Originally published at NPR
World music DJ Betto Arcos returns to weekends on ”All Things Considered” to share what he’s been spinning on “Global Village,” the show he hosts on KPFK in Los Angeles. This week, Arcos brings some of his favorite new Cuban music. His picks include Pedrito Martinez’s convergence of Cuban and flamenco rumbas, an ancestral tale from The Creole Choir of Cuba, Tiempo Libre’s amalgam of jazz, funk, and R&B and Yunior Terry’s nod to salsa.

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Originally published at NPR
Ibrahim Maalouf plays a four-valve trumpet — most just have three. The extra valve, attached to the button a trumpeter pushes down, allows the Lebanese musician to play quarter-tones — the notes between notes that characterize Arabic “makams.”
“The makams are scales and modes with quarter-tones and three quarter-tones intervals,” Maalouf says. “This is something that you cannot find in Occidental music.”
Maalouf credits his father, the renowned Lebanese classical trumpeter Nassim Maalouf, with the innovation.
“This trumpet that he invented is really pure genius. …

Originally published at NPR
World music DJ Betto Arcos returns to weekends on “All Things Considered” to share the music he’s been playing on “Global Village,” the show he hosts on KPFK in Los Angeles. This week, Arcos brings his favorite new tracks from Argentinean and Uruguayan artists.
From the spirit of the old style rooted in the bordellos of Buenos Aires to the Andean style known as huayno to an approach that weaves in orchestral and electronic elements, Arcos’ picks showcase the diverse landscape of tango.

Originally published at NPR
DJ Betto Arcos returns to weekends on “All Things Considered” with more of the music he’s been spinning on “Global Village,” his world-music program on KPFK in Los Angeles.
This week, Arcos selects some of his favorite new music coming out of Spain. His picks include a guitarist inspired by baroque music, an all-female quartet with a flamenco flair, a ballad singer and a Galician bagpipe master. To hear his conversation with NPR’s Jacki Lyden, click the audio link on this page.

Originally published at NPR
With all that’s going on in the Middle East right now, it’s easy to forget that the Arab Spring began just two years ago in Tunisia.
Singer Emel Mathlouthi has been called “The Voice of the Tunisian Revolution.” A video of one of her songs went viral and became an anthem for protesters in her homeland during the December 2010 uprising. She released her debut album in the U.S. last year.
Mathlouthi grew up listening to an eclectic mix of music — from traditional Tunisian songs to her father’s record …

Originally published at NPR
Each year around this time, weekends on “All Things Considered” welcomes world music DJ Betto Arcos onto the show to share some of his favorite nominees from this Latin Grammys, the 2012 installment of which is coming up next week. Arcos hosts the program “Global Village” on KPFK in Los Angeles; his picks include singer-songwriters from Mexico and Brazil, a Chilean rapper and a Puerto Rican-American jazz saxophonist.
You can hear their conversation by clicking the audio link on this page, and learn more about this year’s Latin Grammy …

Originally published at NPR
Betto Arcos is the host of “Global Village,” a world music show on KPFK in Los Angeles, and a native of Xalapa, capital city of the Mexican state of Veracruz. He recently spoke with Guy Raz, host of weekends on “All Things Considered,” about son jarocho — a style of music played mostly in the south of his home state. He says the music is so vibrant because it comes from the Caribbean side of Mexico and has all the influences of that region: African, indigenous and Spanish.

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Originally published on NPR
Betto Arcos returns once again to weekends on “All Things Considered” to share what he’s been spinning on “Global Village,” the world music show he hosts on KPFK in Los Angeles. This week, Arcos has brought Guy Raz four 21st century interpretations of cumbia, a traditional music from Colombia and Panama. But Arcos’ contemporary playlist stretches beyond the humid north of South America, featuring garage-rock cumbia from Mexico City, subtropical cumbia from urban Uruguay and more.
No Pares Hasta Tener Lo Suficiente (Don’t Stop ‘Til …

Originally published at NPR

Almost 20 years ago, a young student at the National University of Mexico went in search of a very old instrument in the mountains of the southern state of Oaxaca. Today, he has become a leading force in the revival of the instrument called the bajo quinto and the music played on it.
Ruben Luengas was working on a research project at the National School of Music in Mexico City in 1995. He wanted to focus on the music of his hometown, in the Mixtec region of …

Originally published at NPR
More than 40 years ago, four friends — three scientists and one musician — went to the Huasteca region in Northeastern Mexico in search of music they wanted to record for their own enjoyment. Now, some of their work has been released on a two-CD compilation titled El Gusto.
The four friends found a wealth of music in Ciudad Valles, in the state of San Luis Potosi. One member of the group, Eduardo Llerenas, even chose to dedicate his life to recording the music of the area, giving up …