A rtist: Christopher Hedge Title: The New Heroes Label: Triloka Records The rim of a car wheel hangs from a tree in Children’s Town in Zambia where it is rung like a school bell every day. Something pops in a fire during a ceremony of the original firewalkers on Beqa Island. A boy, just freed from slavery in India, says his name proudly. These are some of the sounds on The New Heroes, a recording by Christopher Hedge inspired by a four-part PBS documentary with the same name. The series, hosted by Robert Redford, airs June 28 and July 5, 2005. Triloka Records will release the CD on June 14, 2005.   The four-hour TV series travels the globe to explore the ideas and impact of “social entrepreneurs” who measure their bottom line in lives. In India, Kailash Satyarthi rescues brutally enslaved children in daring raids and promotes a radical vision to end forced child labor. In Kenya, Martin Fisher and Nick Moon introduced a low-cost, manual water pump that doubles the yield of a small farm. In Bangladesh, Muhammad Yunus founded a bank that has loaned billions of dollars to millions of poor families, all without any collateral. In Egypt, Dina Abdel Wahab has broken through cultural taboos to create quality schools for children with disabilities. Hedge was charged with creating the series soundtrack, but knew from the start, he wanted the CD to stand as a recording in its own right.   Most people would think it is backwards to put microphones in your ears, but that is just what Christopher Hedge does. He travels around the world wearing special binaural microphones to record moments in time so they sound just the way he is hearing them. This emphasis on listening is exactly why New Heroes producers Michael Malone and Robert Grove didn’t consider anyone else to compose the soundtrack.   “As musicians, we learn to play notes and instruments to express ourselves,” explains Hedge. “But I feel that experiences, moments in time, are powerful instruments in themselves.  Instruments that could never be created out of wood and strings.”   Hedge’s approach to creating the soundtrack to The New Heroes—and any music that he crafts—is a challenge to capture on paper. The series producers outlined the stories and characters that would be revealed in the documentary, and Hedge sketched out some compositions that he sent to each of the directors as they went into the field to shoot their segment of the series, just to give them of an idea of what he was looking for. He asked the directors to keep their ears and mics open for audio snapshots that represented the experiences and moments they were capturing on video.   “People call them samples,” says Hedge. “People started discovering audio sampling and thought it was convenient and cool sounding. But that does not have much to do with what the sounds actually are, where they come from, what they mean. Like the boy calling his name on ”The Voices”. The sound of that boy yelling is the sound of a human being claiming his independence for the first time after a life of bondage. That is one hundred percent real, whether you know the story or not.”   But Hedge and the other musicians do know the stories. Hedge brought in musicians like flutist Paul Horn who has traveled the world and recorded in such profound locations as the Taj Mahal and the Great Pyramids of Egypt; Titos Sompa, a percussionist and kalimba (thumb piano) player from the Congo (Brazzaville); violinist Julian Smedley, Hedge’s musical collaborator for many years; Alam Khan, sarod player and son of Ali Akbar Khan; and tabla-player Debopriyo Sarkar, from Kolkata who has been performing classical Indian music around the world. The first thing he had the musicians do was watch segments of the series. And throughout the recording of the soundtrack, they watched the video, interacting with the story line, while they improvised and interpreted the feelings and moments on their instruments.   “In ‘Sompop,’ there’s a little girl talking; it sounds like she’s crying. The girl is explaining that her parents sold her and she doesn’t know where they are. She says she doesn’t mean to cry all the time, but the tears just keep falling. Another young girl is standing among four or five border guards in Thailand. When Julian plays his violin, he’s watching this girl, probably about 11 years old, standing there in her school uniform. Her eyes are darting back and forth. And Julian plays this very innocent line, over this piece with a dark underlying feeling. It perfectly expresses this portrait of fear and innocence.”   At the same time, Hedge drew upon two decades of his recordings from his studio and around the world. “What’s really important to me is that these sounds and performances mean something, something happened at that moment, it doesn’t matter where or when,” says Hedge. “If I were composing traditionally, I would try to ‘make’ emotions with a structure of notes and instruments. That’s valid, but, I’ve become more interested in the music I can’t imagine, moments that I don’t control. A few years ago Titos and I were playing kalimba at my home, and that just felt like a part of the same thing as these kids walking with their teacher (from ‘Children’s Town’ in Zambia). If Paul played a particular phrase on his flute when we were in Nepal, I can go and find it. There is some kind of logging process that goes on in my head. These times happened, they’re still happening. All those things we said, that we believed. All those moments are never wasted.”   