Houston International Festival also known as iFest, is a contemporary, multi-disciplinary, multi-cultural arts and music festival

Festival

A festival or gala is an event, usually and ordinarily staged by a local community, which centers on and celebrates some unique aspect of that community and the Festival....

 held annually in Houston, Texas

Houston, Texas

Houston is the fourth-largest city in the United States, and the largest city in the state of Texas. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 2.1 million people within an area of . Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of , which is the ...

. This North American festival takes place every April on 16 acres (64,749.8 m²) in downtown Houston's parks and plazas. By city ordinance this annual 10-day event is Houston's official city celebration of the visual and performing arts.

Overview

The annual downtown event celebrates music, dance and cultures from around the world. Early festivals featured almost exclusively local acts; as the Festival grew, more international and nationally known artists (most recently in 2010, George Clinton

George Clinton (musician)

George Clinton is an American singer, songwriter, bandleader, and music producer and the principal architect of P-Funk. He was the mastermind of the bands Parliament and Funkadelic during the 1970s and early 1980s, and launched a solo career in 1981. He has been cited as one of the foremost...

, Steel Pulse

Steel Pulse

Steel Pulse is a roots reggae musical band. They originally formed at Handsworth Wood Boys School, in Birmingham, England, composed of David Hinds , Basil Gabbidon , and Ronald McQueen .-History:...

, Eddie Palmieri

Eddie Palmieri

Eddie Palmieri , is a Grammy Award winning Puerto Rican pianist, bandleader and musician, best known for combining jazz piano and instrumental solos with Latin rhythms.-Early years:...

, and Ozomatli

Ozomatli

Ozomatli is a seven to ten piece band playing primarily Latin, hip hop, and rock music, formed in 1995 in Los Angeles. They are known both for their vocal activist viewpoints and their wide array of musical styles - including salsa, jazz, funk, reggae, rap, and others.In a 2007 NPR interview, band...

 were scheduled in addition to regional and local performers).

The Festival features vendors selling local and international foods and crafts. iFest also features six to eight arts markets with more than 400 artists including a juried art market.

The Festival has the large areas dedicated to cultural and educational exhibits depicting different cultures. The footprint is divided into zones, each one focusing on a specific culture through food, exhbits and entertainment. The Living Museum represents the spotlighted culture each year with iconic structures, interactive exhibits, artisan demonstrations and performances.

The Festival impacts Houston's tourism and economy by drawing 22% tourists attendance and generates loaland state tourist-based taxes of $2.19 million.

The Houston International Festival is owned by the Houston Festival Foundation, Inc., a 501 (c)(3) organization, which uses the proceeds from the festival for year-round arts and education programs for schoolchildren in the Greater Houston area.

History

In 1971 Main Street 1 was the name given to a Salute to the Arts to be held Downtown—a weekend happening of celebrations highlighting the performing and visual arts, on the sidewalks, streets, and store windows located between Dallas and McKinney on Main Street in Houston, Texas. Sakowitz

Sakowitz

Sakowitz was a chain of family-owned department stores based in Houston, Texas, United States. The store was founded by two brothers, Tobias and Simon Sakowitz, in Galveston, Texas in 1902. Other family members were working in the cotton mills in Galveston...

 and Foleys Department Stores, and the Cultural Affairs Committee of the Houston Chamber of Commerce, with the blessing of Mayor Louie Welch

Louie Welch

Louie Welch Louie Welch Louie Welch (December 9, 1918Louie Welch (December 9, 1918Louie Welch (December 9, 1918"," Houston Public Library – January 27, 2008,) was an American politician who served as the mayor of Houston, Texas, from 1964 to 1973. -Early life:...

, sponsored the event. It was the beginning of the cultural salute that grew and evolved into today's Houston International Festival. In 1987, iFest began featuring the art and culture of a different honored country each year and began complementing local artists with regional, national and international artists. Today, the international component sets the tone for an evolving celebration of world culture.

Timeline

1973: Houston's Main Street Art Happening was moved from Downtown Houston, Texas (where the City Ordinance prohibited street closings) to the Houston Museum of Fine Arts and it's grounds across from the Contemporary Arts Museum, still on Main but now more "mid-town". This attempt at an outdoor-indoor celebration created safety concerns with crowds of pedestrians crossing streets, so in...

1974: The Art Happening moved to Hermann Park

Hermann Park

Hermann Park is one of Houston's most-visited public parks. Situated between Fannin Street and Cambridge Street, it is within walking distance from the Texas Medical Center, Rice University, and the Museum District, and within a few miles of the Third Ward, the historic Astrodome and Reliant Stadium...

, near the Museum. It was expanded to two weekends to help minimize the risk of inclement weather affecting attendance.

1976: The event was named "The Houston Festival", and remained so for the next ten years. The organizational structure changed, with the creation of The Houston Festival Foundation, a 501 (c)(3) non-profit with its own Board of Directors and budget, separate from the Houston Chamber of Commerce sponsorship. The Foundation still remains the producing entity today.

