Born of the philosophy that music knows no borders, Zafarán emerges as a vibrant force in the world music scene with the release of their self-titled debut album Zafarán (to be released 6/27/15). The international ensemble—formed in 2020 by musicians hailing from Italy, Sweden, and the USA—invites listeners on a sweeping journey through time and across cultures, celebrating the shared humanity found in Mediterranean musical traditions.

With driving rhythms, virtuosic improvisation, and masterful arrangements, Zafarán brings a contemporary sensibility to age-old folk stylings. The album weaves together Southern Italian chants, Sephardic love songs, Romani laments, and Turkish and Greek folk melodies into an intricate, emotionally rich tapestry.

At the heart of it all is the commanding and soulful voice of Carmen Marsico, the award-winning Italian vocalist from Basilicata, whose performances anchor the ensemble’s boundary-breaking sound. Marsico is joined by longtime collaborator Björn Wennås—musical director of their previous band Newpoli—on classical guitar, mandola, and the 10-stringed chitarra battente. Rounding out the ensemble are Dan Meyers, contributing flutes, duduk, ocarina, ciaramella, and vocals, and Davide Roberto delivering dynamic and colorful percussion.

The group’s name, Zafarán, is steeped in symbolism. Derived from Arabic via old Persian, “zafarán” refers to saffron—the most precious of spices in the ancient world. In Carmen’s native Lucania (Basilicata), the word evolved to describe the prized sweet red peppers of the town of Senise. Just as the farmers of Lucania adapted an ancient word to describe a New World crop, Zafarán the band embraces and reinterprets traditional forms, crafting something uniquely global and timeless.

“When we started writing our own music and also doing arrangements of field recordings we got very interested in how songs traveled,” says Marsico. “We wanted to trace how different cultures influence the music as it moved from one society to another over time. When one group moves into another country, they will definitely start influencing the folk music of that country. And you end up with this musical amalgam of two cultures. This was really interesting to us and something we really wanted to explore on the album.”

Recorded in the historically multi-cultural hub of Rome during the summer of 2022, Zafarán is a celebration of the musical connections that bind us across geography and history. With each track, the ensemble puts a unique stamp in your passport to a borderless world, where sound and spirit transcend division.

This ethos is perhaps best illustrated by the album’s eighth track “Üsküdar/Mi Scuordu/Apo Xeno Topo,” a traditional song recorded in three parts, showing its evolution from its origins in Turkey  and migrating through Sicily and Greece.

Reflects recorder player Dan Myers, “ ‘Üsküdar’ is one of the most popular folk songs in Turkey; everybody knows it. It originally came out of the Ottoman Empire from about the 18th century, and it’s a really popular melody to the point where we have collected that melody set with texts in over 20 different languages from different countries around the Mediterranean. It’s such a popular song around that area that other people adopted it. ‘Apo Xeno Topo’ is the Greek version of it, and the words are not the same at all, but the tune is the same. We wanted to put those together to show here’s this Turkish piece and there were also Greek musicians who’ve been singing it for a very long time, albeit with different lyrics, but that tune really got around.”

Zafarán definitely view their own interpretations and arrangements of these songs as a continuation of that cross-cultural interplay across place and time. For example, “Naci en Alamo” is a popular Spanish song traditionally played in the flamenco style:

“I am a classical guitarist, however, I’m not a flamenco player so I’m not going to embarrass myself trying to record something flamenco,” jokes Björn Wennås. “We really started thinking ‘how can we make this our own?’ Because we don’t want to copy something, we’re not going to play it in a flamenco way. So I was like, ‘well, I’m going to take an instrument that is not my primary, the mandola, and just try to create something new, something original that doesn’t have any kind of influence from anywhere.’ That gave us the framework of approaching this song in a completely different way because, all of a sudden, we were void of tradition and we had a blank slate.  I feel like this is kind of how we approach a lot of the songs on this record.”

The legendary Omara Portuondo is soul touching as ever on her latest album VIDA. Wonderfully produced by the Grammy Nominated Singer Gaby Moreno, with songs carefully selected together with her son, Ariel Jimenez, VIDA features an impressive line up of some of Latin Americas most emblematic artists, singing alongside the Cuban Novia del feeling. VIDA is an album destined to become a classic!

VIDA is the latest album release by Omara Portuondo, the grand Cuban “Lady of Feeling”. At the age of 90, Omara found her self stuck in Havana due to the pandemic, and the busy lady, like everyone else, had to put the tours on hold. Known for her compassion and her sense of humanity, Omara naturally chose to express herself through music in those significant times of human history. Omara has so much love to give and with her tremendous energy, she invited life long friends and colleagues to participate in the long distance project, a way to keep each other close. Omara’s son, Ariel Jiménez Portuondo, who has been taking care of Omara’s career and her well-being for the past two decades, organised the recordings, well knowing his mothers need of action. Ariel found the perfect artistic producer, the recently Grammy nominated Guatemalan singer- song writer, Gaby Moreno, who has a similar soft and kind personality as Omara. This album is a tribute to Omara’s musical legacy.

