Concert of world music

Tony Allen founded, together with Fela Kutim the founding stones of afrobeat and until now he belongs to the most respected and most working drummers. He is ageless music catalyzer, who was since the 60s until present always at the right time in the right place. Years ago, Fela Kuti have said about his he plays like five drummers at the same time, Brian Eno talks about him like the best living drummer in the world.

The breakpoint of his career came when he published his album N.E.P.A. When he introdued a new musi music hybrid; the synthesis of afrobeat, electronic music, dub, rap and R&B which he called ‘Afrofunk’. When 90’s were finishing, another generation of fans and musicians discovered him. In the last years he records with The Air, Jarvis Cocker, Susheela Raman, rapper Ty or with Charlote Gainsbourg.

Tony Allen comes on 25th of February 2008 to Palace Akropolis in Prague. Price: 455 – 400 czk.

The pieces by Goran Bregovic are labelled like the exemplary type of postmodern music. You can dance on rhythms of Gypsy and and folk songs from Balkan, Greece and Turkey, you can lost in dreams during a rock ballad, to be in the end amazed by angel-clean voices of the children’s choir, accompanied by synthezator music.

Bregovic got fame by music to movies by Emir Kosturica, like Time of Gipses and Arizona Dream. To the success of these movies definitely contributed Bregovic’s songs. He was awarded prizes for the best film music in movies Underground and Queen Margot.

His performances in the Czech Republic have always gained maximum success. Not only Czech audience loves his music, films and spontaneous energy, but they are also very vocal about it, so the atmosphere is something wonderful. Thanks for his scenic harmony talent his performances are attractive and fascinating.

Tickets: from 1 450,- to – 550,-, Veue: Congress Centre (Kongresové centrum, Praha 4). Date: 25th December 2009.

The mysterious beauty of traditional Celtic music, the grace and energy of Irish dance, and a powerful story of love gone wrong combine to create a new and exciting entertainment event. Gaelforce Dance tells the tale of Lorcan and Aisling, a man and woman who have fallen desperately in love. However, Aisling is already married to Cuan, making the situation all the more difficult, Cuan happens to be Lorcan’s brother, and as the passion grows between Lorcan and Aisling, they fall deeper into a well of betrayal, leaving no one unscathed. Gaelforce Dance features a score by Colm O’Foghlu and choreography by Richard Griffin.

Gaelforce Dance takes the audience right to the edge with its perfect mix of traditional and Contemporary Irish dance music. It fuses a classic love tale in a spectacle of star studded quality that is Irish dancing at its raw and energetic best.

4th November 2008, Tickets at Ticketstream CZK 550 – 1450, event in KCP – Kongresove centrum Praha, Prague Congress Centre

The legendary American group with the frontman Michael Stip comes to present their album Accelerate. They sai it was created from the feeling of anger, the career of R.E.M. wastes away. The outcom is fourteenth album, which returns to punkrock roots of the group and its form of the 80’s. It has paid off – after the last commercially unsucessful tape Around The Sun it returned R.E.M back to the top places in wold charts.

The concert starts at 20:00 and continues until 22:00, so the performance of R.E.M. should take maximally 2 hours. The guittarist Petr Buck said: “The new song Supernaural Superserious is known by almost everybody, so it already belongs to our biggest hits.” but what the fans hope for are the very old hits, like Drive, Man On the Moon or Electrolite, which could have been heard also on the present tour.

R.E.M concert – 17th August 2008, Their last visit was three yers ago. They aim to the footbal stadium SK Slavia Praha Stadion Eden

It is sometimes necessary to unexpectedly change a date of a concert, like this time, when the Flogging Molly moved their show from 13th June to 2nd July 2008. The reason is they are performing at USA music festival KROQ, an important one from the point of view of radio broadcast. So they gave to know: “We hope you will understand this our very important decision. We will compensate everything in July!”

The concert term was moved for Prague, Budapest and other European cities. Valid tickets can be still used. If the term does not suits you, you can hand your ticket back at the place of your purchase. The place – Prague Rock Café – stays the same, price of tickets, 410 czk as well.

What makes a band truly remarkable? Insightful lyrics? Memorable melodies? Blow-your-mind live performances? The truth is that it takes all of those things along with a boundless enthusiasm, an infectious energy and a supreme devotion to the fans. With this rare combination, a band may ascend past “good,” – or even the record industry’s Holy Grail, “marketable” – and reach sublime.