1977: The Festival moved back downtown, this time with two stages across from the Alley Theatre

Alley Theatre

The Alley Theatre is a Tony Award-winning indoor theatre in Downtown Houston, Texas, and hosts two stages. The "Hubbard" is the main stage with seating for 824; the more intimate "Neuhaus" seats 310. Nine towers and open-air terraces give the Alley Theatre a castle-like quality. Inside, a staircase...

 and Jones Hall, at what is now Jones Plaza. Attendance grew but expansion was limited in that site.

1979: The Festival moved to a larger potential site at Market Square, in order to accommodate the growing number of participants and attendees.

1983: The City of Houston signed an Ordinance proclaiming the Houston Festival as an official City-sponsored salute to the arts, and permitted the event to expand and locate at the Sam Houston Park

Sam Houston Park

Sam Houston Park is a park located in downtown Houston, Texas, and is dedicated to the buildings and culture of Houston's historic past. The park, which was the first to be established in the city, was developed on land purchased by former Mayor Sam Brashier in 1900.-History:Mayor Brashear...

 area of Downtown Houston

Downtown Houston

Downtown Houston is the largest business district of Houston, Texas, United States. Downtown Houston, the city's central business district, contains the headquarters of many prominent companies. There is an extensive network of pedestrian tunnels and skywalks connecting the buildings of the district...

.

1986: "Rendez-vous Houston

Rendez-vous Houston

Rendez-vous Houston: A City in Concert was a live performance by musician Jean Michel Jarre amidst the skyscrapers of downtown Houston on the evening of April 5, 1986, coinciding with the release of the Rendez-Vous album...

", highlighting the anniversaries of Houston and the Texas

Texas

Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

 Sesquicentennial celebrations and was one of the biggest events ever staged in Houston, was produced as the centerpiece of the Houston Festival. Lasers and fireworks danced above and around the skyscrapers downtown accompanied by French composer Jean-Michel Jarre's original music compositions. The Festival Foundation, whose structure was overtaxed by the costs of organizing the 1986 event and chaffing from the resulting financial fallout from the "Rendezvous"’ set out to recover from the consequences and re-structure the organization. Current Festival President Dr. James Austin was hired in late summer 1986, and with the Board set out to re-examine the path and future for the Festival. This began the expansion of the basic concepts of the event, adding the now-established education and business collaborations and programs.

1987: The name of the celebration was changed to "The Houston International Festival" to celebrate Houston's role as an international city. Following this event, a plan was developed to spotlight the arts and cultures of an individual country or region of the world each year, with request for assistance from the participating governments at the highest levels possible.

1988: Australia was the first country of honor, with the international theme presenting an amalgam of that country's culture and arts. A different country or region in alternate parts of the globe were to be selected for the "spotlight" thereafter, although the Festival continued to build more performing stages to ensure on-going presentations of arts from throughout the world during the two week event.

1989-2003: 1989 continued the new pattern with the spotlight on France, followed by the United Kingdom (1990); Japan (1991); Spain & the New World (1992); Mexico (1993); Italy (1994); Turkey (1995); West Africa (1996); China (1997); Islands of the Caribbean (1998); Southern Africa (1999); Brazil for the 2000 Millennium; Ireland (2001); and a revisit to France in 2002 and Mexico in 2003. After twenty years, the City Ordinance regarding the Festival's unique status lapsed, and downtown Houston

Downtown Houston

Downtown Houston is the largest business district of Houston, Texas, United States. Downtown Houston, the city's central business district, contains the headquarters of many prominent companies. There is an extensive network of pedestrian tunnels and skywalks connecting the buildings of the district...

 is in the throes of a major renaissance of urban development and street improvements. Possible congestion and other factors presented the Foundation with the need for an examination for alternative sites. The Houston International Festival moved south, this time following the tracks of the METRO's new light rail transportation line for better access and more space to Reliant Park

Reliant Park

Reliant Park is a complex in Houston, Texas, USA, named after the energy company Reliant Energy. It is located on Kirby Drive at the 610 Loop...

.

2004: The Houston International Festival turned towards Asia with its first spotlight on Thailand

Thailand

Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...

 at Festival Plaza at Reliant Park

Reliant Park

Reliant Park is a complex in Houston, Texas, USA, named after the energy company Reliant Energy. It is located on Kirby Drive at the 610 Loop...

. Five Asian elephants joined the programming mix in a special appeal to families.

2005-2007: The Houston International Festival returned to its previous downtown footprint covering 16 acres (64,749.8 m²) in downtown Houston

Downtown Houston

Downtown Houston is the largest business district of Houston, Texas, United States. Downtown Houston, the city's central business district, contains the headquarters of many prominent companies. There is an extensive network of pedestrian tunnels and skywalks connecting the buildings of the district...

 parks and plazas. iFest turned its spotlight on India in 2005, Jamaica

Jamaica

Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...

 in 2006 and China in 2007.

