Cultural Odyssey's Underground Jazz Cabaret/World Music May 17, 2007

An eagerly anticipated part of this year's San Francisco International Arts Festival is Cultural Odyssey’s Underground Cabaret. Hosted by Idris Ackamoor, this three-night cabaret of world music features internationally renowned artists from the Bay Area, Latin America and North Africa.

May 17: Aurelio Martinez is one of the world’s most heralded torchbearers of the Garufina genre of music known primarily throughout Central America. Martínez brings a bittersweet vocal style to the guitar-accompanied paranda ballad and other traditional Garifuna song forms. Garufina Soul, Martínez's solo debut album, captured the attention of AfroPop Worldwide, which named him newcomer of the year.

May 18: Tradition and innovation are celebrated as the Bay Area meets Algeria. Idris Ackamoor is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, actor, tap dancer, director, and producer. His Ensemble, is one of the Bay Area's most exciting and respected aggregations featuring some of the Bay Area’smost respected musicians. Singer, songwriter and guitarist Hassen Zermani, who records under the name Takfarinas, comes from the Kabyle tradition in Algerian music. Takfarinas is the world’s chief proponent of Yal music, which is his interpretation of the more widely recognized Rai genre.

May 19: Three great musical talents come together to celebrate the immensely rich cross-fertilization between African and Latin musical traditions. Pepe Vasquez is the leading singer and composer in Peru today, mixing traditional Afro-Peruvian folk forms with Afro-Carribean salsa on his way to huge commercial and critical success. San Francisco born percussionist and composer John Santos is a member of the Latin Jazz Advisory Committee at the Smithsonian Institute and has recorded with such luminaries as Santana, Omar Sosa and McCoy Tyner. Dancers and musicians from the Bay Area’s Grupo Rompe y Raja are dedicated to preserving and promoting Afro-Peruvian traditions and culture from the coastal region of Peru where the music European, African and indigenous peoples intersect.

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
701 Mission Street, San Francisco
Wednesday, Thursday, Friday
May 17, 18 & 19: 8pm
$25;
Box-Office by TIX Central at (415) 439-2456 or online at www.sfiaf.org

Official Website: http://www.sfiaf.org