Tag: World Music

Sat
12
April 12 @ 8:00 pm

Afro Dominicano

The Ark 316 S. Main Ann Arbor, MI 48104 United States

Afro Dominicano is a World Music band that centers its music on what they call Afro Caribbean soul. They blend traditional folkloric genres from the Dominican Republic such as Perico Ripiao, Palo, Merengue de Orquesta, Bachata with Reggae, Bembe, Calypso, and Samba, Funk, Rock, and other African rhythms. They have completely impacted the performance art industry by breaking the barrier of the musical genre; seamlessly entering and exiting them with grace and expertise.

$25
Tue
11
February 11 @ 8:00 pm

Lena Jonsson Trio

The Ark 316 S. Main Ann Arbor, MI 48104 United States

The elevator at The Ark is out of service while technicians make repairs. Attendees for this show will need to be able to walk up and down the stairs to the second floor of The Ark where the show takes place. The multi award winning Lena Jonsson Trio continues to break new grounds around the world with their unique mix of deeply rooted Swedish folk, jazz, American old-time and electro acoustic sounds. Lena Jonsson’s ability to balance this with innovative artistic sensibilities, sparkling joy of life and a charisma of a rock-star have made her one Scandinavia’s most visionary musicians.

$25
Tue
28
Artist Spotlight Series Live and Virtual
January 28 @ 8:00 pm

Taimane & Her Trio

The Ark 316 S. Main Ann Arbor, MI 48104 United States

The elevator at The Ark is out of service while technicians wait for a part to make repairs. Attendees for this show will need to be able to walk up and down the stairs to the second floor of The Ark where the show takes place. Born and raised in Hawaii of hapa Samoan descent, ukulele virtuoso and songwriter Taimane is renowned for her fierce and inventive style of playing the four-string island staple. She has also garnered great acclaim for her fiery stage prowess, keeping concertgoers on the edge of their seats from her first note until her last.

Free
Wed
26
February 26 @ 8:00 pm

Masters of Hawaiian Music

The Ark 316 S. Main Ann Arbor, MI 48104 United States

The elevator at The Ark is out of service while technicians make repairs. Attendees for this show will need to be able to walk up and down the stairs to the second floor of The Ark where the show takes place. Three masters, featured regularly at Maui’s renowned “Slack Key Show®” share the uniquely Hawaiian styles of slack key guitar and ‘ukulele, with origins in the early 19th century when the ‘ukulele and the guitar were introduced to Hawai‘i by Portuguese immigrants and Mexican vaqueros, respectively. Ever since, Hawaiians have made these instruments their own.

$30
Tue
7
January 7 @ 8:00 pm

Polky

The Ark 316 S. Main Ann Arbor, MI 48104 United States

Toronto’s Polky, led by multi-talented immigrant female musicians, delights audiences with traditional vocals, unusual instruments, and energizing performances. Drawing deep inspiration from Poland’s rich cultural tapestry, they push musical boundaries by fearlessly blending Polish traditional music with sounds and rhythms from across the globe.

$20
Sat
3
Special Event
May 3 @ 7:00 pm

Jesse Cook

Royal Oak Music Theatre 318 W 4th St Royal Oak, MI 48067 United States

For Jesse Cook, music has been a journey. Sonically and literally.

“Over the years, I’ve taken my music and tried to cross-pollinate it with music from different parts of the world,” explains the 50-year-old global-guitar virtuoso. “For the (2003) album Nomad, I went to Cairo and recorded with musicians there. On my (2009) record The Rumba Foundation, I went to Colombia, and worked with musicians from Cuba as well. On (1998’s) Vertigo, I went down to Lafayette, La., and recorded with Buckwheat Zydeco. For me, the question has always been: Where did you go? Where did you take your guitar?”