2008: The Houston International Festival offered a new twist on its honored country theme. The theme for iFest 2008, "Out of Africa: the Three Journeys," celebrated the rich history, achievements, contributions and triumphs of African people in Africa, the Caribbean, Latin America, the United States and the rest of the world.

2009: iFest returned to its honored country theme and revisited the culture of Ireland.

2010: The honored region for the 2010 Houston International Festival was the Caribbean.

2011: THE SILK ROAD – The 2011 theme for the Houston International Festival follows the route of Marco Polo with a focus on China, India and other cultures of the Silk Road.

Presenters of world music

From its inception in 1971, artists from Houston had been the primary source of programming. In 1987, iFest began featuring the art and culture of a different honored country each year and began complementing local artists with regional, national and international artists. The Festival is a very popular event in Texas for world music, afropop, blues, rock, country, reggae, soul, cajun, zydeco and almost all other music fans. The event features hundreds of performers on six to ten stages including many internationally touring artists. The festival has become one of the premier music festivals in the state of Texas. Performers who have appeared at the festival include:

• John Lee Hooker
  John Lee Hooker
  John Lee Hooker was an American blues singer-songwriter and guitarist.Hooker began his life as the son of a sharecropper, William Hooker, and rose to prominence performing his own unique style of what was originally closest to Delta blues. He developed a 'talking blues' style that was his trademark...
  
   - USA
• Bobby Blue Band - USA
• Gatemouth Band - USA
• Koko Tayler - USA
• Lucinda Williams
  Lucinda Williams
  Lucinda Williams is an American rock, folk, blues and country music singer and songwriter. She recorded her first albums in 1978 and 1980 in a traditional country and blues style and received very little attention from radio, the media, or the public. In 1988, she released her self-titled album,...
  
   - USA
• Jimmie Dale Gilmore
  Jimmie Dale Gilmore
  Jimmie Dale Gilmore is a country singer, songwriter, actor, recording artist and producer, currently living in Austin, Texas.-Biography:...
  
   - USA
• Jerry Jeff Walker
  Jerry Jeff Walker
  Jerry Jeff Walker is an American country music singer and songwriter. He is probably most famous for writing the song "Mr. Bojangles.-Biography:...
  
   - USA
• Dave Alvin
  Dave Alvin
  Dave Alvin , is a guitarist, singer and songwriter. He has been one of the leading proponents of 'roots' or 'American' music, bringing together elements of rock-and-roll, blues, rural and tejano music....
  
   - USA
• The Flatlanders
  The Flatlanders
  The Flatlanders are a country band with considerable country rock influence from Lubbock, Texas founded by singers/songwriters/guitarists Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Joe Ely, and Butch Hancock....
  
   - USA
• Joe Ely
  Joe Ely
  Joe Ely is an American singer, songwriter and guitarist whose music touches on honky-tonk, Texas Country, Tex-Mex and rock and roll....
  
   - USA
• Delbert McClinton
  Delbert McClinton
  Delbert McClinton is an American blues rock and electric blues singer-songwriter, guitarist, harmonica player, and pianist....
  
   - USA
• Shawn Colvin
  Shawn Colvin
  Shawn Colvin is an American singer-songwriter and musician.-Childhood and early career:Colvin was born in Vermillion, South Dakota. Her formative years were spent in the town of Carbondale, Illinois, where she attended Southern Illinois University Carbondale. She learned to play guitar at the age...
  
   - USA
• Hugh Masekela
  Hugh Masekela
  Hugh Ramopolo Masekela is a South African trumpeter, flugelhornist, cornetist, composer, and singer.-Early life:Masekela was born in Kwa-Guqa Township, Witbank, South Africa. He began singing and playing piano as a child...
  
   - South Africa
• Abdullah Ibrahim
  Abdullah Ibrahim
  Abdullah Ibrahim , born Adolph Johannes Brand, 9 October 1934 in Cape Town, South Africa, and formerly known as Dollar Brand, is a South African pianist and composer...
  
   - South Africa
• Ramsey Lewis
  Ramsey Lewis
  Ramsey Emmanuel Lewis, Jr. is an American jazz composer, pianist and radio personality. Ramsey Lewis has recorded over 80 albums and has received seven gold records and three Grammy Awards so far in his career.-Biography:...
  
   - USA
• Flora Purim & Airto - Brazil
• Paris Combo
  Paris Combo
  Paris Combo is a musical group based in Paris, France, that has an eclectic style, blending elements from the traditional French chanson, American jazz and swing, Roma music and North African music. The group identifies itself as a world music group...
  
   - France
• Tete Monteliu - Spain
• Michel Petrucciani
  Michel Petrucciani
  Michel Petrucciani was a French jazz pianist.-Biography:...
  
   - France
• World Saxophone Quartet
  World Saxophone Quartet
  The World Saxophone Quartet is a jazz ensemble founded in 1977, implementing elements of free funk and African jazz into their musical routines.-History:...
  
