easy listening

[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

5. Theme From A Summer Place

Recorded at Century II in Wichita, KS for the Southwestern Music Educators Conference. March 1973 under the direction of Ray James.

05 Theme from the Apartment - Charles Williams (Marilee Southworth on piano)

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

Listen. It's 6:30 pm in Montevideo. The streets are full of traffic, and the radio is on everywhere. Tune into CX22 Radio Universal AM 970 and you can hear Elena Fonseca present Nunca en Domingo (Never on Sunday) her daily women's radio show. Elena is 81 years old, elegant and on fire.  

Sam Robinson, from London, has been interning with The Kitchen Sisters. He heard the tape we brought back from Uruguay and was as taken by Elena as we were. Sam produced this story. 

We began our conversation with Elena with the same question all Kitchen Sisters interviews begin with...

Never on Sunday: The Hidden World of Elena Fonseca

Sympathique, Pink Martini’s wildly popular debut album, was released in 1997. It has gone on to sell 975,000 copies worldwide and has taken the band around the world on tours to the Cannes Film Festival and Europe, Lebanon, Turkey, Japan and Taiwan among other far-flung destinations.

Nominated for “Song of the Year” and “Best New Artist” in France’s Victoires de la Musique Awards, the album is Platinum in France and Gold in Canada, Switzerland, Greece and Turkey.

Never On Sunday

a cover of the classic written by William Weatherspoon, Paul Riser, and James Dean and originally performed by Jimmy Ruffin

What Becomes of the Broken Hearted(cover)

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


Never on Sunday: The Hidden World of Elena Fonseca

The Kitchen Sisters

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