music group from Tuva, a Russian republic situated on the Mongolian border. In 1992 HUUN-HUUR-TU was founded by Sasha Bapa, his brother, Sayan, and two other musicians, Kaigal-ool Khovalyg and Albert Kuvezin. The most distinctive characteristic of Huun Huur Tu’s music is throat singing, in which the singers sing both the note (drone) and the drone’s overtone(s), thus producing two or three notes simultaneously. The overtone may sound like a flute, whistle or bird, but is actually solely a product of the human voice.

The group primarily uses native Tuvan instruments such as the igil, khomus (Tuvan Jew’s Harp), doshpuluur, and dünggür (shaman drum). However, in recent years, the group has begun to selectively incorporate western instruments, such as the guitar. While the thrust of Huun Huur Tu’s music is fundamentally indigenous Tuvan folk music, they also experiment with incorporating not only Western instruments, but electronic music as well.

Red Baraat, De Temps Antan, Hector del Curto, Los Texmaniacs and Lucia Pulido are sharing the stge with Huun-Huur-Tu.

3. Johnny Winter

Date:  Tuesday, Januar 11, 2011
Time: 8pm
Venue: B.B.KING (237 West 42 St., New York, NY 10036)
Ticket: $35
Genre: Blues

The Texas guitar tradition runs deep. It’s a gutsy school of blues playing, marked by thick tones, aggressive attack and tons of technique, all delivered in a flamboyant, swaggering style that is endemic to the Lone Star State. From T-Bone Walker and Clarence Gatemouth Brown on through Albert Collins and Freddie King, Billy Gibbons and the late Stevie Ray Vaughan, the tradition of the Texas guitar slinger has lived on. One name that ranks atop that exclusive list is Johnny Winter, the international ambassador for rocking Texas blues for the last thirty years.

4. Marc Ribot & Sun Ship & special guest Henry Grimes

Date: Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Time: 10pm
Venue: Le Poisson Rouge (158 Bleecker Street, New York, NY 10012, ph: 212- 505-3474)
Ticket: $18
Genre: experimental, Jazz

Marc Ribot was born in Newark, New Jersey in 1954. As a teen, he played guitar in various garage bands while studying with his mentor, Haitian classical guitarist and composer Frantz Casseus. After moving to New York City in 1978, Ribot was a member of the soul/punk Realtones, and from 1984 – 1989, of John Lurie’s Lounge Lizards. Between 1979 and 1985, Ribot also worked as a sidemusician with Brother Jack McDuff, Wilson Pickett, Carla Thomas, Rufus Thomas, Chuck Berry, and many others.

Named after John Coltrane´s posthumously released album “Sun ship”, Marc Ribot´s Sun Ship features neither tenor saxophone nor piano. Instead he enlists a second guitarist, Mary Halvorson, as well as Jason Ajemian on upright bass and Chad Taylor on drums. This engagement will feature special guest Henry Grimes (Spiritual Unity/Albert Ayler alum) holding down Ajemian’s role on the bass for one night only.

5. The Mast featuring Haale

Date: Thursday, Januar 13, 2011
Time: 9:30pm
Venue: Joe’s Pub (425 Lafayette St, NY)
Ticket: $15
Genre: alternative rock w. world music elements

Before they launched The Mast in 2010, Haale (Persian-American, vocal, guitar) and Matt Kilmer (dr, percussion) were writing, performing, and touring together for 3 years under Haale’s name.  Starting in 2007, upon the release of the EPs, ‘Paratrooper’ and ‘Morning,’  they toured across the country, in Canada, and Europe playing such venues as the Bonnaroo festival, the David Byrne-curated series at Carnegie Hall, the Hillside Festival, Celebrate Brooklyn, Mimi Festival in France, and Preservation Hall in New Orleans. In March 2008, they released the full-length album ‘No Ceiling’ which the Boston Globe called , ‘one of the year’s most memorable releases.’