   - USA
• Youssou N'Dour
  Youssou N'Dour
  Youssou N'Dour is a Senegalese singer, percussionist and occasional actor. In 2004, Rolling Stone described him as, in Senegal and much of Africa, "perhaps the most famous singer alive." He helped develop a style of popular music in Senegal, known in the Serer language as mbalax, a type of music...
  
   - Senegal
• Salif Keita
  Salif Keita
  Salif Keïta is an internationally recognized afro-pop singer-songwriter from Mali. He is unique not only because of his reputation as the Golden Voice of Africa, but because he has albinism and is a direct descendant of the founder of the Mali Empire, Sundiata Keita...
  
   - Mali
• Baaba Maal
  Baaba Maal
  Baaba Maal is a Senegalese singer and guitarist born in Podor, on the Senegal River. In addition to acoustic guitar, he also plays percussion. He has released several albums, both for independent and major labels. In July 2003, he was made a UNDP Youth Emissary.-Biography:Born 12 November 1953...
  
   - Senegal
• Babatunde Olatunji
  Babatunde Olatunji
  Babatunde Olatunji was a Nigerian drummer, educator, social activist and recording artist.- Biography :Olatunji was born in the village of Ajido, a small town near Badagry, Lagos State, in southwestern Nigeria. A member of the Yoruba people, Olatunji was introduced to traditional African music at...
  
   - Nigeria
• Angelique Kidjo
  Angélique Kidjo
  Angélique Kpasseloko Hinto Hounsinou Kandjo Manta Zogbin Kidjo, commonly known as Angélique Kidjo is a Grammy Award–winning Beninoise singer-songwriter and activist, noted for her diverse musical influences and creative music videos. Time Magazine has called her "Africa's premier diva". The BBC has...
  
   - Benin
• Ashe Dancers - Jamaica
• Blue Glades Mento Band - Jamaica
• Brave Combo
  Brave Combo
  Brave Combo is a polka/rock band based in Denton, Texas. Founded in 1979 by guitarist/keyboardist/accordionist Carl Finch, they have been a prominent fixture in the Texas music scene for more than twenty-five years...
  
   - USA
• Avizo - USA
• Morgan Heritage
  Morgan Heritage
  Morgan Heritage is a reggae band formed in 1994 by five children of reggae artist Denroy Morgan, namely Peter Morgan, Una Morgan, Roy "Gramps" Morgan, Nakhamyah "Lukes" Morgan and Memmalatel "Mr. Mojo" Morgan. In two decades, they have had a number of successful reggae albums.-Career:Morgan...
  
   - Jamaica
• Yerba Bueno - USA
• La Bottine Souriante
  La Bottine Souriante
  La Bottine Souriante is a folk band from Quebec specialising in traditional Québécois music, often with a modern twist.Formed in 1976, they have toured extensively through North America and Europe. As well as the traditional accordion, fiddle, guitar, piano and double bass, the band added a...
  
   - Quebec
• Skatalites - Jamaica
• Stephen Marley
  Stephen Marley (musician)
  Stephen Robert Nesta "Raggamuffin" Marley is a Jamaican American musician and the son of reggae legend Bob Marley and his wife Rita Marley. He is a five-time Grammy award winner as an artist, producer, and member of Ziggy Marley & The Melody Makers.-Life and career:Marley was born in Wilmington,...
  
   - Jamaica
• Billy Joe Shaver
  Billy Joe Shaver
  Billy Joe Shaver is a Texas country music singer and songwriter. Shaver's 1973 album Old Five and Dimers Like Me is a classic in the outlaw country genre.-Biography:...
  
   - USA
• Tinariwen
  Tinariwen
  Tinariwen is a band of Tuareg-Berber musicians from the Sahara Desert region of northern Mali. The band was formed around 1979 in refugee camps in Libya but returned to Mali after a cease-fire in the 1990s...
  
   - Tuareg-Sahara
• Gangbe Brass Band
  Gangbe brass band
  The Gangbé Brass Band is a 10-member Beninese musical ensemble founded in 1994. The word "gangbe" means "sound of metal" in the Fon language. They blend West African juju and traditional Vodou music with Western jazz and big-band sounds...
  
   - Benin
• Ba Cissoko
  Ba Cissoko
  Ba Cissoko is a Guinean world music band, featuring four members, two of which are playing the traditional Kora harp. The other two band members play percussions and bass, respectively...
  
   - Guinea
• George Clinton & Parliament-Funkadelic - USA
• Amazones Women Master Drummers of Guinea - Guinea
• Afrissippi - USA
• Yellow Man - Jamaica
• Wayne Henderson & the Jazz Crusaders - USA
• Clinton Fearon
  Clinton Fearon
  Clinton Fearon is a Jamaican reggae singer and musician born on February 13, 1951 in Saint Andrews, Jamaica. He has lived Seattle, Washington since 1987.-Jamaica:...
  
   - Jamaica
• Vieux Farka Toure
  Vieux Farka Touré
  Boureima "Vieux" Farka Touré is a Malian singer and guitarist. He is the son of Grammy-winning Malian musician Ali Farka Touré.-Biography:Touré was born in Niafunké, Mali in 1981 to Ali Farka Touré...
  
