Gagaku, Japan’s Centuries Old Music Tradition
Words by Maria Bakkalapulo (Twitter @mbakkalapulo) Original broadcast on The World (PRI/ BBC). Japanese Gagaku is believed to be the world’s oldest living orchestral tradition. This…
Zee Avi, Malaysia’s YouTube Star
Words by Maria Bakkalapulo (Twitter @mbakkalapulo) Original broadcast on The World (PRI/ BBC). Twenty six-year-old Malaysian native Zee Avi has had a meteoric rise. Avi says she struggled…
NAT GEO MUSIC – RWMF 2012
This July Nat Geo Music correspondent Maria Bakkalapulo joined 20,000 festival-goers in the Borneo jungle for for the 15th anniversary of Malaysia’s long-running Rainforest World Music…
Scottish Gaelic Punk Band Oi Polloi
Words by Maria Bakkalapulo (Twitter @mbakkalapulo) Original broadcast on The World (PRI/ BBC). Formed in 1981,Oi Polloi are championing a Scottish Gaelic punk movement. The Gaelic language was…
Iranian Vocalist Mamak Khadem Breaks Gender Rules with Music
Words by Maria Bakkalapulo (Twitter @mbakkalapulo) Original Broadcast on The World (PRI/ BBC). Iranian vocalist Mamak Khadem is breaking gender rules in Persian music, one of…
Japanese Pop-Punk Girl Group’s Tribute to The Ramones
Words by Maria Bakkalapulo (Twitter @mbakkalapulo) Original Broadcast on The World (PRI/ BBC). Japan’s pop-punk girl group, Shonen Knife, is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year…
Flying High in Bali
Words by Maria Bakkalapulo (Twitter @mbakkalapulo) Original broadcast on NPR’s Only A Game. In the Balinese summertime, when the easterly winds are blowing in from the…
INTERVIEW: Sierra Leone’s Bubu King, Janka Nabay
Janka Nabay, known as the Bubu King (Bubu is a traditional Muslim music from Sierra Leone played on pipes of various sorts by anywhere from 10-20…
TIME Magazine – Punk’s Last Refuge
Words by Maria Bakkalapulo – For the story published in TIME MAGAZINE, go to –CLICK HERE It’s after midnight in Jakarta and, below a highway overpass,…
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