ENGLISH CORNER, CON LINDA JIMÉNEZ – This week’s trivia question: What musical instrument inspired the song Hannibal (which you will hear an excerpt of on the program)?
Center of the River is a musical journey down the Mississippi, a river that stretches 2,340 miles (3766 km.) from Lake Itasca, Minnesota, to New Orleans, Louisiana, and is the source for so much of American music: Delta Blues, Gospel and songs of the American troubadours. David Buchbinder, Mark Rubin and Michael Ward-Bergeman were born and raised along the Mississippi and its tributaries, and met in New Orleans, on the banks of the Great River. They immediately began to conjure a musical project that tells stories of their lives, their travels and their relationship to the Mississippi, its people and its sounds.
David Buchbinder is a Grammy-nominated and JUNO-winning creator, composer, and producer. Founder of the Flying Bulgar Klezmer Band, the Odessa/Havana project (featuring Hilario Durán), David currently plays Gospel piano in a New Orleans church and divides his time between Toronto & the Crescent City.
Mark Rubin is an unabashed Southern Jew, known equally for his muscular musicianship and larger-than-life persona, and over his 40+ year career, along with co-founding iconic Punk/Bluegrass outfit Bad Livers, he has accompanied or produced a virtual who’s-who of American traditional music
Michael Ward-Bergeman is a passionate performer, songwriter and composer who remains faithful to the spirit that unites many of the world’s richest music traditions while continuing to develop his own unique voice. He has had deep musical relationships with Osvaldo Golijov, Yo Yo Ma and Jamey Haddad, among many others.
This week we are speaking with David and Michael about the record and the personal journeys that inspired it.
And for more of a taste of Center of the River, click here.