$29.50, $39.50, $49.50
Mon
15
April 15, 2024 @ 8:00 pm

Oumou Sangare

The Ark 316 S. Main Ann Arbor, MI 48104 United States

“The Songbird of Wassoulou” brings the music of Mali to Michigan! Oumou Sangaré is a true icon of West Africa whose powerful music and fierce feminism have inspired artists from Alicia Keys to Aya Nakamura to Beyoncé. The songs on her most recent album, “Timbuktu,”  were largely written in Baltimore during the lockdowns of the COVID pandemic. The album blends the sounds of traditional West African instruments with those of instruments most associated with the blues. Oumou will share music from this ambitious album as well as sounds from throughout her acclaimed career. How acclaimed? The New Yorker says, “Percussive, danceable, and haunting, the singer’s visionary mix is the primary reason that her voice has come to carry as much respect as Aretha Franklin’s.”

$35
Mon
25
September 25, 2023 @ 9:00 pm

Larry & Joe

The Ark 316 S. Main Ann Arbor, MI 48104 United States

Larry Bellorín hails from Monagas, Venezuela, and is a legend of Llanera music. Joe Troop is from North Carolina and is a Grammy-nominated bluegrass and oldtime musician. Larry was forced into exile and is an asylum seeker in North Carolina. Joe, after a decade in South America, got stranded back in his stomping grounds in the pandemic. Larry works construction to make ends meet. Joe’s acclaimed “latingrass” band Che Apalache was forced into hiatus, and he shifted into action working with asylum seeking migrants.

Currently based in the Triangle of North Carolina, both men are versatile multi-instrumentalists and singer-songwriters on a mission to show that music has no borders. As a duo they perform a fusion of Venezuelan and Appalachian folk music on harp, banjo, cuatro, fiddle, guitar, maracas and whatever else they decide to throw in the van. The program they offer features a distinct blend of their musical inheritances and traditions as well as storytelling about the ways that music and social movements coalesce.

$25
Sun
22
October 22, 2023 @ 7:30 pm

Hawktail + Väsen

The Ark 316 S. Main Ann Arbor, MI 48104 United States

Sweden’s Väsen-Duo, Mikael Marin and Olov Johansson, have, after almost 40 years of interaction and touring, refined their sound and their stage presence to the extent that today they are unique in their kind. They perform on a variety of stringed instruments, including kontrabasharpa, oktavharpa, three-rowed nyckelharpa, violoncello da spalla and a blue electric base-viola. Väsen comes to Michigan with a new album, “Melliken.”

Hawktail brings together musicians you’ve heard in a dozen other places into an exciting new combination! Fiddler Brittany Haas was a member of Crooked Still and a fixture on Chris Thile’s “Live from Here” radio shows. Bassist Paul Kowert is a longtime member of Punch Brothers. Guitarist Jordan Tice grew up in bluegrass and has played with The Dave Rawlings Music Machine. And mandolinist Dominick Leslie has studied with Thile, Mike Marshall, and David Grisman, and has performed with Noam Pikelny & Friends. Put it together, and you have a band that can range across genres and recombine them with ease, imagination, and brilliant virtuosity.

$25
Sun
27
August 27, 2023 @ 8:30 pm

The Lunar Octet

The Ark 316 S. Main Ann Arbor, MI 48104 United States

The Lunar Octet (a.k.a. The Lunar Glee Club) plays highly original and eclectic music drawing on jazz, Cuban and Puerto Rican salsa, rock, African highlife music, and Brazilian sambas, forging a vital new sound enriched by these traditions. Almost all of the band’s music consists of original compositions involving rich arrangements and strong focus on solo improvisations, and all of the band members contribute to the compositional process. Since its debut in February 1984, the band has carried its high-energy message to dancers and listeners, jazz, R&B, and rock fans alike. The Lunar Octet has performed at the Detroit Jazz Festival (five times), the Flint Jazz Festival, the Columbus Arts Festival, the Lancaster Festival, the Ann Arbor Art Fair, the WEMU/Depot Town Winter Jazz Series, Rusty’s Jazz Cafe, Ann Arbor’s Top of the Park, the Bird of Paradise, the Del Rio, Mr. Flood’s Party, the Blind Pig, the Detroit Festival of the Arts, Detroit’s New Center Park, Toledo’s CityFest, Toledo’s Rib-Off, and more. The band has released five albums.

$20