News & Updates — Interviews

(Photo, Paul Teeling) Well here's a wonderful treat! Peace & Rhythm and Klezperanto team up to bring you the official world premiere of the brand new Klezperanto video for "Arroz Con Coco", a tribute to the great Lucho Bermúdez of Colombia. Clarinetist Ilene Stahl is a veteran of the Klezmer Conservatory Band (often with violinist Itzhak Perlman) and she formed the Boston-based six-piece ensemble Klezperanto in 1999 to stretch into other styles of dance music. "We formed Klezperanto to play everything BUT traditional klezmer music!” she says. Indeed, the mix includes Balkan & Mediterranean styles, Eastern European, cumbia, danzas, ballads,...

Back when it was virtually banned by the government, Iván Fariñas took a stand to play the music he loved   In November 2014, Pablo ‘Bongohead’ Yglesias visited Cuba for the first time on a legal educational tour. The following month, in an unprecedented move, the United States eased some restrictions between the two countries after decades of frosty relations. Although the trip was for personal reasons, Yglesias – who has contributed music writing to the likes of Wax Poetics and co-manages the Peace & Rhythm record label – stumbled onto a story in the form of Ivan Fariñas, an...

Check out the latest on the Bongohead blog, a piece about Bay Area based electro-cumbia party man Roger Más. Check the link here.

Check out our exclusive interview with Ray Lugo (Kokolo/Boogaloo Assassins/etc). Lots of biographical info here! http://peaceandrhythm.blogspot.com/2014/09/peace-rhythms-interview-with-producer.html

Jim Thomson is an enthusiastic promoter of music, with a hand in booking, producing and distributing the wide variety of sounds he digs. A percussionist with several notable ensembles (discussed within), his Electric Cowbell label puts out (mostly) 7" records with seemingly no stylistic boundaries. Since 2009 the label has released "a marching band that thinks it's a rock band" (Mucca Pazza), a funk band with people from USA Is A Monster (CSC), an Ethiopian groove band (Debo), a progressive salsa band (Bio Ritmo), a collaborative 7" with ESP-Disk (Talibam!), a record by Greg Ginn...and that is just a tip...