Cafe Aman

Speaking of travelling...

A presenter friend in Chicago sends along this bit of interesting news. Obviously, this particular piece of the puzzle is not getting much (if any) media attention,  given the larger debate.

Senate Passes Artist Visa Amendment!
On Thursday May 25th, the U.S. Senate approved a provision to require U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to speed up visa processing for artists as part of the comprehensive immigration bill! This is a major milestone in the five-year quest to improve the visa process for foreign guest artists.
The amendment would reduce the current processing times for O and P arts-related visa petitions to a maximum of 45 days by requiring USCIS to treat any arts-related O and P visa petition that it fails to adjudicate within 30 days as a Premium Processing case, free of additional charge. This provision will improve opportunities for U.S. audiences to experience international artistry and will significantly reduce the anxiety, uncertainty, and financial costs currently suffered by nonprofit arts organizations pursuing artist visas.

The artist visa provision was filed by Sen. John Kerry (D-MA), and was included in a larger package of amendments to the Senate immigration bill. Because the amendment was part of a larger package there is no up-or-down voting record on the specific artist provision. Key support was provided by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-PA), Ranking Member Patrick Leahy (D-VT), and Subcommittee Ranking Member Edward Kennedy (D-MA). The Senators below also provided crucial leadership to make sure this provision was included in the final bill.
Sam Brownback (R-KS)
John Cornyn (R-TX)
Mike DeWine (R-OH)
Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)
Orrin Hatch (R-UT)
Edward Kennedy (D-MA)
John Kerry (D-MA)
Patrick Leahy (D-VT)
Mel Martinez (R-FL)
Charles Schumer (D-NY)
Arlen Specter (R-PA)

If your Senator is on this list, send him or her a thank you letter.

While Congress has much more work to do before the contentious immigration reform bill is signed into law, this support from the Senate demonstrates the urgent need for artist visa improvements.  The debate surrounding comprehensive immigration reform is extremely complicated, and the arts community does not take a position on the over-all immigration reform measure.   However, we are hopeful that the artist visa provision will remain in the final immigration bill that is crafted during House and Senate negotiations this summer.

The efforts to improve the visa process for guest artists is led by the Performing Arts Visa Task Force, which includes the American Arts Alliance, American Federation of Musicians, American Symphony Orchestra League, Association of Performing Arts Presenters, Dance/USA, North American Performing Arts Managers and Agents, OPERA America, and Theatre Communications Group.

Off to Morocco

Soon I'll be leaving for Morocco for the  Fes Festival of World Sacred Music, where I'll be hearing truly diverse performances by such artists as William Christie and Les Arts Florissants, Yungchen Lhamo, Jordi Savall, Salif Keita, and a host of others, including the late-night Sufi samaa which is always a highlight for me personally.

This year's visit will certainly be enhanced by the presence of some good friends making their first trek to Fes, including the blogger of Night After Night. MMFCC will also be coming for a few days; it will be his first trip to the festival, though he has quite distinct memories of a cold, rainy, wintertime visit to the city with me some six years ago.

I hope to do a bit of blogging & picture posting from Morocco, but we'll see how realistic that aspiration is in the coming days.

That "All Things Considered" story?

Is finally airing  tonight. There were also be tributes to two greats who passed away this week: Hamza El Din and Jamaica's Desmond Dekker.

The collision of life and art

I thought I'd share an  email I received last night which was written by the manager of the group Tinariwen. I am copying it below; all links are my own addition.

"CRISIS IN KIDAL

The north east of Mali is in turmoil following attacks on military and police installations in the towns of Kidal and Menaka. On the morning of 23rd May, at around 06h00 local time, an armed rebel Tamashek ('Touareg') group under the command of Hassan Fagaga attacked two
military barracks near the regional capital Kidal and held them for the next 24 hours. Fighting continued for some hours as civilians, women and children for the most part, fled into desert.  A number of soldiers, national guardsmen and police took refuge in the old fort of Kidal and continued firing on rebels and civilians in the streets below. There are reports of four fatalities, two soldiers and two rebels.  In Menaka, Moussa Bah, a Touareg army officer stationed in the local barracks mutinied and fled into the bush with a number of other deserters, having taken a quantity of arms and ammunitions from the camp arsenal.

At around 14h00 today an armoured division of the Malian army, which had travelled overnight from Gao in the south, retook Kidal.  The rebels have fled north, and the situation is apparently tense but calm.

These events follow a period of mounting regional tension. The politics of the southern Sahara are extremely complex.   Simmering disagreements between certain local Tamashek leaders and the Malian government have persisted since the signing of the National Pact which put an end to last Touareg rebellion in 1996.  The recent opening of Libyan consulate in Kidal, strategic rivalry between the Ghadaffi regime and the Algerian government, the discovery of large oil reserves in northern Mali, the presence of renegade fundamentalist militias in southern Algeria and the arrival of US military advisors have all fueled a welter of speculation and rumor.

