World Music Foundation Podcast

Many articles, films, and interviews have been made about Illmind’s extraordinary career producing many albums for several of the top names in Hip-Hop today. This isn’t one of those interviews. In this week’s episode, John digs deep into the early experiences and upbringing that shaped Ramon Ibanga Jr - AKA !llmind - as a musician and planted the seeds of what has become a life’s quest towards community building. After years of social innovation within the Producer Community, we catch up with this 2x GRAMMY Award winning artist just days before he speaks at Gary Vaynerchuck’s VeeCon and just a couple months after the launch of his landmark NFT project: Squad of Knights. 

MUSICAL MENTIONS

Juno award-winning, Eritrian krar player, Daniel Nebiat joins John to talk about his journey playing the krar. From growing up in the midst of a war for independence to working with African legends, Daniel Nebiat shares the ways he had to persevere, adapt, and innovate to continue pursuing his passion for music. Currently based in Toronto, he is a founding member of the Okavango African Orchestra, where he and African musicians from six other countries create original music for traditional instruments that have historically had little or no interaction. Whether he’s talking about krar, family, or food, “Toronto’s Krar Star” does not disappoint! MUSICAL MENTIONS: 00:04 The World Music Foundation 00:08 John Gardner 00:15 Krar 00:17 JUNO Award 00:18 Okavango African Orchestra 00:20 Daniel Nebiat 2:24 China 2:25 India 2:26 Femi Kuti 2:27 Nigeria 2:28 Côte D’Ivoire 2:29 United States 3:16 Eritrea 3:17 East Africa 4:32 ACDC 4:33 Guns n’ Roses 4:35 Jimi Hendrix 4:52 Country 4:53 Donald Williams 4:54 Kenneth Rogers 4:55 Dolly Parton 5:07 Blues 5:09 Muddy Waters 5:10 B.B. King 6:14 Poland 6:15 Italy 6:19 Jamaica 6:40 Guitar 7:39 Highway to Hell 9:30 Ethiopian New Year 9:33 Hoyena hoye 12:54 Piano 16:50 Halloween 17:36 Asmara 20:17 Addis Ababa 21:15 Kenya 21:28 Habtom 21:46 Eritrea Independence Day 24:48 Canada 25:02 Pearson International Airport 25:18 Texas 25:19 Chicago 25:21 Cafe 27:32 Tewelde Reda 29:02 Tewelde Reda-Memona 29:30 Tigrinya 29:36 Amsterdam 29:48 The Ex 29:53 Tsehaytu Beraki 30:52 Guayla 31:03 Senegal 31:22 Morocco 32:46 Harp 34:46 Pentatonic Scale 35:52 Seven-string bass 49:40 Mussie Zekarias 49:50 Isaak Okbay 41:12 Kora 44:20 Madagascar 45:21 Afrofest 46:12 Musica 52:46 Mèla Testègn 59:38 Italy 1:00:02 Seun Kuti 1:00:06 Seun Kuti & Egypt 80-Rise 1:03:38 Bruce Springsteen  1:03:40 Bruce Springsteen-Born To Run 1:04:49 Daniel Nebiat-Harvata