While the documentary’s soundtrack is intertwined with the film’s story line, the CD stands on its own with a separate tempo and order from the film. When you hear the sarod on “India Suite,” it references the urgent despair of the world with a tinge of hopefulness. The kalimba, rooster calls, and classroom recordings on “A Common Song – Children’s Town” put you in mind of the plight of children, without needing to know the story line.   Listening to the real message. Finding connections. New Heroes, the CD, is the perfect musical representation to New Heroes, the documentary. Discovering new meaning about ourselves in light of other’s profound experiences.   "It's not about us,” concludes Hedge. “These notes, this music, these sounds, they're not about me or Paul or Titos or any of the musicians or PBS or Robert Redford. If you knew anything about Mimi Silbert at Delancey Street, Kailash Satyarthi, David Green, Muhammed Yunus, any of them, we're just a speck, the smallest part. They are the giants... and each of them would tell you that they are nothing compared to the people they see every day. If you get just a hint of who they are and what they're doing, it will change your life. These are the New Heroes, the real Heroes."       The New Heroes:   Kailash Satyarthi –Global March Against Child Labor Moses Zulu – Zambia Children’s Town Mimi Silbert – The Delancey Street Foundation Dr. Govindappa Venkataswamy – Aravind Eye Hospitals David Green – Aurolab Martin Fisher and Nick Moon – ApproTEC Fabio Rosa – Institute for Development of Natural Energy and Sustainability Muhammad Yunus – The Grameen Bank Maria Tete Leal – Coopa-Roca Albina Ruiz Rios – Alternativa Inderjit Khurana – Ruchika Social Service Organization Dina Abdel Wahab – The Baby Academy Sompop Chantraka – Daughters Education Program     “These are the people that wrote this music. They never take credit for themselves, they don't have time and it's not the point. They are why we are sending proceeds to their foundations. This is why we want everyone to hear it and see the series.” – Christopher Hedge Back to top

Artist: Eva Ayllón Title: Eva! Leyenda Peruana Label: Times Square Records For thirty years Afro-Peruvian singer Eva Ayllón has been selling out theaters not only at home in Peru—where she can fill a stadium of 30,000—but here in North America as well. For the non-Peruvian audience, this may have gone unnoticed until now. With her first-ever USA-produced release, Eva! Leyenda Peruana, on September 7, 2004, Times Square Records brings this legendary voice to new fans in time for her extensive North American tour in September and October. Concertgoers in Chicago, Montreal, Toronto, Dallas, San Francisco, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Boston, New York and several other towns will hear what the compatriots of “the Queen of Landó” have known all along. As Ayllón announced at a Los Angeles performance last year, “I’m not going to stop what I’m doing until every American has heard these songs.” Ayllón focuses on the elegant and lively genres of the coastal plains of Lima in particular. She is known for singing the landó, the festejo, and the vals; all mestizo blends of Peru’s indigenous, African, and Spanish musical heritage. The guitar recalls flamenco idioms one moment and alludes to Andean mountain music the next. The cajón—a wooden percussion box thought to be derived from an agricultural crate—translates African rhythms to Latin America. Call-and-response, complex syncopation, and polyrhythms combine with sweet, melancholic melodies to create a sound unique to Peru’s diverse ancestry. Africans came to Peru as slaves in the 1500s. Peru’s population is so diverse that poet Ricardo Palma wrote, “If you are not Inca, you are Mandinga,” implying that all Peruvians have indigenous or African blood, or both. In the 1950s and ’60s, a revival took place bringing back the African-influenced styles of music and dance. While it is not known which interpretations are authentic or reconstructions, Afro-Peruvian music as a whole has been embraced by all Peruvians and is a source of great pride. The new CD Eva! Leyenda Peruana opens with “Negra Presuntuosa” (“Presumptuous Black Woman”) and, along with the recording’s other landós, shows how even though this rhythm is a slower tempo, it is as compelling as any other Caribbean beat. The pulse picks up with festejos such as “Ingá”—composed by Nicomedes SantaCruz, the man who launched the renaissance of Black Peruvian music and dance four decades ago—and “Jolgorio de Eva,” whose verses tell of life under slavery. The disc is rounded out with a variety of genres including bolero, tondero, salsa, and vals. The latter style is derived from the Viennese waltz, but in the Peruvian version are romantic poetic torch songs adorned by shimmering Spanish guitar riffs. Ayllón’s impeccable delivery and engagement with her audiences has secured a lifetime of theaters packed with Peruvians around the world. With the new CD and Fall tour, a wider circle of American fans will discover this once-hidden treasure of Black Peru. Back to top