   - Mali
• Chic Gamine - Quebec
• Marc Broussard
  Marc Broussard
  Marc Broussard is an American singer/songwriter. His style is best described as "Bayou Soul," a mix of funk, blues, R&B, rock, and pop, matched with distinct Southern roots...
  
   - USA
• Mavis Staples
  Mavis Staples
  Mavis Staples is an American rhythm and blues and gospel singer, actress and civil rights activist who recorded with The Staple Singers, her family's band.-Biography:...
  
   - USA
• Alpha YaYa Diallo
  Alpha Yaya Diallo
  Alpha Yaya Diallo is a guitarist and composer who is based in Vancouver, Canada. Alpha hails from Guinea and incorporates its rich musical tradition into his original compositions.-Discography:* 1993 Néné - nominated for a Juno Award...
  
   - Guinea
• Steel Pulse
  Steel Pulse
  Steel Pulse is a roots reggae musical band. They originally formed at Handsworth Wood Boys School, in Birmingham, England, composed of David Hinds , Basil Gabbidon , and Ronald McQueen .-History:...
  
   - Great Britain/Jamaica
• La Excelencia - USA

• Cesária Évora
  Cesária Évora
  Cesária Évora is a Cape Verdean popular singer. Nicknamed the "barefoot diva" for performing without shoes, Évora is perhaps the best internationally known practitioner of "morna."-Early life:...
  
  - Cape Verde
• Femi Kuti & Positive Force - Nigeria
• King Sunny Ade
  King Sunny Adé
  King Sunny Adé is a popular performer of Yoruba Nigerian Jùjú music and a pioneer of modern world music. He has been classed as one of the most influential musicians of all time.-Background:...
  
   - Nigeria
• Ali Farka Toure
  Ali Farka Touré
  Ali Ibrahim “Farka” Touré was a Malian singer and guitarist, and one of the African continent’s most internationally renowned musicians. His music is widely regarded as representing a point of intersection of traditional Malian music and its North American cousin, the blues...
  
   - Mali
• Papa Wemba
  Papa Wemba
  Papa Wemba was born Jules Shungu Wembadio Pene Kikumba in 1949 in Lubefu . He is a Congolese rumba musician, one of Africa's most popular musicians, and prominent in World music.-Zaiko Langa Langa:...
  
   - Nigeria
• Thomas Mapfumo
  Thomas Mapfumo
  Thomas Tafirenyika Mapfumo is a Zimbabwean musician known as "The Lion of Zimbabwe" and "Mukanya" for his immense popularity and for the political influence he wields through his music, including his sharp criticism of the government of President Robert Mugabe...
  
  - Zimbabwe
• Zap Mama
  Zap Mama
  Zap Mama is a Belgian musical group founded and led by Marie Daulne. Daulne says her mission is to be a bridge between the European and the African and bring the two cultures together with her music...
  
  - Democratic Republic of Congo
• Oumou Sangare
  Oumou Sangaré
  Oumou Sangare is a Malian Wassoulou musician, sometimes referred to as "The Songbird of Wassoulou." Wassoulou is a historic region south of the Niger River, and the music there is descended from traditional hunting songs, and is accompanied by a calabash...
  
   - Mali
• Tabu Ley Rochereau
  Tabu Ley Rochereau
  Tabu Ley Rochereau is a musician from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He is the leader of Orchestre Afrisa International and one of Africa's most influential vocalists and prolific songwriters...
  
  - Democratic Republic of Congo
• Super Rail Band - Mali
• Cubanismo- Cuba
• Los Munequitos de Matanzas
  Los Muñequitos de Matanzas
  Los Muñequitos de Matanzas is a Cuban rumba and Folkloric group. It has been described by many as one of the most important groups in Cuba.The group formed under the name "Guaguancó Matancero" in 1952, in Barrio Marina, Matanzas, Cuba. Among their first recordings was the song "Los muñequitos" ...
  
   - Cuba
• Maraca - Cuba
• Burning Spear
  Burning Spear
  Winston Rodney, OD , also known as Burning Spear, is a Jamaican roots reggae singer and musician. Burning Spear is known for his Rastafari movement messages.-History:...
  
   - Jamaica
• Boukman Eksperyans
  Boukman Eksperyans
  Boukman Eksperyans is a mizik rasin band from the city of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The band derives its name from Dutty Boukman, a vodou priest who led a religious ceremony in 1791 that is widely considered the start of the Haitian Revolution...
  
   - Haiti
• Sharon Shannon
  Sharon Shannon
  Sharon Shannon is an Irish musician. She is best known for her work with the accordion and for her fiddle technique. She also plays the tin whistle and melodeon. Her 1991 album Sharon Shannon is the best selling album of traditional Irish music ever released there...
  
   - Ireland
• Natalie MacMaster
  Natalie MacMaster
  Natalie MacMaster, CM is an award-winning fiddler from the rural community of Troy in Inverness County, Nova Scotia, Canada who plays Cape Breton fiddle music....
  
