Archive: Global Music Month 2020
While the 2020 BU Global Music Festival was postponed, we presented virtual programming as a part of Global Music Month 2020, with 19 festivals and presenters from the US and Canada joining together for a month of online celebration of music from around the world, from August 29 to October 1.
On Thursday, October 1 we featured exclusive performances by Sister Nancy and Fabiola Méndez & Zayra Pola, followed by a live panel discussion moderated by our Artistic Director, Marié Abe.
Watch It Now!
About Our Artists:
Sister Nancy, is a legendary reggae artist, dancehall DJ, and singer. She is known to the world as the first female dancehall DJ and was described as being a “dominating female voice for over two decades” on the dancehall scene. More About Sister Nancy
One of her most famous songs is “Bam Bam”, was called a “reggae anthem” by BBC and a “classic” by The Jamaica Observer. In 1980, producer Winston Riley was the first to take her into the studio, resulting in her first single, “Papa Dean” for his Techniques label.
Sister Nancy went on to perform at Reggae Sunsplash, making her the first female DJ ever to perform there. She is also the first female, Jamaican DJ to tour internationally. She had further success with singles such as “One Two”, “Money Can’t Buy Me Love”, “Transport Connection” and “Bam Bam”. Her debut album, One Two was released in 1982. She went on to work with producer Henry “Junjo” Lawes, recording “A No Any Man Can Test Sister Nancy”, “Bang Belly”, and a collaboration with Yellowman, “Jah Mek Us Fe A Purpose”. She continued to appear live, sometimes on Jahlove Music with her brother.
In 1996, Sister Nancy relocated to New Jersey. The Jamaica Observer cited Sister Nancy as a role model for a successive generation of female acts, including Lady Saw, Sister Carol, Mack Diamond, Lady G, Shelly Thunder, Carla Marshall, Lorna G, Lady English, and Lady P. In 2007, she released the second of her two albums, Sister Nancy Meets Fireproof, produced by djMush1, formerly of the Slackers (NYC Ska) on Special Potato Records.
Fabiola Mari Méndez Quiñones was born on February 20, 1996. She started playing the Puerto Rican cuatro at age 6. She was a student at the Humacao Musical Institute, the Antonio Paoli School of Music in Caguas, and the Conservatorio de Artes del Caribe.More About Fabiola Méndez
In 2018, she got her Bachelor of Music from Berklee College of Music, becoming the first student to graduate with the Puerto Rican cuatro as principal instrument.
Fabiola has participated in several cuatro competitions winning prizes in all of them, including being selected as the winner of the “National Cuatro Player Competition” in 2011 by the Puerto Rican Institute of Culture. In addition, she has participated in multiple recordings. Foremost among them are: Banco Popular Christmas CD “Eco” (2008), Fabiola Mendez & Herencia Criolla (2009), Ready for Departure (2014), Guille & the B.Band (2015), and her newest release Al Otro Lado del Charco (2019), which was considered one of the TOP 20 albums of 2019 by the PR National Foundation for Popular Music.
Fabiola has collaborated with artists such as: the Puerto Rican Symphony Orchestra, Totó la Momposina, Pedro Capó, Victoria Sanabria, Cucco Peña, Eddie Palmieri, El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico, Danny Rivera, Edwin Colón Zayas, Los Rayos Gamma, among many others. She has also had the privilege of receiving acknowledgements such as the dedication of the Mapeye Festival 2011, the Quincy Jones Award 2016, ambassador at the National Puerto Rican Day Parade in NYC 2018, and a commendation from the PR House of Representatives for being the first Puerto Rican cuatro player to graduate from Berklee.
Zayra Pola was born in Bayamón, Puerto Rico. Puerto Rican American singer and percussionist was given the birth name as Zayra Marie Ocasio Espinosa. Zayra is the granddaughter of a well known folkloric Puerto Rican guitar player Polo Ocasio and one of her professors named her ‘’Pola” in honor of her grandfather.More About Zayra Pola
Some of her fans have labeled her as ‘’La Reina del Timbal’’ (The queen of Timbales) since her outstanding performance in the ‘’Salsa Festival honoring a ‘’La Fania’’ in 2009 (Fania’s tribute, 2009).
Graduated with a full scholarship from Berklee College of Music located in Boston, class of 2013, Zayra Pola made it to the Dean’s List during her entire journey at Berklee. While she attended Berklee, Zayra also had the honor to record an album for Bill Whelan, a Grammy winner of Irish Music. Zayra contributed with Terri Lyne Carrington’s latest album “The Mosaic 2” and with the Grammy’s winner Javier Limon; she was part of the music video of Alejandro Sanz’s “La Musica no se Toca” and she performed with re-known artist such as Luis Enrique and Larry Harlow. Zayra has had the honor to perform with several well-known artists and bands such as Gilberto Santarosa, Cheo Feliciano, Pedro Capo, Giovanny Hidalgo, Vico C, Annie Lennox among several others.
Zayra has released two singles called “No Renunciare” and “Puro Teatro”, where she shows the strength of her voice and her timbales. In 2015, Zayra received the Best Timbales Player of the Year from the New England Salsa Music Awards. In 2017, she was awarded as the Salsa Singer of the year (being the only woman in the contest to receive this award) from the Latin Boston USA Awards. In 2016, Zayra started to produce 3NITY @Zayra Pola, the first Latin female band in the Boston area. Her band empowers female talent since the music industry has the reputation of being “dominated by men”. Zayra Pola is currently working on producing her first Album, which is scheduled to be released in May 2021.