The album starts with a beautiful duet, the Latin Grammy Nominated song Bolero a La Vida by Gaby Moreno. On “VIDA” Omara sings together with a stellar line up of legendary singers. Anyone who has loved Cuban and Latin music of the last 50 years will recognise the beauty of the timeless songs. “VIDA” reflects Omara’s thoughts and feelings during this heavy period, as well as being a general homage to life. Like so many others, she found herself mourning dear friends lost to the pandemic. The ballads “Silencio” and “Duele” reflect her ‘melancolía’. Besides Covid, the year 2020 brought to the surface another pandemic: the one of systemic racism and violence. Unfortunately the murder of George Floyd was just reflecting that what has been a reality for black people in the US since the times of slavery. “I was very sad and upset by the murder of George Floyd. I told myself, it is time to sing “Now” again!”, Omara explains, and by this song, she elegantly show her protest in support of BLM. The song was originally song by Lena Horne in 1963, and in the 70’es, Omara made it famous in Cuba.

_{YouTube Video – Omara Portuondo ft. Gaby Moreno}

Deep inside Omara’s heart, there’s always joy and optimism, surplus and gratitude for what became her destiny as a singer, as an artist, as a woman, as a human. Gaby Moreno’s “Bolero a la Vida”, got them a Latin Grammy Nomination, “Honrar la Vida” sung beautifully together with Rubén Blades, “Sé Feliz” with Keb’ Mo’ and “Gracias a la vida” with Natalia Lafourcade, all reflect Omara’s eternal positive spirit. “Con 2 que se quieran”, sung together with Amaury Pérez and Alexander Abreu, is an explosion of a party to leave you with a smile, dancing down your road of life.

One World is honoured to once again present our beloved Cuban Queen who has touched our hearts a lifetime. The upcoming tour will begin magically in India, and continue to Europe, USA, Mexico Colombia and more… Let’s celebrate Omara World Wide!

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Plena Libre celebrates 30 years of bringing the iconic sounds of their Puerto Rican homeland to stages worldwide w/the release of new album Cuatro Esquinas (Four Corners) and worldwide tour dates

Puerto Rico’s multi-Grammy–nominated musical masters, Plena Libre have consistently been enthralling audiences around the globe over the course of their storied 30-year, 16-album career with their original sound — one that infuses the traditional plena and bomba rhythms of  Puerto Rico with a fresh spring mix of Afro-Caribbean and jazz styles to create groove-laden dance music that honors their deep sense of the unique indigenous musical traditions, while embracing modern trends. 

Now, Plena Libre are celebrating their 30th anniversary in style, unleashing a new wave of awe-inspiring hand drumming, vivacious horns, and soul-soaring three-part vocal harmonies with the release of their new album Cuatro Esquinas (Four Corners), released on March 31, 2023. The fine-tuned, original band of 12 versatile  virtuoso musicians will also be captivating audiences across the map in 2023 with live performances scheduled at festivals in Puerto Rico, the United States, and Europe, including an appearance at the prestigious New Orleans Jazz Festival.

Founder, bandleader, and bassist Gary Núñez stress the appropriateness of the title, since the group’s music, and especially that of this new album, reflects personal, universal situations, accompanied by the unique sounds of the Puerto Rican rhythms of the bomba and the plena. The album title was inspired by Nuñez’s youth, growing up in a Puerto Rican neighborhood where “Four Corners”, alluded to a local meeting point that sometimes even carried an unfairly bad reputation.  

Says Núñez, “Cuatro Esquinas”, in my adolescence, used to be a meeting point in my neighborhood, with some ‘bad reputation’. It was known as ‘4 Esquinas’ because in each corner there was a bar or bodega. It was the place where people met and all sorts of characters gathered there and replaced their sorrows with some joy, romance, adventure, or consolation. It is the part of our history that does not appear in the “stories” that we were told about who Puerto Ricans are” 

Cuatro Esquinas is a representation of some of those experiences, captured in a mix of “traditional” and original songs. Featuring four vocalists singing in lush three-part harmonies – with an aggressive, tight, yet sensitive style, which balances the traditional with the contemporary, the global, and the local – Plena Libre creates a brand of music and live performance that captivates the multicultural audience, invites to dance and to listen to their sound.

_{YouTube Video – Plena Libre: Si va a llover}

The track, “Tu cintura con la mía” was arranged by Luisga Núñez, son of Gary Núñez who shares with his father a passion for parranda, bajo, and vocal harmonies — bringing a taste of the next generation to the distinctive elements of the group.

“We dedicate this recording to the public and to all those people who have supported Plena Libre, through those 30 years. To all the musicians who are and who have been part of this experience, we are GRATEFUL”, enthused Núñez, who took the opportunity to particularly thank his wife Valerie Cox “for the unconditional, necessary and total support for three decades and to all the musicians that were part of this album, making it possible”.

Apart from Gary Núñez as director and bassist, Plena Libre is made up of: Víctor Vélez (vocals/percussion), Luisga Núñez (vocals/percussion), Rafi Falú (requinto), Miguel A. de Jesús (vocals/percussion), Alex “Callejero” López (vocals/percussion), Rafy Torres, Randy Román and Kevin Ortiz on trombones, Pedro Dominicci (timbales), Manuel Rivera (congas), Karla Martínez on piano and Yarina Torres in charge of choirs.

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