   - Canada
• Ralph Stanley & The Clinch Mountain Boys - USA
• George Plimpton
  George Plimpton
  George Ames Plimpton was an American journalist, writer, editor, and actor. He is widely known for his sports writing and for helping to found The Paris Review.-Early life:...
  
   - USA
• Richard Thompson - UK
• Paul Brady
  Paul Brady
  Paul Joseph Brady is an Irish singer-songwriter, whose work straddles folk and pop. He was interested in a wide variety of music from an early age...
  
   - Ireland
• Penguin Café Orchestra
  Penguin Cafe Orchestra
  The Penguin Cafe Orchestra was a collective of performing musicians created by classically trained British guitarist, composer and arranger Simon Jeffes...
  
   - UK
• Beijing Acrobatic Circus - People's Republic of China
• World Champion Trinity Irish Dancers - USA
• Théâtre de l'Unité- France
• Robert Cray Band - USA
• Lavelle White - USA
• Iguanas - USA
• Kermit Ruffins
  Kermit Ruffins
  Kermit Ruffins is a jazz trumpeter, singer and composer from New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. He has been heavily influenced by Louis Armstrong, Louis Jordan and Eddy Jefferson. Ruffins accompanies a large portion of his songs with his own vocals, and he says that the highest note he can hit...
  
   - USA
• Ivan Neville
  Ivan Neville
  Ivan Neville is a multi-instrumentalist musician, singer, and songwriter. He is the son of Aaron Neville and nephew to members of The Neville Brothers....
  
   - USA
• Terrance Simien
  Terrance Simien
  Terrance Simien is an American zydeco musician, vocalist and song writer. He and his band won the Grammy Award for Best Zydeco or Cajun Music Album for 2007....
  
   - USA
• Buckwheat Zydeco
  Buckwheat Zydeco
  Buckwheat Zydeco is the stage name of Stanley Dural, Jr. , an American accordionist and zydeco musician. He is one of the few zydeco artists to achieve mainstream success...
  
   - USA
• New Birth Brass Band - USA
• Gena Delafose - USA
• Eric Taylor
  Eric Taylor
  Eric Taylor may refer to:* Eric Taylor , American singer and songwriter* Eric Taylor , football player in the Canadian Football League* Eric Taylor , Hollywood screenwriter...
  
   - USA
• Shake Russell - USA
• Shenzhen Acrobatic Circus - China
• Johnny Bush
  Johnny Bush
  Johnny Bush, born February 17, 1935 as John Bush Shinn III in Houston, Texas, is a country music singer, songwriter, and drummer. Bush, nicknamed the "Country Caruso," is best-known for his distinctive voice and as the writer of "Whiskey River," a top-ten hit for himself and Willie Nelson's...
  
   - USA
• Bettye LaVette
  Bettye LaVette
  Bettye LaVette is an American soul singer-songwriter who made her first record at sixteen, but achieved only intermittent fame until 2005, with her album, I've Got My Own Hell to Raise...
  
   - USA
• Harrison Kumi - Ghana
• Emeline Michel
  Emeline Michel
  Emeline Michel is a Haitian singer who has been called "The Joni Mitchell of Haiti." She sang a version of Jimmy Cliff's Many Rivers to Cross at Hope for Haiti Now: A Global Benefit for Earthquake Relief.- External links :*...
  
   - Haiti
• The Wailers - Jamaica
• Emman Legrand - Congo
• Joaquin Diaz - Dominican Republic
• Lowrider Band
  Lowrider Band
  The Lowrider Band consists of four of the five surviving original core group members of the multi-platinum selling band War: Howard E. Scott, B.B. Dickerson, Lee Oskar, and Harold Brown. These members lost the right in federal court to use and tour under the name "War" in the mid-1990s to Far Out...
  
   - USA
• Rootz Underground - Jamaica
• Rachid Taha
  Rachid Taha
  Rachid Taha is an Algerian singer and activist based in France who has been described as "sonically adventurous." His music is influenced by many different styles such as rock, electronic, punk and raï.-Early life:Taha was born in 1958 in Sig , Algeria, although a second source suggests he was...
  
   - Algeria
• Marcia Ball
  Marcia Ball
  Marcia Ball is an American blues singer and pianist, born in Orange, Texas but who grew up in Vinton, Louisiana. She was described in USA Today as "a sensation, saucy singer and superb pianist.....
  
   - USA
• CJ Chenier - USA
• Little Joe y la Familia - USA

• Marima Ponies - Japan
• Governor's Island Samba School - Brazil
• Zip Zap Circus - South Africa
• The Staple Singers
  The Staple Singers
  The Staple Singers were an American gospel, soul, and R&B singing group. Roebuck "Pops" Staples , the patriarch of the family, formed the group with his children Cleotha , Pervis , Yvonne , and Mavis...
  
   - USA
• Blind Boys of Alabama - USA
• Nanci Griffith
  Nanci Griffith
  Nanci Griffith, is an American singer, guitarist and songwriter from Austin, Texas.-Biography:...
  
