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Youssou N'Dour
Youssou N’Dour’s journey began in 1959, in Dakar, Senegal. He ultimately evolved into one of the most gifted and beloved innovators of African music.
Style: Afropop
By Dan Rosenberg
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Vicente Fernandez
Though his shoe-polish mustache and UFO-sized sombrero may seem risible, Vicente Fernandez’s voice is no joke. It’s a near operatic instrument.
Style: Ranchera
By Mark Schwartz
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Tito Puente
For many, the late great timbalero, composer and bandleader Tito Puente was the public face of Latin music in America. Like Count Basie or Duke Ellington, he was more than a musician, he was a personality, a brand unto himself.
Style: Latin
By Eliseo Cardona
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Thomas Mapfumo
Thomas Mapfumo has not only combined music and politics throughout his career, he’s lived music and politics. He’s still Zimbabwe’s biggest-selling musician.
Style: Chimurenga
By Chris Nickson
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The Chieftains
The Chieftains are Paddy Moloney’s vision: music that moves the heart as much as the feet, music with integrity and passion, without boundary or limitation.
Style: Celtic
By Rob Huffman
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The Skatalites
It’s quite possible that no band that existed for a mere 18 months has had as much influence as the Skatalites. In some ways, the Skatalites are as much an idea as an entity, and certainly the instrumental high point of ska.
Style: Ska
By Chris Nickson
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Serge Gainsbourg
The legacy Serge Gainsbourg left has continued to grow. He put an iconoclastic, intellectual side into French music, spicing up a stew that was generally bland.
Style: French
By Chris Nickson
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Astor Piazzolla
Few artists are as intimately associated with Argentine tango as Astor Piazzolla. He did more than anyone to keep the tango alive and evolving as an artform in the later half of the twentieth century.
Style: Tango
By Tom Pryor
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Paco de Lucía
You can argue long and hard about the origins of the word flamenco. But the greatest contemporary figure in the music, and certainly the best-known internationally, is the virtuoso guitarist Paco de Lucía.
Style: Flamenco
By Chris Nickson
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R. Carlos Nakai
Like many of his peers, R. Carlos Nakai holds a deep respect for the venerable Native flute tradition but doesn’t so much aim to preserve it as pay homage to it. His music is at once reverent of the past and defiant of it.
Style: Native American
By Jeff Tamarkin
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Orchestra Baobab
Senegal’s Orchestra Baobab—formed in 1970 and officially disbanded in 1987—now rides again, with most of its key players in place. The “new” Baobab debuted dramatically in London in May 2001, and by year’s end, the musicians had recorded their first new album in more than 20 years.
Style: Afropop
By Banning Eyre
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Manu Dibango
For over 30 years Manu Dibango has been one of the giants of world music. Long before it had a name, this Cameroonian's music has sounded as powerful and appealing in America as it does in Europe or Africa.
Style: Afropop
By Chris Nickson
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Lord Kitchner
Some people think of calypso as a light musical form. In Trinidad, however, it’s serious business, especially at Carnival time. And they don’t come any bigger than Lord Kitchener.
Style: Calypso
By Chris Nickson
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King Sunny Adé
It’s all about the juju. And if there’s one person who’s made juju music known internationally, it’s King Sunny Adé. Once the heir to the world music mantle of Bob Marley, he’s perhaps Nigeria’s most important export after its oil.
Style: Juju
By Chris Nickson
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Harry Belafonte
Harry Belafonte represents the folk singer as superstar, a cultural icon whose 1956 album, Calypso, topped the charts for a remarkable 31 weeks at the peak of the Eisenhower administration.
Style: Folk
By Howard Mandel
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Googoosh
Between 1970 and 1979, Googoosh was Iran’s top pop star. Then came the Islamic Revolution, which forbade music. Suddenly, Googoosh was almost a prisoner in her own apartment.
Style: Arabic
By j. poet
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