Cuban-born Omar Sosa has made beautiful records with musicians from West Africa, from all over East Africa, from Spain, where he's lived for many years, and now, with American friends, including sax player Peter Apfelbaum, whom we've heard over the years playing with the Kamikaze Ground Crew, the Millennial Territory Orchestra, and the Hieroglyphics Ensemble, among others. They play duo versions of music from the Quarteto Americanos project, including recorded sounds fired from a sampler pad, that Sosa has put together, in-studio.  Set list: "umbo kondo", "Move in D", "Mis Tres Notas"

From the 2022 New York Guitar Festival at The Greene Space, listen to cosmic inventions from guitarist and composer Vernon Reid together with Laraaji on zither and electronics.  Adept at metal, funk and jazz, Vernon Reid gained fame as the main songwriter for the rock band Living Colour, and as a founder of the Black Rock Coalition. Crashing this year’s guitar festival to join Vernon is the innovative ambient zither player and electronic musician Laraaji, who was also part of Brian Eno’s groundbreaking Ambient Music series back in 1981. Vernon Reid and Laraaji, together with an arsenal of electronics, in addition to their instruments, with occasional vocalizing, improvise a breathtaking longform set (perhaps taking inspiration from the Oblique Strategies card Ghost Echoes).  Watch their improvisations here:

Lean Year is Virginia-based singer Emilie Rex and filmmaker/musician Rick Alverson, along with Erik Hall, who lives in rural Michigan, where he records and co-produces the band’s records with Alverson. The band’s latest, Sides, is heavy on dreamlike and beautiful melodies, yet the material is also meditation on grief and the processing of personal tragedy. Using mellotron, keyboards of many colors, guitar, and a tapestry of synth pads of sampled woodwinds, together with Rex’s distinctive voice, the music is “a balancing act between pathos and pop” (Bandcamp), which feels haunted and cinematic, while celebrating memories and embracing calm amidst the sorrow. Lean Year plays in-studio.  Set list: "Nitetime", "Marriage of Heaven and Hell", "Trouble with Being Warm" Watch "Nitetime": Watch "Marriage of Heaven and Hell": Watch "Trouble with Being Warm": 

Mafer Bandola, aka Maria Fernanda González, is originally from Venezuela, and is one of the few women who plays bandola and electric bandola professionally. The Bandola is a traditional 4-stringed instrument found in both Colombia and Venezuela; it is avacado-shaped, and related to the bandurria and mandolin (thanks, Wikipedia.) In her music, she is constantly stretching and innovating within her tradition by incorporating jazz, blues, Brazilian influences, as she experiments with genres, sounds, and cross-cultural collaboration. González is also an educator, self-taught composer, journalist, and a co-founder of LADAMA, a multinational band of four women from four countries. She joins us remotely to perform original works, ahead of her appearance at Flushing Town Hall on Sept. 18 at 1PM.  Set list: “Zumba que Zumba”, “Agreste”, “Pajarillo” Watch "Zumba que Zumba": Watch “Agreste”: Watch "“Pajarillo”:

Wikipedia says Bill Frisell “is an American jazz guitarist.” Well they got “American” and “guitarist” right. Frisell has indeed played jazz, but also country, rock, folk, West African, classical, and lots of less easily defined styles of music. Widely considered to be one of the great guitarists of our time, he is the subject of a new biography called Bill Frisell: Beautiful Dreamer. He plays solo acoustic in The Greene Space as part of the 2022 New York Guitar Festival. - John Schaefer Set list: Look Out for Hope, Blues from Before, Strange Meeting, Waltz For Hal Willner Watch the set: