meet 3 of this year’s artists...
TRANSCRIPT
WEDITORS: BRAD SANDERS & KELSEY COLLISI
WEEKEND
7 I N D I A N A D A I LY S T U D E N T | T H U R S D AY, S E P T. 2 2 , 2 0 1 1 | I D S N E W S . C O M / W E E K E N D
BY BRIAN WELK | [email protected]
“Blow Up” is an appropriate title for Bom-ba Estéreo’s most recent full-length album because the band’s sound is an explosion of hip-hop, looped electronica and Latin infl uence.
Th e Colombian party rockers will end their three-year world tour at the Lotus World Music & Arts Festival, and they said they hope their music spreads their South American culture stateside.
Guitarist Julian Salazar said Bomba Esté-reo’s music is inspired by the wide variety of global styles they’ve heard throughout their lives. To him, their sound mixes the best of rock, electronica and Colombian folk music, such as cumbia.
“For all the people that come to our con-certs and buy our album, we let them know that we in Colombia have our own style, and we do it our way,” Salazar said.
Anyone going to the show can expect a dance-happy setting anchored by band lead-er and multi-instrumentalist Simón Mejía and the nasal rap vocals of Liliana Saumet.
Salazar says Saumet’s goal in her songwrit-ing about love and relationships is to always be truthful. But her lyrics are never intended to get in the way of the upbeat anthems.
“We want to be more electronic while still trying to maintain the spirit of the Colombian and Latin rhythms,” Salazar said.
But Indiana is a long way from Colombia, and although the band members have few to no expectations of what a show in the Mid-west will be like, they said they’re still looking forward to performing.
“Every show we do, we try to deliver, and when we know we’re in a diff erent place, we want to do very well,” Salazar said.
BY STEVEN ARROYO | [email protected]
With multiple #1 hits in the United States , a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award , a marriage proposal from Bob Dylan , concerts opening for Martin Luther King Jr’s speeches and rallies (and occasionally, vice versa), Roll-ing Stone’s designation as the 56th greatest singer of all time and more than 60 years as a successful performer under her belt, Mavis Staples needs no additional résumé boosts.
Th en again, she was never in it for the bragging rights. Staples’ performance at the Buskirk-Chumley
Th eater to open the Lotus World Music & Arts Festival today comes in the midst of a recent recording and tour-ing surge that began in the middle of last year with the release of her latest solo album, “You Are Not Alone.”
Now 72, Staples is experiencing a career rebirth at an age when most great American artists see their new work celebrated and critiqued far less than they once did.
For most of her life, people have known Mavis Staples as the lead singer of the iconic gospel and soul group Th e Staple Singers , comprised of Mavis; her sisters, Yvonne , Cleotha and Pervis ; and their father, Roebuck “Pops” Staples .
Hailing from the south side of Chicago, the Singers started out performing in local churches in 1948 and re-ceived their fi rst professional contract in 1952 , before Ma-vis was a teenager.
Between roughly 30 albums and legendary hits such as “I’ll Take You Th ere,” “Respect Yourself” and “Let’s Do it Again,” they became world famous and repeatedly con-quered charts, especially in the 1970s.
With her self-titled solo debut in 1969 , Staples em-barked on a separate, independent musical journey she has kept alive to this day. Combining her work as a solo artist and with her band, Staples has spanned countless
BY BRIAN WELK | [email protected]
Acoustic instrumentalist Nawal comes from probably one of the most remote places of any artist at the Lotus World Music & Arts Festival .
Th e singer hails from the Comoros Is-lands , located northwest of Madagascar, off the coast of Africa .
Yet her soothing and eclectic musical style will feel right at home in Bloomington.
Nawal describes her music as a spiritual call for peace. She said her goal was to broad-en the musical space in her songs, this time through a solo album, “Embrace the Spirit,” rather than with a backing band on her ac-claimed 2007 album, “Aman.”
“I want to touch hearts,” Nawal said. “I want to go inside again and again and again until we fi nd out what happens inside there.”
Her music resembles traditional folk mu-sic from the Comoran region, but the style is inspired from a wide variety of cultures including African, Arabic and a hint of the Western world.
“When I compose, all the music just gets in my heart,” Nawal said, explaining that her infl uences are so mixed, it’s impossible to pinpoint one exact style.
She joked that although you don’t hear any of these infl uences directly in her music, she had been introduced to the music of Bob Dylan, Th e Doors, Pink Floyd and various American pop music artists at a young age.
“Th ere are lots of infl uences in your head, but we really just do things the way we feel them,” Nawal said.
Everything communicated in “Embrace the Spirit,” including ideas about politics and
ABOVE IDS FILE PHOTOBELOW COURTESTY PHOTOS
LOTUSFEST
MEET 3 OF THIS YEAR’S ARTISTS BELOW
MAVIS STAPLESNAWAL BOMBA ESTÉREO
SEE NAWAL, PAGE 12 SEE STAPLES, PAGE 11
Where to start with
world music
P. 11
“Strange Mercy” is
our pick of the week
P. 8
“Shoah” and the art of cinematic suff ering
P. 12
Why you should see “Drive” this
weekend
P. 8
Grammy-winning Americana
7:30 p.m. today Buskirk-Chumley Theater
10:30 p.m. Friday Indiana University Tent
Colombian party rock
10:30 p.m. Saturday Indiana University Tent
Comoros Islands folk
8:45 p.m. Saturday First United Methodist Church
2:30 p.m. Sunday Buskirk-Chumley Theater
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