[Imperial]

Say what? Well people all over the globe make sweet sounds.
Who is to define it as music? You? Me?

I am starting to become a fan of world music,
and the description does not always fit the mold!

A lot of good sounding music is made when several cultures converge.
Rock was born out of Gospel; was born out of African tribal song; was born out of war rituals...

But I am not so well traveled in this world of music.

What are your favv' examples of World Music?

WES "Alane" (1997/Welenga cd) A MASTERPIECE!!!
http://www.amazon.com/Welenga-Wes/dp/B000007QCT
Vid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaiEoSwL0gw
An unusual version... (Dutch Idol...) Vid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SOpC7bB8VY&mode=related&search=   

Imperial

[Cacophonix]

My first exposure to "world" music was with the Grammy winning album by late Ali Farka Toure - "Talking to Timbuktu" and have since bought every single CD of his. I own a whole bunch of CDs from putumayo and national geographic labels which will ease you into popular music from around the world. Check out these CDs, and start digging deeper.
Some of my fav artistes are -

Chieftains
Omar Faruk Tekbilek
Ali Farka Toure
Buena Vista Social Club
Secret Garden

[BradJudy]

I dig Cheb Mami - Meli Meli - it's a genre of music called "rai" which is from North Africa and largely made popular via immigrants into France.  Cheb Mami is the person who sings at the beginning of Sting's "Desert Rose".  Khaled is probably the biggest artist in this genre and his CDs can be found pretty easily.

I also enjoy bhangra music which is dance music from northern India - other than some sampler CD's, you don't find it in the states much, but you can check out a sampler like Bhangra Beatz or one of the others that's widely available. 

[R_burke]

A lot of world music is "world fusion" combining a lot of different styles and instrumentation.

One of my favorites is the music of Rabih Abou-Khalil

He plays the oud along with a lot of people playing various horns and drums - almost jazz fusion type of music

[lonewolfny42]

A good source for a nice variety of World Music is Putumayo World Music......

Well recorded, and good samplers of many type's of music, with many different artists.
 Check them out....

[mjosef]

If you are really serious about expanding your 'World Music' horizons, go to your local newsstand or bookstore and pick up an issue of Global Rhythm magazine, every issue include a sampler cd of music from around the world.
I was exposed to "World Music" very young, but back then it wasn't called that...it was just music, some people called it folk music... It was the 70's and the big name then was Fela... his music fused Jazz/Funk with the African vibes, and it was infectious. I recently played his music on a job site and my client commented that even the dead would shake a leg.
And thats just one artist in one country. Its a big music world out there... careful, you might get infected. 

[Imperial]

Well, we have the worlds best 25 year old Tabla drum player in Norway! (in the paper today!)
That's an Indian rhythm drum, that sort of can play melodic drummin'

He's called Jai Shankar ... (Ravi Shankar springs to mind... ) A family name with honor in India...
Jai is a Norwegian doctor by the way. And the experts in India got shock when someone at only 25 years of age was this good on the instrument... Not even in India has this happened before! Usually you need
30-50 years of training...

Enjoy!
http://www.dagbladet.no/tv/index.html?clipid=4091   (A little into the vid he does "rock around the clock..."  )

And the rhythm speak (A Tabla drummer must be able to speak the drum rhythm he plays, or he ain't good...

Enjoy!
http://dagbladet.xstream.dk/mediamaker_flash_sc.php?id=4093

This is good stuff! Not powerfull like Kodo, but still very suave!!!

Imperial

[carusoracer]

I really like the Buddha Bar and Buddha Lounge series.

[Cacophonix]

I really like the Buddha Bar and Buddha Lounge series.

Second that ... buddha bar and nirvana lounge series introduced me to several new musicians ... amr diab comes to mind.

[RichardS]

Here's fifteen of my favorites:

Strunz and Farah, "Americas"
Keane and Terbilek, "Fire Dance"
"Shakti with John McLaughlin"
Anouar Brahem, "Thimar"
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, "Night Song"
Calamus, "The Splendour of Al-Andalus"
Jai Uttal, "Footprints"
Vishwa Bhatt, "Saradamani"
Ravikirin, Taj Mahall and VM Bhatt, "Mumtaz Mahall"
Ghazul, "As Night on the Silk Road"
Ali Akbar Khan, "Journey"
Ancient Future, "Quiet Fire"
Loreena McKinnett, "The Visit"
Robbie Robertson, "Music for Native Americans"
Garbarek/Khan, "Ragas and Sagas"

[bprice2]

I don't understand why its called "world music".  Most of the performers I've seen assigned to this genre are from the continent of Africa.  Please enlighten me.

[fiveoclockfriday]

Bprice,
I've always wondered that too. It seems limiting; imagine someone saying "American music". What would that be exactly, a truly American form like jazz, or something 'honed' here like blues? Rock? N'Sync style processed pop? But, I understand the limits of classification for stores and things, and the fact that much of this music is tiny in terms of popularity.

Although some of the recording quality varies, I wholeheartedly recommend just about anything from the "Explorer" series on the Nonesuch label. Tons of field type recordings from all over the world, really a nice overview and sampler of music and sounds, interesting, beautiful, jarring, sometimes all at once. I've got 8 of the discs now; still building my collection. As a bonus, the packing and design is really beautiful on these CDs (although vinyl art would be even better!).

[bprice2]

I took a look at Wikipedia and found this:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_music

I think that the term "world music" is too broad.  It doesn't give enough credit to local forms of music that are not of "western" influence.

I mostly identify with this passage from Wikipedia:

Some musicians and curators of music have come to dislike the term "world music". To these critics, "world music" is a parochial, catchall marketing term for non-western music of all genres.

[mjosef]

I was speaking to a musician from Chile recently and not knowing he was a musician until that moment, I asked what kind of music he plays, he said traditional music of Chile(folk) and a little jazz, so I said , oh World Music, and his expression changed and responded that he didn't like the phrase "World"...
Yes labels on musical forms can be limiting, but thats the problem with "talking" music as opposed to listening to music, when listening I don't think, this is world music or jazz music or classical music, its just music... I either like it or not.
An artist may not like the label, but if one goes into the store and ask for a particular artist, they would be directed to the section where that 'type' of music is filed, be it world, jazz, classical rock or whatever. As I see it, World music is when traditional or modern music of a particular region is mixed/fused with music of another part of the globe.

[woodsyi]

I like this African folk CD a lot.  http://www.robertchristgau.com/get_album.php?id=718

[TheChairGuy]

I've got a few of the Putamayo discs and enjoy them quite a bit. 

They are recorded (mostly) on location...so they tend to be simply miked and not overly robbed of vitality.  The 'Putamayo Presents Mali' disc has wailing children (clearly, not intended) in the background of cut #1, for instance.  I've got the 'Brazil', 'Euro Lounge' and 'Sahara Lounge' discs, too, all servicably good.

For real drive, try Rabih Abou-Khalil's (not a Putamayo disc) 'The Cactus of Knowledge'...thrilling stuff from the Middle East 

[R_burke]

For real drive, try Rabih Abou-Khalil's (not a Putamayo disc) 'The Cactus of Knowledge'...thrilling stuff from the Middle East 

He records on Enja, I have 4 of his, but not the one you mentioned, I'll look for it.  I especially like Morton's Foot, and he has a new one out called "Journey to the center of an egg" that got good reviews on Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/Journey-Centre-Egg-Rabih-Abou-Khalil/dp/B000CZ0PQ2/sr=1-2/qid=1172705697/ref=pd_bbs_2/105-5266645-3233226?ie=UTF8&s=music