New York City: Global Beat of the Boroughs: Music From New York City's Ethnic Neighborhoods

Disc 1
1	Fiesta de Plena / Viento de Agua Puerto Rican Plena-Jazz 3:45
2	Campo / Los Pleneros de La 21 Puerto Rican Traditional Bomba 5:00
3	Los Vecinos Oyen / Luis Días Dominican Bachata Rock Song 4:10
4	Caña Brava / Los Cinco Diablos Dominican Merengue Típico 4:45
5	Kangë Majekrahi / Besim Muriqi Albanian Rural Folk Song 0:57
6	Shota / Besim Muriqi Live / Albanian Dance Song from Kosova 2:21
7	Doli Goca N' Penxhere / Faif Hyseni Orchestra 2:30
8	Xing Jie / Music From China Traditional Cantonese Wedding Processional Music 6:15
9	Nachay Nandalala / Sampat Dino Boodram Indo-Caribbean Chauti-Style Tan Sangeet Song 3:50
10	Sanjo Kayageum / Korean Traditional Performing Arts Association Korean Classical Composition 5:11
11	Fakoli / Super Manden Traditional Bambara Jaliya Song 6:05
12	Yesá / Puntilla Orlando Rios Afro-Cuban Santería Ritual Song 2:29
13	Oquendo y Libre / Manny Oquendo Puerto Rican Salsa 4:02
14	My Time (Excerpt) / CASYM Steel Orchestra 3:39
15	Everything Will Be Alright / The Grace Tabernacle Choir African-American Gospel 4:11
Disc 2
1	Cocek Manhattan / Yunakov, Yuri Ensemble Bulgarian-Gypsy Wedding Music 3:30
2	Milino Kolo / Sau Family Orchestra Banat Romanian-Gypsy Medley 3:55
3	Crowley's/Jackson's / Eileen Ivers Medley of Irish Fiddle Tunes With Jazz-Rock Fusio 3:22
4	The Galloping Hound/McGreavy's/Cat's Meow/Fraher's / Cherish the Ladies Medley of Irish Fiddle 4:45
5	Miroloi (Exerpt) / Halkias Family Orchestra 3:32
6	Kokkino Gramma / Grigoris Maninakis Greek Modern Rebetika Song 4:22
7	A Freylekhn Purim / Andy Statman Hasidic Jewish Holiday Dance Melody 4:15
8	Khsidim Tanz / The Klezmatics Klezmer Dance Music 4:17
9	Rara Processional /Kongo / La Troupe Makandal Haitian Rara Processional/Kongo / Excerpt 5:47
10	Sa Li Fe Pou Mwen / Dickson Guillaume & the New York State Haitian Interdenominational Mass Choir Haitian Gospel / Excerpt 3:58
11	Charanga Completa / Macondos Live / Colombian Vallenato 5:40
12	Olive Harvest / Qantara Live / Contemporary Arab Composition 4:08
13	Segah Siute: Chrouky/Abou Zelof/Muwashshah [ / Natasha Hassam Youssef Traditional Lebanese Song 6:05
14	Improvisation on Mugam Chargah and "Gubayenim" / Ensemble Tereza Mountain Jewish Music 4:04
15	Haida-Haida / Cheresque Medley of Ukrainian Dance Tunes 2:13
16	O Giglio E Paradiso / Phil Valli Orchestra Italian Neapolitan Feast Song 3:43

Barnes & Noble

There's no single city in the world like New York, because no other city has so many worlds within it. The Big Apple in all its kaleidoscopic variety is yours for the tasting on this fascinating collection of music from dozens of different ethnic groups who've made New York home. An information-crammed 40-page booklet is your guide, detailing the performers, their cultures, and their neighborhoods, but all that's really needed are open ears. Beginning with the Latin sounds of New York, circa 2001 -- Puerto Rican plena and bomba from estimable locals Viento de Agua and Los Pleneros de la 21 -- the collection leaves virtually no region of the world untouched. Albanian folk tunes, Korean classical music, Indo-Caribbean drum jams, salsa, calypso, Irish reels, klezmer, Ukrainian dances, and contemporary Arabic music make for a engaging parade of sounds. The recordings are uniformly excellent and feature some of the top artists in their fields: Hassidic jazz visionary Andy Statman, Palestinian oud star Simon Shaheen, Irish fiddlers Cherish the Ladies, and timbales legend Manny Oquendo are just some of the international stars who just happen to call New York home. Like any real New Yorker, you'll have your own favorites, but some outstanding cuts include Dickson Guillaume's Haitian gospel choir, straight out of East Flatbush and praising Jesus in Kreyol; Yuri Yunakov's dizzying "Cocek Manhattan" celebrating Balkans-style in 9/8 time; and the Neopolitan song "O Giglio e Paradiso," which commemorates a Williamsburg, Brooklyn, festival involving a two-ton aluminum tower, a statue of Saint Paulinus, 125 Italian guys, and pile of brass bands. All in all, this collection is a must for any New York-ophile. Mark Schwartz

All Music Guide

This double-CD collection (for the price of a single disc) is a wonder of modern music from around the globe, all centered -- deeply -- in the international communities residing in New York City's boroughs from Brooklyn and Queens to Manhattan, Staten Island and the Bronx. The Smithsonian Folkways project has assembled, from the heart of the ethnic communities themselves, a transnational montage of such beauty, power, and passion, it is almost impossible to take both CDs in at one listen. While some of the performers here are well known, such as Manny Oquendo's y Libre and Simon Shaheen, Eileen Ivers, the Klezmatics, Cherish the Ladies, and Andy Statman (all of whom have deep roots in the communities as cultural workers), the rest are virtually unknown outside their neighborhoods. There is the deep Columbian charanga blues of Los Macondos juxtaposed with the Jewish mountain music of El Tereza; the listener will find the radical swinging gospel of Rev. Timothy White and the Grace Tabernacle Choir near the traditional Puerto Rican bomba preached by the "Singing Newspaper" Los Pleneros de la 21. And while diversity in an of itself is no guarantee of quality in a series of proceedings like these, the production care and attention to detail in the sequencing -- let alone the phenomenal liner notes -- create a world that is united not only in song, but in the proximity of their region, as separate cultures thriving and succeeding in carrying on as traditional cultures in a single territory. And as the traditions take on new shades of meaning and expression from their new homeland -- Dominican singer Luis Dias' "Los Vecinos Oyen," which carries its traditional melody into the den of rock & roll dynamics and viscera, or Yuri Yukanov's melding of free jazz with Bulgarian and Ukranian wedding music -- a transcultural extension of music itself occurs. There are 31 selections here, from many nations, from Greece to Russia, to Latin America, the Middle East, and Southern Africa. All of them reflect the determination of preserving their heritages in a foreign land, while widening this new terrain with those traditions, cultural mannerisms, and artifacts, in this case the wealth and breadth of music. This was the finest collection of world music to come out on any American label in five years. That all of these musicians were residing in the city of New York makes it the most important cultural document since Harry Smith's original Anthology of American Folk Music. Thom Jurek