Regular Midwest Guest readers know how much I love covering Detroit's Concert of Colors each summer.
The four-day world music fest is a great catalyst for hope and unity in the D, so it's especially gratifying to see organizers offer a mid-winter bill of concerts, billed as a "sister" series to the Concert of Colors, that echoes the summer festival's bright spirit by bringing together people to explore and enjoy the talents of various cultures.
Launched as a multicultural performance series in 2005, the Global Fridays series presents a diverse menu of some of the best in world and traditional music right here in metro Detroit at the Arab American National Museum (AANM) in Dearborn, Michigan.
Start your virtual globe-trotting adventure on February 8 when the museum hosts Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino. Italy's top world music group performs here as part of an 11-city concert tour of the U.S. and Canada. Formed in 1975, the seven-member band and dancer travel the world honoring and re-inventing the music and dance traditions of Southern Italy's Pizzica folk dance and music. This will be the group's first visit to Michigan.
March 22 brings finger-style acoustic guitarist Glenn Jones to the museum for his first area show in five years. The Boston-based Jones began his musical journey with the guitar after hearing Jimi Hendrix' second album at the age of 14 in 1967. Blown away by the guitar playing of Hendrix, he pleaded with his father to buy him a guitar. Dad bought the guitar, and Jones grew into an acoustic guitar player who developed his own unique style by building upon the expressive "American Primitive" styles of earlier steel-string guitarists and developing his own spin on it.
Lac La Belle, an acoustic duo from Detroit, joins Jones for the March 22 concert. Jennie Knaggs (accordion/mandolin/ukulele/guitar/vocals) and Nick Schillace (banjo/mandolin/resonator guitar/vocals), who is also a leader in the American Primitive Guitar movement, re-imagine traditional music from the earliest days of recorded American country and folk music to reflect their own Rust Belt aesthetic and stories of their hometown, Detroit. Upright bass player, Serge Van Der Doo joins Knaggs and Schillace for this performance.
Syrian-born Boshra Al Saadi arrives on April 5 for a performance that defies any real genre boundaries. Saadi grew up in Pennsylvania and came of age in New York City. Her influences include musicians like Brian Eno, post-punk music, Afro-disco, tribal beats and Arab folk dance music. Saadi's band includes bassist Mike Dossantos, drummer Mike Duncan, keyboardist/vocalist Joanna Choy and Natalia Perlaza, who plays the dumbeck (goblet-shaped drum).
The Global Fridays season wraps up on May 10 with a performance by the Chicago-based Funkadesi, a multi-cultural group who won five Chicago Music Awards, including two for Most Outstanding Band. They also have a fan in the While House with President Barack Obama, who, as a then-U.S. Senator, expressed his appreciation for the band's energizing music. We experienced Funkadesi's music when the band dished up a hot set of music, fusing elements of the band's various cultural and ethnic traditions into a one-world vision and sound when Funkadesi was a last-minute add to the Concert of Colors schedule in 2011.
Global Friday concerts begin at 7:30 p.m. in the AANM's 156-seat auditorium, which is on the lower level of the museum at 13624 Michigan Avenue in Dearborn, Michigan. Free parking is available in the lighted lot behind the museum.
Tickets for each Global Fridays concert are $10 ($9 for museum members). Purchase tickets at the door, or order in advance at the museum's Web site.
Want to check out some of the artists' music in advance? Here are links to some of the latest tunes from Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino, Glenn Jones, Lac La Belle, Saadi and Funkadesi on Amazon.
Also, if you haven't visited the Arab American Museum, make sure you check it out. The museum's interior is definitely a must-see with its light-filled three-story atrium and architectural details like ornately decorated display cases and intricately tiled walls.
Museum hours are 10 a.m. until 6 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday and noon until 5 p.m. on Sunday. Admission is $8 for adults, $4 for students, seniors and children ages 6-12, free for children ages 5 and under and for AANM members.
© Dominique King 2013 All rights reserved
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