In this week’s episode John meets with American rapper and prolific creator, Che “Rhymefest” Smith to discuss Hip-Hop, his upcoming album, and Hollywood acting debut, along with topics ranging from Chicago’s youth, spirituality, various life changing trips around the world, and much more. Rhymefest's upcoming album is titled Love Lessons Part 1, and as you'll hear in this conversation, Love is a topic at front of mind right now for Che. This episode also includes the world-premier of an amazing track from the upcoming album, featuring Black Thought (aka Tariq Trotter of The Roots) & Raheem DeVaughn. Rhymefest has won multiple Grammys, a Golden Globe, and an Academy Award, but as he says: that stuff you can just Google; in this conversation he goes much deeper. MUSICAL MENTIONS: 00:12 John Gardner 00:22 Che “Rhymefest” Smith 00:33 World Music Foundation 03:17 Black Thought 03:18 Raheem DeVaughn 04:25 Australia 04:26 New Zealand 04:27 Singapore 04:28 Hong Kong 06:03 Baobab Tree 06:06 Africa 06:07 East Africa 06:08 Madagascar 06:13 Griot 06:19 Taiwan 06:21 Alishan Forest 08:09 Ghana 08:18 American Slavery 09:15 Igbo 09:16 Kikuyu 09:17 Mandingo 09:18 Maa’sai 11:01 In My Father’s House 13:57 Art of Culture 15:55 Drum 15:56 Poetry 15:58 Singing 16:18 Coca Leaves 16:53 Musician 15:54 Instrument 16:55 Prince 16:56 Kanye West 22:43 A&R 26:04 Hollywood 26:11The Public 29:06 Hip-Hop 29:10 Rock 33:33 Floyd Mayweather 33:50 Muhammed Ali 33:52 Mike Tyson 34:08 Bruce Lee 35:47 Peru 36:07 Champa 37:38 Amazonian Jungle 39:37 Japan 40:47 79th street 40:51 Mexian Pyramids 42:43 Atlanta 42:50 Pete Buttigieg 44:03 Stony Island 44:19 The Dan Ryan 51:20 Indian Classical Music 51:21 Afrobeat 51:22 Blues 51:50 Iran 51:52 19th Century Hafez 52:04 Jamaica 52:21 Jay Z 52:25 Verse 52:33 Mauritania 52:59 Colombia 53:00 Palenque village 54:58 Wolof 55:05 Croatia 55:08 Yugoslavian war 55:18 Kosovo 56:35 Wu Tang Clan 56:41 Mobb Deep 59:11 Jazzy Jeff 59:17 Ghana 59:29 Eritrea 59:30 Ethiopia 59:31 Uganda 59:32 Tanzania 59:33 Rwanda

Wu Fei describes herself as an ancient soul trapped in a feisty woman's body. Hailing from Beijing, China, Wu Fei is a multi-talented musician and composer known for playing and improvising on the traditional Chinese guzheng as well as improvisational singing and piano. Fei talks to John about her life as a child prodigy, transitioning from China to the U.S., how both countries have influenced her and her music, and what it was like to hear American music for the first time in her teenage years. She also discusses her critically acclaimed original work "Hello Gold Mountain."

MUSICAL MENTIONS

0:09 World Music Foundation 0:11 John Gardner 0:16 Wu Fei 0:18 Guzheng 0:25 Tone 1:43 Pitch 1:44 Rhythm 4:06 Sanxian 4:08 Fret 4:09 Banjo 4:52 Music Theory 4:55 China Conservatory of Music 5:13 Piano 5:18 Western Classical Music 6:10 Chinese Music 10:44 African Dance 10:46 Indian Dance 13:07 Michael Jackson 13:08 Madonna 13:10 Jazz 13:12 Kitaro 13:13 Taiko Drum 13:14 Koto 13:28 American Music 15:38 John Cage 15:50 Compose 17:20 String Quartet 17:35 Shostakovich 17:36 Brahmes 17:38 Jimmi Hendrix 18:58 Northern Texas Music College 24:46 West-African Drumming and Dance Ensemble 24:48 Northern Indian Raga 24:52 Percussion 24:52 Marching Band 25:53 Mills College 26:02 Improvisation 27:58 Hello Golden Mountain 28:49 Ravi Shankar 30:13 Soloist 32:02 Indian Music 36:56 Chatterbird 38:50 Celine Thackston 39:48 National Symphony 41:36 Oud 41:36 Shanir Blumenkranz 42:25 Mei-Ann-Chen 44:16 Harp 44:25 Keyboard 44:49 Vibrato 48:11 Bach 48:12 Ravel 48:51 Abigail Washburne 49:13 Smithsonian Folkways Recordings

This week's episode takes us to Nashville, TN, USA where John visits Weirdo Workshop, the music label and creative headquarters for our guests, Louis York, to speak with them about their new album and everything that's brought them to this point in their careers. Louis York is the powerful duo and creation of multi-GRAMMY nominated songwriting and production team, Claude Kelly and Chuck Harmony. Kelly, a 4x Grammy Award nominee, and Harmony, a 3x Grammy Award nominee and 2011 NAACP Image Award winner, both together and apart have written and produced hits for a long list of multi-platinum recording artists including Rihanna, Bruno Mars, Miley Cyrus, and Whitney Houston to name a few. Their debut album is titled American Griots and it's a sonic adventure that's deserving of their incredible backstory.

