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Transpacific Sound Paradise
Saturday, April 29, 2017
Riyaaz Qawwali interview: Sufi qawwali music and more, from the Lone Star State

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You may know the late great Pakistani singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, whose ecstatic Sufi qawwali music broke through to international audiences. That success paved the way for other qawwali artists from South Asia to go global.

But now there is a top-notch qawwali ensemble right here in the US: Houston-based Riyaaz Qawwali, who are in town to play tomorrow - Sunday night April 30th at 7 - at Roulette, 509 Atlantic Ave. in Brooklyn as part of the weekend-long World In Trance Festival. (Niyaz, from Canada via Iran, plays the festival at Roulette tonight at 8.)

Riyaaz, with two albums out - Ishq and Kashti - has an emigre twist: While much of the material is based in Sufi mysticism, this multi-cultural group - with members from several countries - incorporate Hindu, Sikh and other themes as well. We'll learn about that and more on this week's show!



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TICKET GIVEAWAYS TONIGHT!

ENTER TO WIN TICKETS TO SEE OMAR SOULEYMAN
OR ONE OF TWO GREAT PENN WORLD VOICES FESTIVAL EVENTS!

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To get in the running for a pair of tickets to any of these events: Email me, Rob W, here, please specify first and if possible second and even third choice among the three events available, and please put the word "TIX" in the subject line. The deadline to enter is tonight at midnight for Omar Souleyman and Sunday at midnight for the Penn World Voices events. Winners will be notified on Monday. Thanks and good luck!

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We have these ticket giveaways on offer today:

• Omar Souleyman performing dynamic modern dabke and baladi dance music from Syria at Le Poisson Rouge, 158 Bleecker St., Thursday May 11th at 7:30 pm. Presented in conjunction with the World Music Institute. 1 pair available.

Concert info c/o Le Poisson Rouge here.

More info on the World Music Institute’s excellent ongoing series of international concerts around NYC at http://worldmusicinstitute.org.

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PLUS

This week’s Penn World Voices Festival, which in full runs from Sunday April 30th through Sunday May 7th: Tickets for two events on offer:

• Cuban Dreams/Cuban Histories at the American Museum of Natural History, Central Park West (enter at 81st St.), Thursday, May 4th at 6:30 pm. Two pairs of tickets available.

Background: Explore mythologies and lived experiences of Cubans with renowned contemporary poets Nancy Morejón and Derek Palacio, while immersing yourself in an after-hours discovery of the Museum’s exhibition ¡Cuba!. Moderated by Ana Luz Porzecanski.

• Poetic Duels: Sheyr Jangi at Dixon Place, 161 A Chrystie St. in the Lower East Side, Saturday, May 6th at 7:30 pm. Four pairs of tickets available.

Background: Poetic battles, called Sheyr Jangi in Afghanistan, has roots in the early medieval Central Asian Courts. For this event, we pay homage to this tradition—but with a twist. Our “deck” of poems will be based on the theme of Gender and Power, and with the audience’s help, we invite poets to duel. With Majda Gama, Rami Karim, Aurora Masum-Javed, Sham-e-Ali Nayeem, Purvi Shah. Moderated by Sahar Muradi and Zohra Saed and produced with CityLore and Ping Chong + Company.

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To get in the running for a pair of tickets to any of these events: Email me, Rob W, here, please specify first and if possible second and even third choice among the three events available, and please put the word "TIX" in the subject line. The deadline to enter is tonight at midnight for Omar Souleyman and Sunday at midnight for the Penn World Voices events. Winners will be notified on Monday. Thanks and good luck!

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More on the Penn World Voices Festival: Founded in the aftermath of September 11, 2001, by Salman Rushdie, Esther Allen, and Michael Roberts with the aim of broadening channels of dialogue between the U.S. and the world, PEN World Voices is the only international literary festival in America, and the only one in the world with a human rights focus. More info at https://worldvoices.pen.org/.

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More on Omar Souleyman: Hailing from Syria, Omar Souleyman has become a worldwide sensation in modern world and electronic music circles. Souleyman, who has collaborated with Björk and Four Tet, began his career as a prolific wedding singer, releasing nearly 500 live albums before civil war broke out in his native Syria in 2011. He then moved to Turkey and in 2013 released Wenu Wenu which NPR called, “…a jam so visceral, thrilling and intense as to make the mysterious matter of earthly borders seem hardly worth the time to contemplate.” Souleyman’s new album, To Syria, With Love, is set for release June 2 via Mad Decent. The follow up to 2015’s Bahdeni Nami marks Souleyman’s third full-length studio record. More at https://www.facebook.com/Omar-Souleyman-116551741600/