Global roots

Take a whirlwind trip during four dizzying nights in September when The Cedar presents Global Roots Festival 2010, featuring eight cherry-picked musical acts that epitomize and celebrate both diversity and unity.

Festival passholders gain admission to all four Global Roots Festival 2010 concerts for the bargain price of $49 ( a saving of $31 over regular admission prices). Purchase passes from Ticketweb, from the Cedar Ticketline (612-338-2674 ext 2), or from a hard-working Cedar volunteer in the front lobby during shows.

Playing for Change is a multimedia movement created to inspire, connect, and bring peace to the world through music. The idea for this project arose from a common belief that music has the power to break down boundaries and overcome distances between people. No matter whether people come from different geographic, political, economic, spiritual or ideological backgrounds, music has the universal power to transcend and unite us as one human race.

The Playing for Change 2010 fall tour is highlighted by the addition of famed Senegalese guitarist Ilon Ba (Baaba Maal) to the stellar Playing For Change band which includes percussionist Mohammed Alidu (Northern Ghana), vocalist Clarence Bekker (Netherlands/Suriname), vocals/harmonica Grandpa Elliott (New Orleans), vocals/percussionist Mermans Kenkosenki (DRC Congo), guitarist Jason Tamba (Kinshasa, the capital of DRC Congo) and vocalist Titi Tsira (Gugulethu, African township in the Western Cape). Read more »

The show goes on! Stay tuned for more details as the Twin Cities number one brass-worldbeat-fun band The Brass Messengers keeps the party going in the space vacated by the rescheduling of the Balkan Beat Box show.

Tickets will be available at the door, and will be reasonably priced, so bring the whole crew!

The Cedar is pleased to announce renowned desert blues act Tinariwen as the most recent addition to the West Africa West Bank series! Tinariwen will be performing in the intimate Cedar room on June 16, just three days after the group plays the big stage at Bonnaroo, and just before they perform big outdoor gigs at Millennium Park (Chicago), Central Park (New York), and Hollywood Bowl (Los Angeles).  The group of former Touareg rebels turned electric guitar wielding musicians is a sensational live act, gritty and hypnotic.

Grupo Fantasma, the funkiest, finest and hardest working Latin orchestra to come out of the United States in the last decade continue their relentless assault of the road.

Bassam Saba is one of the nation's leading figures of Arabic music. Saba is a world-renowned nay virtuoso and multi-instrumentalist, performing on oud, violin, buzuq, saz and western classical flute. Saba studied nay, oud and violin at the Lebanon National Conservatory. At the age of 17, he moved to Paris where he received his BA in Western Classical music and Flute Performance at the Conservatoire Municipal des Gobelins. Read more »

Two stunning multi-instrumentalists performing as a duo for a special, limited U.S. tour. Molsky is well known in the American old-time music community for his fiddling, but also sings and plays guitar and banjo. Möller is "the Quincy Jones of Swedish folk," whose multiple projects include Frifot, a duo with Scottish fiddler Aly Bain, and his own world music big band.

Mellow French acoustic pop star Tété was born in Dakar, Senegal, but when his parents divorced, he returned with his mother to northeastern France. As a teen, Tété drew his musical inspiration from the pop and rock music of the day. Using the guitar given him by his mother, he assembled small bands with friends and began experimenting with songwriting, composing mainly in English. In 1998, Tété moved to Paris, playing cafés and busking before forming a successful trio with drummer Alberto Malo and bassist Evy Moon. Read more »

Taj Weekes’ music is more than just entertainment. The St Lucian roots reggae artist’s music stirs thought, provokes discussion and inspires people to think for themselves, free from the constraints of the corporate media. On his beautiful  album Deidem, released on his independent label, Jatta Records, Weekes sings assuredly and soulfully for the voiceless and the oppressed, taking his music to a new level of commitment and universal appeal. Read more »

A grooving double-bill with eight-person modern reggae band John Brown's Body, and the instrumental, Malian-influenced band Toubab Krewe. JBB's current evolution builds on a reggae foundation, incorporating elements from different genres. The new songs are timeless yet futuristic, anchored yet exploring. Read more »