World Music with Deirdre Saravia

Fela Kuti is considered the founder of the musical style known as Afropop, which employs a very large band with a jazzy horn section and African rhythms. Kuti is not only a composer, but multi-instrumentalist, human rights advocate and political agitator. 

The Fela Kuti Double Feature Documentary and Concert DVD is hypnotic watching, beginning with the chain smoking Fela introducing himself. 

Zein Al-Jundi has a graduate degree in architecture, which was her dream, but a serious accident altered the course of her path to a career of performance.

Marianne Dissard was born in France, and even though she lives now in Tucson, Arizona. She has been a filmmaker, a performance artist and is presently a writer, blogger and singer. Although she’s been working in English more and more often, Dissard found recently that hip hop beats work especially well with her native tongue. “It’s got that innate rhythm to it,” she says.

Longital are a couple from Slovakia, and 2012 was their third experience at South By Southwest. Although both members are accomplished professionals from the world of math and computer science, they’re making their mark in the musical world through tours in Europe and America.

In this interview, Deirdre Saravia talks to the duo about their travels, as well as the inspiration behind some of their best songs, including “Dragon Clouds.”

Official Website: www.longital.com

Have you ever been to Timbuktu (incidentally, it is spelled Tombouctou in Mali)? No? Well nor have I, so I found "Timbuktoubab," the documentary, riveting.