Drawing on the hardships and joys of their own lives and a musical history ranging from old world Celtic to modern day punk rock, the seven members of Flogging Molly do just that, and they do it with a charm and an ease that makes them one of the most accessible bands performing today.

“We’re not a traditional band,” explains Dublin born singer/songwriter, Dave King. “We are influenced by traditional music and inspired by it, and we put our own little twist on it.”

“If it didn’t have mandolin, accordion, fiddle and whistle, it would be punk rock, and if it didn’t have guitar, bass and drums, it would be traditional Irish music,” King admits, adding, “You can’t be bothered being labeled.”

Eight member group punk-folk group which recently produced new album Float. Contagious energy, strong melodies.
2nd July in Rock Café, Prague. Are you going?

The concert series Music Infinity continues with the concert of french couple Sylvain Chauveau and Félicie Atkins. Sylvain Chauveau belongs to the big discoveries of French alternative music of the past years. The Czech audience saw him in 2006, when he introduced his album Down to the Bone An Acoustic Tribute to Depeche Mode. The concert was such an success in Prague, the album was published here on the NextEra label.

In the production of Sylvain Chauveau, as well as for his mate Félicie Atkins, the most important construction unit of the created music is the suggestive and meditative atmosphere, performed on dreamy vocal, tranquil tones of piano or guitar. Minimalistic, ambient, ethereally flowing arranges can drag a listener in a fragile wold full of imagination.

Music Infinity presents Sylvain Chauveau and Félicie Atkins, 18th June 2008, Palac Akropolis, Prague

An invasion of good taste lovers comes to Prague. Messer Chups from Petersburg come to Palac Akropolis, with their ironic color, to resurrect the esthetic of sci-fi magazines and low-budget horrors into breath-taking music spectacle.

Messer Chups’ music often features a fundament of surf drums on which they build collages of samples from odd sources, like circus music, jazz, east European animation soundtracks, and American B-pictures. On top of that they lay solos from guitar and theremin. The overall effect is one of loving parody and good fun.

That night, you can dance with vampires, and undead Elvis. The group is internationally known, they played among others at the Eurosonic festival in Holland, Trans Musicales in France or Slovak festival Pohoda. They come on 11th June 2008 to Palac Akropolis, Kubelikova 27, in Prague tickets: 260 czk.

The African Jimmi Hendrix plays the ngoni. The ngoni is an ancient traditional lute found throughout West Africa and Kouyate introduces it to Western audiences, making it internationally popular.

Bassekou was born in a village in the remote countryside on the banks of the Niger river. He was raised in a traditional musical environment, his mother a praise singer and his father and brothers exceptional ngoni players.

Taj Mahal describes him as a genius, a living proof that the blues comes from the region of Segu. Bassekou Kouyate is one of Malis best-known Ngoniplayers. He has collaborated with many important traditional musicians of his country as well as international such as Carlos Santana, U2 among many many others.

Bassekou Kouyate approaches music making in a beautifully relaxed manner, letting notes drift out, one ngoni dancing across another, weaving subtle patterns of strings, while male and female voices echo one another and then merge at choruses.

Bassekou Kouyate form Mali, 1st June 2008, in Prague Palac Acropolis, Kubelikova 27

Tom Waits comes to the Czech Republic for the first time, within his Glitter and Doom tour. The last album the owner of two Grammys published, is a three-volume called Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards.

In the album, each disc has it’s own distinctive feel. Brawlers sports fiery bar-fight songs in which Waits snarls as if he’s about to bite someone’s jugular, Bawlers is a collection of cry-your-eyes-out numbers in which he sounds like he’s going to do just that, and Bastards is an experimental collage of unused, avant-garde pieces where he sounds like he’s having a whole lot of fun. The whole album is solid, but Bawlers is the jewel in the crown, with some of the most beautiful and affecting songs to come out in quite some time. Of course, this is largely due to Waits’ gravelly old barfly voice, which was famously described by Gary Graff as sounding “like it was soaked in a vat of bourbon, left hanging in the smokehouse for a few months and then taken outside and run over with a car.” While it’s certainly not conventional and definitely not pretty, there’s a world-weary charm to be heard in that raspy growl, which makes Tom Waits more than just a singer/songwriter. The pop stars can belt the ballads at the top of their beautifully smooth voices, and in that regard they will always seem alien to us, but Waits seems like he’s singing in a dingy bar just down the street. But his voice doesn’t stand on it’s own; rather it accentuates his evocative, sophisticated lyrics and lovely melodies. Indeed, there’s something quite hypnotic about such a harsh voice singing such pretty songs, and the result is delightful.

