Now it is said that rap music has eroded our moral fiber, but in 1914 Adam Clayton Powell, Sr., proclaimed that “the Negro race [was] dancing itself to death” with ragtime. The white race was doing the same, and lessons had to be given on how to dance without moving the shoulders or the hips. … More Roads to Perdition

This video of the Faroes was made in August, 2006. The Hilaro choir of Estonia, which visited then, is singing an abstract song on the soul. Axé.

It is the weekend, so we will sing. Now Erkin Abdulla is singing in Uighur. There is a solo on his website. Besides being an international-style pop singer from East Turkistan, Abdulla is an associate director of the Chinese Flamenco Association. Here, for instance, he sings in Chinese, with Flamenco rhythms and dancers, about Ali … More Nime Boldi

I am still Lima-oriented, and I consider it a good sign. Here is Alicia Maguiña on “Viva el Perú y Sereno,” with images of the city in the late nineteenth and I believe early twentieth centuries – not entirely different from what it is now. Meanwhile, this evening’s featured posts are from Lenin’s Tomb – … More Alicia Maguiña

Nicomedes Santa Cruz is brilliant, and this is a landó from his 1970 album Cumanana. A cumanana is a certain kind of verse composition and rhythm whose investigation will lead to an eye-widening realization of the fascinating complexity of Afro-Peruvian music. A glance at the Wikipedia entry on the tondero gives an idea. Axé.

This is Lima marinera, which you must hear to believe. Axé.

Here is Eva Ayllón on “Mal Paso.” This is coastal music from Peru, syncopated and African-based. Listen to that piquant Creole guitar. The square drums are called drawers. Actual drums were banned, back in the day, as subversive. Therefore the slaves would take the drawers out of the dressers and turn them into drums. Here … More Eva Ayllón