Arab American National Museum's Global Music Series Returns

posted on: Sep 20, 2012

Lovers of the Arab American National Museum’s fall world music series who bemoaned that the event was held on Thursday nights — have been heard.

“It was difficult to get folks over to the museum on a Thursday night,” says Museum Deputy Director Devon Akmon. “We kept hearing folks say that Friday would be a better night for the series.”

And viola! “Global Fridays” kicks off this Friday with Sierra Leone native Janka Nabay, considered the king of the traditional, frantically paced dance music bubu. Nabay’s new CD, “En Yay Sah,” was released this month on David Byrne’s Luaka Bop label.

Held in the museum’s 156-seat auditorium, “Global Fridays” audiences also will be treated to after-show artist meet-and-greets and CD signings.

Akmon says he likes to pack the series with music that pushes the boundaries, but M.A.K.U. Sound System, performing Oct. 19, defies definition.

“Their sound is traditional Colombian, Afro-Colombian, punk and jazz,” he says. “It’s a mishmash.” He says M.A.K.U. made heads turn and bob during July’s Concert of Colors.

On Nov. 16, Jordanian songstress Macadi Nahhas, backed by members of the Michigan Arab Orchestra, will perform traditional Arabic pieces from her new CD, “The Collection.”

“Global Fridays” will conclude on Dec. 7 with a benefit concert featuring southeast Michigan’s leading Armenian musicians, Sean Blackman and Ara Topouzian, a 2012 Kresge Artist Fellow and virtuoso of the stringed instrument called kanun. The two will be joined by New York vocalist Hooshere Bezdikian. Concert proceeds are to benefit youths in Armenia.

Blackman, who has been performing for 30 years, is a composer and master of the acoustic nylon-string guitar who performs locally with the group Sin Hielo.

Like “Global Fridays,” his music is almost endless blends of genres.

“I was raised on Armenian music, jazz, blues, folk and soul,” he says. “Then I fell in love with rock ‘n’ roll as a teen. In my early 20s, I found Flamenco, which opened the doors to Brazilian, black Peruvian,North,West and South African, Middle Eastern, Pakistani and East Indian music and the Gypsy Jazz of France.”

Ursula Watson
The Detroit News