His concerts are on 21st and 22nd July in Prague Congress Centre. The prices of tickets will be known on Monday, they will be on sale from 30th May 2008

Prague will host the Oscar duo Marketa Irglova and Glen Hansard for the first time since the February Oscar awards. Czech songress will perform with her Irish partner 8th June in the Archa theatre.

Irglova and Hansard have chosen Irish musicians from Hansard’s music group to accompany them at their concert. During the evening there should also be heard songs from the older album Swell Season, not just the well-known soundtrack to the film Once. Irish Liam Ó Maonlaí will play before them.

At the present moment, these two are touring the USA, their concerts are usually sold out. Than they move to Europe. They will play for the Germans, Spanish or British. In the half of June, they are coming back to the states, just before the holidays, they want to perform at British Glastonbury Festival.

Kava Kava is the rock band / live dance act from Huddersfield in the UK featuring the soulful vocals of Pat Fulgoni, Matt Bond guitarist, Jason Riley on bass guitar alongside drums, electronica, brass, strings and beats.

They originally starting out as a four-piece live psychedelic funk outfit with heavy George Clinton influences. In the UK Kava Kava cut their teeth through the underground festival/party scene, with NME describing the band as “gorgeous new psychedelic funk” for their debut ‘You Can Live Here’

The band expanded into a six piece and released 2004’s ‘Maui’ album on independent label Chocolate Fireguard Records. The music on ‘Maui’ is more dance, electronic, funk and disco influenced.

Kava Kava with Pat Fulgoni in Prague, 10th May 2008 in Prague Club Rock Café, Narodni 20, Prague 1

Senor Coconat comes to Prague to introduce their new album “Around the World” Senor Coconut is world-wide known for his more or less bizarre fusion of latino-american instruments and rythms (cha cha, cumbia, merengue or mambo) with electronic sound Kraftwerk style, and cover versions of various rock and pop hits – from Michael Jackson to Deep Purple.

Concerning Senor Coconat’s creating attitude, he says: “I want to tear down all the music borders. I want to move emotions, pictiures and feelings of déjà-vu.” As with the previous concerts, which evoke the feel of tropical dance hall, he brings a frontman of his big band – a Venezuelan singer Argenis Brit.

28th May 2008, Señor Coconut and his Orchestra, tickets: 440 czk, ticketpro, start 19:00, Club Roxy, Dlouha 33, Prague 1

He has a thick, hoarse voice. You could roll a few cigarettes and destille a few barrels of whiskey of it. Arno himself would speak about Sergi Gainsbourg and Tom Waits. Their songs were more influential than those of his fellow countryman, famous chansonnier Jacques Brel. They all love blues, jazz and country, they are all great composers, and at the same time very interesting poets.

Arno’s last album Jus de box, oscillating between sophisticated pop-rock and tormentors ballads. The deep-felt Jusqu’au bout can be put near Waits’ hits; waltz rhythm, piano and violin dress in Douce is in quality close to love songs of Serge Gainsbourg.

Arno makes nice music, which clearly proves francophone chanson found its future – as if the spirit of Serge Gainsbourg wentz into him.

Friday 18th April 2008, 19:30, Palác Akropolis, Kubelíkova 27, Praha 3

The music group, originating similarly as Gogol Bordello or Balkan Beat Box from the New York music melting pot, joints together eastern Roma music, klezmer, Russian folklore or Bollywood with Wait’s chanson, cabaret songs and wild rock.

They are known for their excellent concerts full of emotions and energy. They will introduce their new album The Golden Hour, which was mostly inspired by the front-man’s, Tod A (ex Cop Shoot Cop) travels in India, Pakistan, Turkey and Indonesia.

14th March 2008, FIREWATER (USA), support: SELFBRUSH start 19.00 tickets: 350,- Rock Café, Narodni 20, Prague 1

The Party is instantly recognizable thanks to its singer, Sista K. Her family history is intimately entwined with her music. She’s Ashkenazi through her mother and Sephardic and Berber through her father, an Algerian independence fighter who was French before he was born. She could have been born in the land of Israel, where her parents met, but saw the light of day in the shadow of Marseille’s Bonne Mère.

