[APWW #678] [Originally aired 2013]
The legendary Cuban pianist / bandleader / composer Ramón "Bebo" Valdés used to say, el día que me muera, no quiero lloradera. Que toquen una rumba, que tomen ron y coman chocolate, y que toquen mi música más bailable. The day I die, I don’t want weeping. Have a rumba, drink rum and eat chocolate, and play my most danceable music. 

Bebo passed on March 22, 2013 at the age of 94, and to honor his memory in high spirits, Afropop Worldwide producer Ned Sublette travels to the Voll-Damm Barcelona International Jazz Festival for an exclusive presentation: highlights from the historic Rumba Para Bebo – part concert, part memorial, part Cuban jazz jam, part rumba, and part Kongo ceremony. 

The show features Bebo's son and former pupil, the reigning grandmaster Cuban pianist / bandleader / composer Jesús "Chucho" Valdés and the Afro Cuban Messengers, and with special guests Jerry González, Omar Sosa and Malongo, Mayra Caridad Valdés, Lázara Cachao, Javier Massó “Caramelo,” Javier Colina, Mauricio Vallina, Paloma Manfugás, Eladio Reinón, David Pastor, and more! 

Rumba Para Bebo

Competing with all the lights and noise - it takes a brave person to busk on Freemont street, Las Vegas -  but armed with just an acoustic guitar and his lungs, Mark Drama is determined to be heard. In this piece Marc talks about his journey through life thus far, his passion for music and performing and a recent chance encounter with comedian Russell Brand.

Busking In Vegas: The Journey Of Marc Drama

“Every story matters. The challenge is getting that story to the historical record. Simply putting it into the archive is maybe not enough.” -Doug Boyd, Director of the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History at the University of Kentucky Libraries. 

Listen to this story about the power of oral history to make connections across continents and across history.

Doug Boyd - Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History

Eyewitness

Sistah Boom is a women’s samba marching band that has been showing up in the streets at San Francisco Bay Area demonstrations for close to 40 years – bringing power, energy, and spirit.

Sistah Boom: Forty Years in the Streets

The Kitchen Sisters, Peabody Award winning radio producers Davia Nelson & Nikki Silva, chronicle the hidden parts of history, the traditions and rituals people carry with them from one country to another, across one generation to the next. Stories of sonic pioneers, local kitchen visionaries, neighborhood heros, groundbreaking girls and path-finding women—people with a mission, a purpose, a story to tell. 

Our productions include the duPont-Columbia Award winning NPR series Hidden Kitchens, the Peabody Award winning NPR series Lost & Found Sound and The Sonic Memorial Project, The Hidden World of Girls, and The Making Of... {What people make in the Bay Area and why}, along with hundreds of other stories for public media.

Building Community through Story Telling


Doug Boyd - Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History

The Kitchen Sisters

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