   - USA
• Sweet Honey in the Rock
  Sweet Honey in the Rock
  Sweet Honey in the Rock is an all-woman, African-American a cappella ensemble. They are an American Grammy Award-winning troupe who express their history as women of color through song, while entertaining their audience. They have together worked from four women to the difficult five-part harmony...
  
   - USA
• Paco de Lucia
  Paco de Lucía
  Paco de Lucía, born Francisco Sánchez Gómez , is a Spanish virtuoso flamenco guitarist and composer. He is considered by many to be one of the finest guitarists in the world and the greatest guitarist of the flamenco genre...
  
   - Spain
• Milton Nascimiento - Brazil
• Stomu Yamashta
  Stomu Yamashta
  Stomu Yamashta Stomu Yamashta Stomu Yamashta (born is a Japanese percussionist, keyboardist and composer. He is sometimes credited as Stomu Yamash'ta. His father was the band director Kiyoharu Yamashita (1907–1991)....
  
   - Japan
• Café Tacuba - Mexico
• Los Lobos
  Los Lobos
  Los Lobos are a multiple Grammy Award–winning American Chicano rock band from East Los Angeles, California. Their music is influenced by rock and roll, Tex-Mex, country, folk, R&B, blues, brown-eyed soul, and traditional Spanish and Mexican music such as cumbia, boleros and norteños.-History:The...
  
   - USA
• Texas Tornados
  Texas Tornados
  Texas Tornados is a Tejano band. Its music is a fusion of rock, country and various Mexican styles.-History:The initial combination of musicians of the Texas Tornados happened almost by chance at a concert performance of a mutual acquaintance...
  
   - USA
• Poncho Sanchez
  Poncho Sanchez
  Poncho Sanchez , a Mexican-American, is a conguero , Latin jazz band leader, and salsa singer. In 2000, Sanchez and his ensemble won the Grammy Award for Best Latin Jazz Album for their work on the Concord Picante album Latin Soul...
  
   - USA
• Flaco Jiménez
  Flaco Jiménez
  Leonardo "Flaco" Jiménez is a Tejano music accordionist from San Antonio, Texas. Jiménez's father, Santiago Jiménez Sr. was a pioneer of conjunto music. He began performing with his father at age seven and recording at age fifteen, as a member of Los Caporales...
  
   - USA
• Tito Puente
  Tito Puente
  Tito Puente, , born Ernesto Antonio Puente, was a Latin jazz and Salsa musician. The son of native Puerto Ricans Ernest and Ercilia Puente, of Spanish Harlem in New York City, Puente is often credited as "El Rey de los Timbales" and "The King of Latin Music"...
  
   - Puerto Rico
• Beau Jocque
  Beau Jocque
  Beau Jacques was an American zydeco musician active in the 1990s.Beau Jacques is known for his gruff vocals, his fusion of many musical styles onto zydeco, and above all, for the powerful energy of his rhythm and sound...
  
   - USA
• Royal Thai Ballet - Thailand
• Dana Jackson - USA
• United We Funk Allstars - USA
• Beat the Donkey - Brazil
• KEM
  Kem
  -Places:*Kem, Russia, a town in Russia*Kem, Uganda*Kem, Maharashtra, India*Kem , a crater on Mars.*King Edward Mine, a mine called King Edward Mine in Cornwall.*Kem River, a river in Russia.*KEM, IATA airport code for Kemi-Tornio Airport in Finland....
  
   - USA
• Keith Frank
  Keith Frank
  Keith Frank is a zydeco musician from Louisiana. Frank started his band, The Soileau Zydeco Band, in 1990 and was active as of 2010. Frank is a 1998 graduate of McNeese State University.Frank records on Soulwood Records.-Studio Albums/EP:...
  
   - USA
• Neutral Sisters - Jamaica/USA
• Krosfyah
  Krosfyah
  Krosfyah is a Soca band from the Caribbean island of Barbados.They are best known for their hits "Road Jam", "Pump Me Up", and "Sak Passe". Formed in 1989 by Edwin Yearwood, Krosfyah is one of the most known and successful Soca bands of the Caribbean....
  
   - Barbados
• Lucky Dube
  Lucky Dube
  Lucky Philip Dube was a South African reggae musician. He recorded 22 albums in Zulu, English and Afrikaans in a 25-year period and was South Africa's biggest selling reggae artist...
  
   - South Africa
• Ricardo Lemvo
  Ricardo Lemvo
  Ricardo Lemvo is a DR Congolese singer of Angolan descent, based in Los Angeles. His music combines Cuban salsa with African rumba and soukous....
  
   - Democratic Republic of Congo
• Bob Schneider
  Bob Schneider
  Bob Schneider is an Austin, Texas-based musician and artist. He currently resides in Bee Cave, Texas.- Early career :...
  
   - USA
• Kelly Willis
  Kelly Willis
  Kelly Willis is an American country music singer-songwriter, whose music has been described as contemporary country, alternative country and new traditionalist.-Early life:...
  