Jewish, Muslim, Catholic or atheist? It doesn’t matter, she seems to be saying, as long as you have faith. Faith in man and woman, for no other reason than brotherhood, Sista! This expansion of the heart denies the very idea of borders. As Théodore Monod, the wise man’s wise man whom they sample generously, once said: “For the State, a free man is unacceptable…”

Altruistic dealers in cultures and humanities, they juggle rhythms and languages (French, Arabic, Hebrew, English) to the beat of the memories they have, the people they meet and the places they see.

I you like Manu Chao, you like Watcha Clan. If you have ever been to the Rainbow Gathering, but still feel you belong to a city, this is music for you. Nomadic nature, fused with modern jungle and DnB rhythms.

Watcha Clan Thursday 20th March 2008, 19:30, Palac Acropolis Kubelikova 27, Prague 3

Kaizers Orchestra is a Norwegian alternative rock band formed in the year 2000. The two leading members, vocalist Janove Ottesen and guitarist Geir Zahl, had known each other for years, and first played together in a band called Blod, Snått & Juling in 1989.

Kaizers Orchestra are notable for being among the first Norwegian bands or artists singing in their native language to become popular in non-Scandinavian Europe. To other Norwegians, the band is instantly recognizable both because of their unique, unpredictable style, and because of vocalist Ottesen’s marked Bryne dialect, shared by four of the other band members.

They play ‘Waitsov’ rock, influenced by Eastern-European and Roma music. Every performance includes gas masks, drumming by helves to oil barrels, iron plates, disks form cars and other unusualities. Tikets at ticketpro, The place is Palac Akropolis, Kubelikova 27, 12th April 2008

McFerrin is among the few essential musicians, who yet not visited Prague, but are celebrated world-wide. His music intentions have not changed, as well as the energy, with which he jumps into new projects; from directing grand symphonic orchestras, through music composing, to Hollywood spectacles and world-wide famous solo concerts.

An owner of a four-octave voice, ten Grammies, twenty millions sold albums and an author of Don’t worry, Be happy song finally comes to Prague.

The prepared concert is the first stone of the new season of performances music stars Strings of O2. It unites organizers of festival Strings of autumn and O2 CR.

Bobby McFerrin performs 15th June in Prague Congress centre. Visitors of his Prague concert can download three mp3 songs from www.bobbyvpraze.cz which is a special web page, created to occasion of the Prague event. Tickets are available there as well.

The renown Japanese drummers group Yamato returns to Prague. Last two times, they completely sold out their performances and captured the hearts of those in the big hall in the Congress Centre, who thanked them by standing ovations.

Wadaiko Yamato is a Japanese musical group of taiko drummers founded in 1993. In Japanese, the word “wadaiko” means “Japanese drum” and “Yamato” was the former name of the city of Nara, where the group comes from.

Since its creation, the group has made over one thousand live performances to over one million people in more than 20 countries in Asia, Europe, and the Americas.

Yamato’s international debut occurred in 1998 at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, where the group was awarded the “Sprit of the Fringe” award. The following year, the group embarked on three international tours, covering South America, six countries in Europe, and Israel.

12-13. March 2008, Congress Centre Prague Vysehrad, tickets :ticketportal.cz 800-1600 CZK (30-62 €)

Jewish dances and songs from the Eastern Europe went through a revivalist wave in the last quarter a century. At the beginning there were musicians not from Europe, but from the US. The pioneers were groups like Klezmatics from New York, whose example was followed in the 90’s a whole generation of followers in Europe.

Most of the Amsterdam Klezmer Band repertory has been created by the band members themselves, who all without exception contribute musically to an ever-growing melting-pot of infectious Balkan/Gypsy/Klezmer cross-overs. In this manner the band endeavours to breathe new life into the Eastern European Balkan, Klezmer and Gypsy music tradition.

The members of the Amsterdam Klezmer Band are passionate musicians and well-versed in a wide range of styles. They have made their musical mark on the Dutch and European club and festival scene and are well known for their parts in various other remarkable pop, jazz and world music projects in the Netherlands , past and present.

The Amsterdam Klezmer Band has managed to extract Klezmer from its dilettante ambiance and added a good dose of street credibility, bringing you the pleasure of Eastern European music as it’s meant, because: The Amsterdam Klezmer Band guarantees a spectacular live show at which there is only one option: Dance until you drop.

31sh January 2008, Palac Akropolis, Kubelikova 27, Prague 3.