Kidal is the hometown of the Tamashek group Tinariwen, who are currently on tour in Sweden and following events anxiously from afar. Various members of the group have managed to call friends and family in Kidal.   They are very concerned for the welfare of their families, who are camping out in the desert in the hottest and driest season of the year.

There is also a concern that this story will remain largely ignored by the western media, or even worse, that events will be misreported and that rumor will mutate into fact. We call on all friends of the desert and of Tinariwen to help raise awareness of the situation amongst media organisations in their country, and amongst any NGOs and humanitarian organisations who have a presence in the region and might be able to help alleviate the suffering of the civilians caught up in this conflict.

Many thanks for all your help.   Peace and blessings, Tinariwen."

To the Crinkly-Haired One

MMFCC just sent me a link to a very funny number by Richard Thompson, titled "I Agree with Pat Metheny".

Source materials (and I direct your attention in particular to the second link, which has gotten a lot less attention than the first):

• Pat Metheny's original Kenny G comments (courtesy of All About Jazz)
• Kenny G in conversation with Ted Panken (Barnes & Noble.com)

Ted's interview was just masterfully done. Bird's reed would chirp, huh, Kenny Boy?

Another great passed away

Another music legend gone...

The great Nubian oudi, tar player, vocalist and composer Hamza El Din died today after he suffered complications  from brain surgery in Berkeley, California.

The last time I saw him perform was last January at NYU's Skirball Center, in a concert presented by the World Music Institute. He was quite frail then, and I remember thinking at the time that this might well be the last time I'd see him perform.  Sadly enough, my prediction came true.

Born in 1929 and first heard by American listeners at the 1964 Newport Folk Festival, he leaves behind some wonderful recordings, like 1971's iconic Escalay: The Water Wheel. He also leaves a legacy in his  impassioned commitment to the preservation of the environment and the traditional cultures which large-scale "improvement" projects--most visibly the construction of the Aswan Dam--displaced and destroyed.

NPR update

This is shaping up to be a rather NPR-heavy month for me. NPR contributor Jeff Lunden kindly invited me to weigh in earlier this month as part of a two-part piece he did for "Weekend All Things Considered," in which he investigated digital downloading's impact on the classical music recording industry.

Then this evening hopefully tomorrow evening  maybe either Monday or Tuesday evening (the piece got bumped--again), I'll be featured as part of a piece Jeff did for "All Things Considered" about the new DG recording of Osvaldo Golijov's opera Ainadamar.

Finally, this weekend will see me in my regular "Weekend America" gig talking about a couple of new world music releases. We taped a segment discussing Tibetan singer Yungchen Lhamo (seen at left), her crystalline voice and her new Real World album, Ama. We also talked about the nearly-forgotten legacy of Romanian Rom singer Romica Puceanu, whose voice does indeed recall the young Billie Holiday, and whose recordings are making a comeback courtesy of the German label Asphalt Tango.  (To hear "Weekend America," check their website for local airtimes, yadda yadda yadda.)

News of various sorts

I have not meant to be such an unreliable correspondent of late. I do have (something of) an excuse, however. Although I have been largely absent from Café Aman, and not to mention from many of this season’s live performances, it has been a thrilling spring personally: MMFCC and I are expecting the birth of our first child in September. (MMFCC has already dubbed him/her—for the baby’s gender will remain a surprise until The Big Day—“the next generation of music lover and music industry cynic”).

Although I am the last person who would want to delineate what a pregnant woman can or cannot achieve in such a delicate state, I can say that my own energy and focus have been erratic, to say the least.

At any rate, the baby has already exhibited distinct musical preferences, at least judging by the way s/he is responding physically to certain music. (By “responding,” I mean turning out  some seriously intense and vigorous acrobatics.) You be the judge of whether or not this baby is becoming quite the connoisseur, based on the three most intense somersaulting episodes:

• Carnatic percussion: Specifically, at a double bill at Lincoln Center of Akram Khan’s “Ma” (baby LOVED the extended konnakol portions) and Vikku Vinayakram’s US debut of his group Sapthaakshara;
• A flamenco show;
• And the complete 1961 John Coltrane Quintet recordings from  the Village Vanguard.

***

I have also spent a goodly portion of this spring writing content for a new website that I believe is going to be a marvelous resource for world music aficionados. National Geographic magazine, which has an extensive online presence, is rolling out a new website—linked to all the other great NG stuff—that is dedicated to music from around the globe. Take a look around the site, and let me know what you think!

In fond memory of Cheikha Remitti

I just got word (via Marco Werman, who does excellent programming for BBC's The World) that the  matriarch of Algerian raï, Cheikha Remitti,  passed away in Paris earlier today. She died of a heart attack at age 83.

I am sure that fans around the world will be raising a glass in her honor.