Self-proclaimed "crazy, romantic musician", Roberto Fonseca, speaks with John about his recently released 9th solo album, Yesun, along with the life experiences and musical training that have brought him to this point in his musical journey. Roberto is a GRAMMY nominated, Cuban pianist, multi-instrumentalist, composer, producer and bandleader, and on this album he experiments with a wide range of musical forms, from jazz and classical music to rap, funk, reggaeton and electronic music. Roberto also talks about his tenure with the Buena Vista Social Club and how traveling the world with these masters of traditional Cuban music forever changed his approach to music making.

As a renowned Afrobeat and Jazz musician with four GRAMMY nominations, Femi Kuti is well-respected around the world for opening minds through the power of his music. John spoke with Femi from the Shrine in Lagos, Nigeria, where he shared the details of his musical upbringing and the importance of different music cultures. He also gets into his life-changing transition from the Saxophone to the Trumpet and the effect this has had on his music and his thoughts. Femi is the son of Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti, and is considered a torch-bearer to his father’s legacy, but in this interview Femi explains why he believes that his mother, Remilekun Taylor, is actually 90% responsible for who he is.

MUSICAL MENTIONS:

0:08 World Music Foundation Podcast 0:11 John Gardner 0:14 Afrobeat 00:15 Femi Kuti 0:31 The World Music Foundation 0:52 Africa 1:23 Fela Kuti 2:20 New Afrika Shrine 2:23 Lagos, Nigeria 2:47 GRAMMY Awards 4:27 Highlife African Traditional Music 4:28 African Culture and Dance 4:32 Jazz 5:00 Afrobeats 8:08 The Beatles 8:35 Highlife 10:05 Nigeria 11:07 America 11:10 Tokyo, Japan 11:12 Australia 11:50 One People One World 12:17 Remilekun Taylor 12:39 Stardom 16:00 Music School 16:08 England 16:10 Ghana 16:38 Saxophone 19:03 Charlie Parker 19:26 James Moody 19:40 Music Shop 19:45 Mood for Love 19:49 Guitarist 19:53 George Benson 20:45 Dexterity 20:46 Improvisation 20:54 Dizzy Gillespie 20:55 John Coltrane 20:56 Art Tatum 22:52 Trumpet 22:58 Soprano Sax 23:01 C Major 23:21 Fight to Win 36:08 Cuba 36:11 Pianist 36:12 Composer 36:14 Band Leader 36:15 Roberto Fonseca 36:16 Yesun 36:49 Clave 37:22 Chocolate City Group

John travels down to Coldwater, MS for the 69th Annual Goat Picnic in honor of fife & drum legend, Otha Turner. What started off as something else, ends up being a a good handful of great conversations with musicians (and even some audience members) about the Hill Country Music of Northern Mississippi, USA.

R.L. Boyce, Earl “Little Joe” Ayers, Dom Turner, and Ricky Stevens are all featured.

0:05 World Music Foundation Podcast 0:08 John Gardner 0:14 Fife & Drum Music 0:19 Otha Turner 0:39 Coldwater, MS 0:41 Sharde Thomas 1:35 Hill Country Music 1:45 Little Joe 1:47 Guitar 1:54 Blues 4:09 Fife 4:09 Drum 4:23 Mark Massey 4:24 Muleman 4:36 Blues Hall of Fame 5:09 Blues Foundation 5:30 International Blues Challenge 6:11 Roosevelt Staples 6:13 Willie Brown 8:44 Junior Kimbrough 8:44 R.L Burnside 8:45 R.L Boyce 9:56 Northern Mississippi Blues 10:08 Cedric Burnside 10:09 North Mississippi Allstars 10:10 Luther and Cody Dickenson 10:15 Sharde Thomas 10:30 Fife and Drum Music 10:36 Othar Turner 11:00 African Music 11:12 Chord Progression 11:17 Homemade Flute 11:23 Rhythm 11:28 Solo 11:30 Vocals 12:07 Napoleon Strickland 12:20 Library of Congress Collection 13:16 Jr. Kimbrough 13:55 Ace Cannon 14:02 John Lee Hooker 14:02 Muddy Waters 14:03 Howlin’ Wolf 14:11 Guitar 14:30 Note 14:54 Piano 15:44 Hill Country Music 16:42 Trenton Ayers 19:20 R.L. Boyce 19:21 Como, MS 19:42 Mississippi Hill Country 20:06 Backsliders 20:33 harmonica 20:36 Phil Wiggins 20:46 Sacred Steel tradition 20:54 Turner Brown Band 21:14 Mississippi Fred McDowell 23:18 Otha Turner 23:29 Napoleon Strickland 23:31 Ed and Lonnie Young 23:40 Sid Hemphill 24:22 Instrument 24:30 Othar Turner 24:40 Band 24:50 Lead guitar 25:35 Bobby Rush 25:36 Little Milton 26:40 Howlin’ Wolf 27:15 Luther Dickinson 27:35 Jessie Mae 27:36 Drummer 27:50 Leo Bud Welch 27:50 Bilbo Walker 28:01 Big Jack Johnson 28:58 Blues 30:00 Femi Kuti 30:01 Afrobeat 30:03 Lagos, Nigeria