Artist: Various Title: Italian Café Label: Putumayo After the chaos and destruction of World War II and its accompanying military music, the Italian public was ready for a more relaxed sound. Jazz, swing and boogie-woogie were achieving worldwide popularity and, in Italy, merged with the Italian crooner tradition. The musical rebirth of the 1950s and ’60s was like a second liberation. What’s old is new and Putumayo’s July 5, 2005 release Italian Café captures the music and attitude from that era and from current singers whose musical DNA follows that lineage. The CD follows Putumayo’s successful French Café collection. Many of the artists on Italian Café packed the nightclubs of the era and gained popularity through Italy’s newly inaugurated TV channels and burgeoning film industry. The image of the lovable hoodlum came to life in Fred Buscaglione. While most foreign music was banned under the Italian fascist regime, Buscaglione wound up in a U.S. internment camp, where he was able to get a jumpstart in trying out the styles emerging from America. True to his fast-living ways, he died at 40 crashing his pink Thunderbird into an oncoming truck early one morning in 1960. Quartetto Cetra emerged in the late ’40s, when they provided the overdubs for the Italian versions of the movies Dumbo and Wizard of Oz. The following decade found Renato Carosone blending Neapolitan folk music with American jazz and boogie-woogie to create a signature style that made him a household name in Italy and a chart-topping crooner in the U.S. Nicola Arigliano, now in his 80s, is the only 1950s-era artist on Italian Café performing to this day. Born in 1923 in a small village in southern Italy, Arigliano ran away from home when he was just 11 years old to play music in the nightclubs of Milan. After experiencing great commercial success, Arigliano disappeared from the concert stage for 30 years. In the past decade he re-emerged with four new albums and a critic’s award at the glitzy San Remo Festival. Two songs on the CD come from Giorgio Conte, who is not as well known as his brother, Paolo. As both songs demonstrate, however, the older brother has a jovial spirit that shines through in his lyrics. “Gne Gne” pokes fun at a very famous movie star lover of his who never says anything of meaning, only petty gossip and “gne gne.” “Cannelloni” teases another lover who is always on a diet and never can enjoy the pleasures of pasta.” Gianmaria Testa is more famous abroad than he is at home in Italy, where he works as a train station manager. Testa performed his subtle and introspective songs for a local following near his native village of Cueno, not far from the French border, until a French producer helped him produce a critically acclaimed album in 1995. You can hear his trademark gruff, whispering voice on two songs on Italian Café; one about the superficiality of fame and one which compares the flight of hot-air balloons to human relationships. The CD is rounded out by modern artists who are not retro in sound, but who cannot deny some heritage from their predecessors. Vinicio Capossela is like a Tom Waits of Italy, reminiscent of some unnamable era and with no hesitation in throwing in the sounds of toy pianos and chain saws. Newcomer Maria Pierantonia Giua makes her CD debut on this album. Meanwhile, Daniele Silvestri’s “Le Cose in Comune” (The Things We Have in Common) won Italy’s equivalent of the Grammy, as best song of the year. Over a jazzy bossa beat that echoes popular Italian music of days gone by, Silvestri sings of all of the 4,280 things he and his lover have in common.  Austrian band Quadro Nuevo perfected their instrumental versions of popular Italian songs of the ’50s and ’60s by performing on the streets of cities across Italy. The instrumental they present here—Renato Carosone’s classic song “Tu Vuo’ Fa’ L’americano” (You Want to Play the American)—was one of Italy’s first world wide hits. The collection features instructions to make a coffee drink by Italian coffee company Illy and extensive liner notes in English, Italian, Spanish and French. A portion of the proceeds from this album will be donated to Terres des Hommes, a Swiss based non-profit, dedicated to improving the lives of children around the world. Back to top   This website: Copyright © 2005 Dream World Media, LLC. / Urban Mozaik Magazine. All rights reserved. This website/publication, in whole or in part, may not be reproduced without written permission from the publisher or the previous publisher of original republished materials.