Chicago 2007
The World Music Festival, which kicks off today and runs through Thursday, is a project of the city’s Department of Cultural Affairs–the mayor’s office helped get the fest off the ground in 1999, but it hasn’t been involved since 2000. No festival in Chicago has a broader lineup or represents more of the city’s diverse population–and this year, as usual, the WMF outdoes Viva! Chicago on its own turf, presenting music from Cuba, Argentina, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Portugal, Spain, and Brazil.
As it has for the past few years, the festival closes with “One World Under One Roof,” a free extravaganza that transforms the Cultural Center into a minifestival, with overlapping sets in three different halls inside the building. PM
In 1999 vocalist Dobet Gnahore moved from the Ivory Coast to France, the world epicenter of the African-music business, and her career took off. She’s thrown herself voraciously into the mix of pan-African sounds in her new home: on her recent second album, Na Afriki (Cumbancha), she sings in seven different African languages and creates polished, mostly acoustic, and equally polyglot music, aided by her husband, guitarist Colin Laroche de Feline. She’s a terrific singer, imbuing her pretty melodies with deep soul and devising novel percussive uses for her voice–some of her songs remind me of an unplugged version of the venerable Afro-European group Zap Mama. PM
7 PM | CHICAGO LATVIAN COMMUNITY CENTERChris Bajmakovich & Muzika 4 U featuring Ljupco Milenkovski
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PM | LOGAN SQUARE AUDITORIUM | $12Jose Conde yOla Fresca