Praised for her dynamic, passionate conducting style, Taiwanese-American conductor Mei-Ann Chen is acclaimed for infusing orchestras with energy, enthusiasm and high-level music-making, galvanizing audiences and communities alike. In our conversation we follow her musical evolution from shy violin player in her birth country, Taiwan, to dynamic, trailblazing, internationally sought-after conductor. Mei-Ann also shares the inspirational interaction with Martin Luther King that inspired the creation of the MacArthur Award-winning, Chicago Sinfonietta, the nations most diverse orchestra, of which she is the principle conductor and music director.

Here's a link to every Musical Mention in this episode:

0:19 Mei-Ann Chen 0:29 The World Music Foundation 1:33 Western Classical 1:34 Conducting 3:17 Violin 3:18 Piano 3:58 Melody 4:00 Thais Meditation: by Jules Massenet 4:25 Orchestra 5:39 Helen Quach (Guō Mei Jen) 7:07 Solfege 7:10 Note Sight Reading 8:21 National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra 9:56 Yo-Yo-Ma 11:08 Mozart 11:09 Brahmes 11:10 Beethoven 11:10 Tchaikovski 12:23 Taiwanese Folk 13:19 Minga 校園民歌 16:27 Pentatonic Scale 17:34 Impressionists 17:46 Claude Debussy 17:47 La Mer 18:02 Joseph Maurice Ravel 18:03 Mother Goose Suite 18:15 Giacomo Puccini 18:29 Mo Li Hua: The Jasmine Flower 18:33 Turandot 21:59 Vibrato 25:46 Antonin Dvorak 25:47 Symphony No. 9 in E minor (New World Symphony) 25:47 Carnegie Hall 26:15 Jazz 26:17 African Music 27:03 American Youth Orchestra 27:13 Benjamin Zander 27:44 Henryk Wieniawski 28:43 Music Score 28:44 Gustav Mahler 28:44 Mahler’s Symphony #5 29:19 Transposition 29:28 Soundcheck 29:40 Stand Partner 31:46 Notes 32:17 Music Teacher 32:28 Conductor 32:44 Assistant Conductor 32:49 Music Director 32:54 Guest Conductor 33:18 Memphis Symphony 33:28 Chicago Sinfonietta 33:41 Symphonic 34:35 Project W 34:55 Cidille Records 35:39 Project 19 36:34 Diwali Festival 37:04 Maestro Paul Freeman 37:55 Project Inclusion Freeman Fellowships 38:37 Andrew W. Mellon Foundation 43:23 Concertino For Cell Phone And Orchestra 44:17 Conservatories 46:19 Pops 47:08 Beethoven’s “5th” 47:28 Felix Mendelssohn 47:28 The Hebrides Overture (aka Fingal’s Cave)” 50:51 Modest Mussorgsky 51:07 Jennifer Koh 51:13 Courtney Bryan 51:38 Maurice Ravel 53:29 Jennifer Higdon 53:34 Reena Esmail 53:34 Florence Price 54:04 Dora Pejacevic 58:19 Carmen 1:00:01 New York Philharmonic 1:02:19 Chicago Symphony 1:02:24 Florence Price 1:03:05  Yo-Yo Ma 1:03:08 Sheherazade 1:03:42 Harp Glissando 1:03:49 Eighth note 1:03:56 Principle harp 1:05:00 Berlin Philharmonic 1:05:04 Claudio Abbado 1:06:19 Intonation 1:06:38 Flat 1:06:54 Octave 1:06:56 Bassoon 1:06:58 Oboe 1:08:12 Maestro 1:09:09 Portland Youth Orchestra 1:09:35 Rite of spring 1:09:56 Beat 1:11:39 Percussion 1:11:40 Brass 1:12:54 Transition 1:12:55 Balance 1:13:08 Ensemble 1:16:40 Chicago Sinfonietta