6. MWE/DELI KANLI/ZIKRAYAT

Date: Friday, January 14, 2011
Time: 9pm
Venue: Zebulon (258 Wythe Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11211)
Ticket: donation
Genre: Turlish and Balkan folk music

MWE put a modern and eclectic twist on Turkish and Balkan folk music. This five member acoustic wind ensemble plays traditional songs with the rarely paired clarinet and the double-reeded zurna, drawing on the same musical traditions as Gogol Bodello and Balkan Beat Box.  Add two clarinets and a davul, a shoulder slung marching drum, and you’re about the closest to heavy metal you can get without amplification. Their shows are loud, wild, and raucous affairs known for drawing entire audiences on their feet in one song or less. MWE are often found playing hit-and-run gigs in San Francisco’s Mission District, they’ve also played at established world music venues including Ashkenaz and Yoshi’s Lounge.

Deli Kanli puts a passionate and refined twist on traditional Turkish folks songs.  The haunting weeping melodies of the Chinese erhu, a two string knee violin, and the fuller sounds of a traditional upright bass provide more room for more playful interpretations on the traditional Turkish oud, clarinet, and darabuka.  Alex Pasternak of Lemonade and Gary Haggerty of Stellamara joined Greg Jenkins, Calvin Lai, Sean Tergis, and Samuel Atchley to form Deli Kanli in 2009.  Taking their name from the Turkish words for “crazy blooded,” Deli Kanli has accompanied renowned belly dancer Rachel Brice and performed at San Francisco’s De Young Museum.

ZIKRAYAT – guest Dj

7. Rhythm of Rajasthan

Date: Friday, January 14, 2011
Time: 8pm
Venue: Peter Jay Sharp Theatre/Symphony Space (2537 Broadway at 95th Street, New York, NY 10025-6990)
Ticket: $35
Genre: Indian folk music

The Rhythm of Rajasthan ensemble with its enthralling music and dance, hails from the windswept Great Thar Desert in Rajasthan (“the land of kings”) in northwestern India. The musicians, from the Langa (“song giver”) and Manghaniyar hereditary groups of itinerant entertainers, return to New York with their program of vibrant and joyous folk music, encompassing driving percussion, ecstatic Sufi songs, and hypnotic sarangi (bowed lute) and algoza (doubleflute). They are joined by two dancers, including the famed Suva Devi (from the film Latcho Drom), who perform the Kalbeliya Sapera snake-charming dance and the spectacular Bhavai folk dance.

8. Makane Kouyate/Super Hi-Fi – Afro-Dub

Date: Saturday, Januar 15, 2011
Time: 7pm – 8pm/10pm – 12am
Venue: The Shrine (2271 Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd, NY)
Ticket: donation
Genre: Mali folk music/afro-dub

Music from Mali with singer/ percussionist Makane Kouyate. 

SUPER HI-FI is NYC’s newest and finest AFRO-DUB ensemble. Featuring members of Aphrodesia, Slavic Soul Party, the Blue Man Group, Sister Sparrow and the Dirty Birds, and The Josh Roseman Ensemble, SHF’s double trombone attack is already winning over audiences from Williamsburg to the Lower East Side! SUPER HI-FI hosts the monthly Afro-Dub Sessions at Rose Live Music, Grand St. in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, featuring a rotating cast of DJ’s including Ticklah, Subatomic Sound System, DJ DRM and many more to come.

9. Sotto Voce 

Date: Saturday, Januar 15, 2011
Time: 8pm
Venue: Zora Art Space (315 4th Avenue between 3rd and 2nd Streets in Park Slope, Brooklyn)
Ticket: $10

Sotto Voce is the brand new concept/group/album from the extraordinarily gifted and wide-open mind of saxophonist/composer/songwriter Roy Nathanson. The group features his fellow Jazz Passengers Curtis Fowlkes and singing bassist Tim Kiah The album features six infectious new songs and/or stories by Nathanson, as well as an interpolation of Bobby Hebb’s mid-60s R&B/pop smash “Sunny” and a gorgeous reading of great Jazz composer Rahsaan Roland Kirk’s “The Inflated Tear” with new lyrics by Roy Nathanson.
Featuring:
Roy Nathanson – sax, vocals
Tim Kiah – bass, vocals
Curtis Fowlkes – trombone, vocals

10. The Local 269 Sunday Jazz

Date:  Sunday, Januar 16, 2011
Time: 7pm
Venue: Local 269 (269 E. Houston, NY)
Ticket: $10
Genre: Jazz

The Local 269 Sunday Jazz with Plume, Frederika Krier,  Jesse Walker Insiders & A Glass Buffalo.