   - USA
• Los Lonely Boys
  Los Lonely Boys
  Los Lonely Boys is a Chicano rock power trio from San Angelo, Texas. They play a style of music they call "Texican Rock n' Roll," combining elements of rock and roll, Texas blues, brown eyed soul, country, and Tejano....
  
   - USA
• Buddy Guy
  Buddy Guy
  George "Buddy" Guy is an American blues and jazz guitarist and singer. He is a critically acclaimed artist who has established himself as a pioneer of the Chicago blues sound, and has served as an influence to some of the most notable musicians of his generation...
  
   - USA
• Emmylou Harris
  Emmylou Harris
  Emmylou Harris is an American singer-songwriter and musician. In addition to her work as a solo artist and bandleader, both as an interpreter of other composers' works and as a singer-songwriter, she is a sought-after backing vocalist and duet partner, working with numerous other artists including...
  
   - USA
• Jesse Dayton
  Jesse Dayton
  Jesse Dayton is an Austin, Texas-based honky tonk and rockabilly artist best known for his guitar contributions to albums by country legends including Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, and Willie Nelson...
  
   - USA
• Reckless Kelly
  Reckless Kelly
  Reckless Kelly is a 1993 Australian comedy film written, directed and starring Yahoo Serious. The story is a satirical take on a modern day Ned Kelly who is forced to Hollywood in order to make enough money to save his family's land. As it goes against his belief, he cannot simply rob banks for...
  
   - USA
• Joss Stone
  Joss Stone
  Jocelyn Eve Stoker , better known by her stage name Joss Stone, is an English soul singer-songwriter and actress. Stone rose to fame in late 2003 with her multi-platinum debut album, The Soul Sessions, which made the 2004 Mercury Prize shortlist...
  
   - USA
• Cory Morrow
  Cory Morrow
  Cory Morrow is a Texas Country singer/songwriter who has gained popularity throughout the Southwest. Morrow started playing guitar at Memorial High School in Houston. He continued to develop as a musician while attending Texas Tech University, where he was a member of the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity...
  
   - USA
• Shemekia Copeland
  Shemekia Copeland
  Shemekia Copeland is an American electric blues vocalist.-Career:Copeland was born in Harlem, New York City, United States. She is the daughter of Texas blues guitarist and singer Johnny Copeland...
  
   - USA
• The Neville Brothers
  The Neville Brothers
  The Neville Brothers, an American R&B and soul group, was formed in 1977 in New Orleans, Louisiana.-History:The group notion started in 1976, when the four brothers of the Neville family, Art , Charles , Aaron , and Cyril The Neville Brothers, an American R&B and soul group, was formed in 1977 in...
  
   - USA
• Menwar
  Menwar
  Stéphano Honoré, better known as Menwar, is a Mauritian percussionist and singer. He was one of the pioneers of modern sega music, forming the group Sagaï in the 1980s...
  
   - Mauritius
• The Garifuna Collective - Belize
• Habib Koite & Barmada - Mali
• Taj Mahal
  Taj Mahal (musician)
  Henry Saint Clair Fredericks , who uses the stage name Taj Mahal, is an American Grammy Award winning blues musician. He incorporates elements of world music into his music...
  
   - USA
• Samarabalouf - France
• Charlie Musselwhite
  Charlie Musselwhite
  Charlie Musselwhite is an American electric blues harmonica player and bandleader, one of the non-black bluesmen who came to prominence in the early 1960s, along with Mike Bloomfield and Paul Butterfield. Though he has often been identified as a "white bluesman", he claims Native American heritage...
  
   - USA
• Beoga - Ireland
• The Wailing Souls
  The Wailing Souls
  The Wailing Souls are a Jamaican reggae vocal group still recording and performing live, whose origins date back to the 1960s.-Career:They have recorded with many top Jamaican record producers including Coxsone Dodd of Studio One, Lloyd "King Jammy" James, Henry "Junjo" Lawes, Delroy Wilson and...
  
   - Jamaica
• Plena Libre - Puerto Rico
• Ohio Players
  Ohio Players
  The Ohio Players were an American funk and R&B band, most popular in the 1970s. They are best known for their double #1 hit songs "Fire" and "Love Rollercoaster".- Biography :...
  
   - USA
• Ozomatli
  Ozomatli
  Ozomatli is a seven to ten piece band playing primarily Latin, hip hop, and rock music, formed in 1995 in Los Angeles. They are known both for their vocal activist viewpoints and their wide array of musical styles - including salsa, jazz, funk, reggae, rap, and others.In a 2007 NPR interview, band...
  
   - Aztlan
• Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba -Mali
• Mighty Diamonds - Jamaica
• Eddie Palmieri
  Eddie Palmieri
  Eddie Palmieri , is a Grammy Award winning Puerto Rican pianist, bandleader and musician, best known for combining jazz piano and instrumental solos with Latin rhythms.-Early years:...
  
  
• Taj Weekes & Adowa - St. Lucia