Followers of this site will know that the second weekend in January brings an explosion of thrilling music in New York. With arts presenters from all over the continent, and beyond, convening in the city, there are back-to-back showcases from Thursday through Monday, with the Sunday night globalFEST extravaganza at Lincoln Center as the central event for fans of worldly music.
2025 was no exception, starting with the Afromondo Showcase at SOB’s. This annual African music fest is the brainchild of longtime promoter and presenter Alex Boicel, winner of this year’s globalFEST “Pioneer Award” by the way. Seven acts performed, including an opening solo guitar set from Afropop’s own Banning Eyre. On the bill, was the smoking Senegalese mbalax singer Alioune Cisse and his band, punky reggae outfit from Anguilla, British Depencency, and global griot Moh Kouyaté from Guinea (on his way south to record an album with Corey Harris. Stay tuned!)
For us, the standout of the night was Nelida Karr from Equatorial Guinea. She was a highlight last year, but this year she brought her band. Her fingerstyle guitar, interpreting the fast ternary rhythms of her country, is astounding. But better still is her gutsy, lavish voice, as powerful as any blues mama who ever lived. She got a chance to prove that joining New Orleans trombonist and singer Glen David Andrews in an impromptu back and forth in the middle of the dance floor. No microphones needed! For more on Afromondo, check out our colleague Bill Farrington’s report on Mondo Local.
On Saturday night, we enjoyed a night of duo and solo performances at Joe’s Pub. New York’s premier kora player Yacouba Sissoko delivered a mesmerizing set accompanied by Moussa Diabaté on ngoni. Rahim AlHaj, a brilliant Iraqi oud player based in New Mexico, followed, accompanied by Iranian santour master Soureno Setafi. As entertaining as the duo’s virtuosic back and forth was AlHaj’s charmingly jocular commentary and audience interaction.
These second show that night began with Ukrainian songbird and bandura player Maryna Knut in her New York City debut. Maryna’s music has no connection to Africa, but it is astoundingly beautiful. Not only is she a virtuoso on here 65-string harp, but she has a voice from the heavens, covering all the colors of the human vocal rainbow, seemingly effortlessly. Declaring herself a musician from “free Ukraine,” she recounted her brave performances at the edge of war in her home country. As an encore, she brought the house down with her rendition of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah.” It may be the most covered song in history, but we’ve never heard it like this!
Next came the Chicago-based duo The Arab Blues, an inspired blend of Arab and Chicago blues elements that ranges from interpretations of classic compositions by Egyptian composer Mohammed Abdel Wahab, to garage band blues intensity, all with just two players, the effusive and playful Karim Nagi on percussionist and Rami Gabriel on oud and guitar.
There was plenty more happening all over the city, but let’s proceed to the main event, globalFEST. The night began with a moving award ceremony honoring composer/bandleader Frank London, the aforementioned Alex Boicel, renaissance man and proprietor of the beloved music venue/bar Barbes in Brooklyn Olivier Conan, and veteran global music promoter and marketer Cheryl McEnaney, straight from Los Angeles where her life’s work lay in danger of the ongoing inferno there.
From there, 10 acts performed on three stages at Lincoln Center, beginning with Ghazi & Boom.Diwan with Arturo O’Farrill. If you follow the preceding link, you’ll learn the origin of this remarkable collaboration between O’Farrill of New York’s Afro-Latin Jazz Ensemble, guitarist and ethnomusicologist Ghazi Faisal Al-Mulaifi and musicians from Kuwait’s unique pearl-diving music tradition. It’s an unlikely and remarkable story. As Ghazi told us, “the connection is Africa,” which underlies all of the divergent musics involved. The result was beautiful, a one of a kind experience.
The night flew by in a frenzy from the hard-rocking Haitian passion music of Paul Beaubrun, to Zar Electrik’s techno fusion of electric kora and Gnawa guembri, to worldly blues-based Americana from Hazmat Modine, Maruja Limón of Spain, a gorgeous and rousing set of Cape Verdean music from composer and singer Elida Almeida and a closing cumbia-fueled romp from Mireva Ramos and The Poor Choices, and more.
But for us, the crowing set of the night came from Mali (are you surprised?) Bamba Wassoulou Groove is dedicated to upholding the pentatonic, guitar-driven Bambara sound pioneered by the late Zani Diabaté. Three former members of the Super Rail Band of Bamako play in this killer five-piece ensemble. We caught them at WOMEX 2023, and featured them in a recent episode of Planet Afropop. But the show the delivered at globalFEST was simply beyond.
You could not ask for a more dynamic frontman than Ousmane Diakité, nor a more rock-solid rhythm section than drummer Maguett Diop and Aboubacar ‘Papis’ Diombana deliver. Diakité fully delivers the growling, howling vocal performace that Zani’s singer Daouda ‘Flani’ Sangaré was renowned for. Plus he’s a superbly acrobatic dancer and animateur. But the real stunner for us is the duo guitar work of Moussa Diabaté, coming from Mande tradition, and Bayni Diabaté, coming from the more raw and rocking Bambara style of Segou. This band delivered pure ecstasy, and we are confident they will be back often, starting with a tour this coming summer. Stay tuned!
