World music offers world of opportunity

The road to Mexico is a long one, even when the method of travel happens to be phone lines. First comes the 14-digit phone number. Then, after a few foul-ups and a few recorded messages from the operator, it's time for a seven-digit billing number. The phone starts ringing and finally a voice picks up, saying "Hola?" \nLila Downs quickly switches from Spanish to English when she realizes her caller is not from the area. She's used to making adjustments. \nThe daughter of an Anglo-American father from Minnesota and a Mixtec Indian mother from the Oaxaca region of Mexico, Downs grew up bouncing from one culture to another. When she chose music as her method of expression, it stayed with her. \nNow she travels Mexico and the States combining traditional Mexican folk music, lyrics about the mythological account of the Mixtec heritage she inherited for her mother and the smooth sounds of jazz. \nDowns is only one of the 27 artists who will travel to Bloomington, bringing their talents for jazz, funk, reggae, pop, gospel, folk and blues from the United States, Ireland, France, Brazil, Puerto Rico, Canada, Morocco, Kurdistan, Azerbaijan, Finland, Sweden and Japan to the seventh annual Lotus World Music and Arts Festival, running from today through Saturday at a variety of locations around the city. \n Among those included on the schedule are American folk and blues artist Odetta, Brazilian performer Chico Cesar, Irish traditional group Lunasa and Bloomington-based Vida. In a world dominated by imitations, the artists of the Lotus Festival choose music that comes from them, no matter what combination of cultures, instruments and culture fits that definition. \nLila Downs: Seed of Cultures\nAlthough Downs has been singing since she was five, her current style of music only recently became her way of expressing and celebrating her culture. She grew up moving from the mountains of Oaxaca listening to the stories of the Mixtec Indians, or "cloud people," to the cold winters of Minneapolis, where she listened to Aretha Franklin, Bob Dylan, Melissa Manchester and Elton John. She attended the University of Minneapolis and studied voice, opera and anthropology, dropped out for a while, followed the Grateful Dead, learned to weave Indian textiles and, finally, did a senior thesis based on just about all of the above.\n"That's what brought me to what I'm doing today," Downs said. "It made me realize I could say things in a different way, that I didn't have to say things in terms of anything already out there, that I could invent my own language."\nWhen Downs speaks this language she tries to communicate the things she has learned during the years. As a product of two cultures, she spent some of her years growing up confused about where she belongs, something she likens to Third World countries being colonized by larger, richer nations. \n"There's a certain thing that happens in colonized countries; you watch TV and everyone is white or trying to emulate a Western model," she said. "If you don't have a comprehensive historical background, you tend to start thinking 'Why am I dark?' and 'Why do I have dark hair?' My music is about learning about who you are."\n"Learning who you are" also means embracing her American background. \n"My father is a Scottish-American white man and I also have that in my blood," Downs said. "I appreciate the gifts given by the many beautiful aspects of Western culture and I think it's important. I want to make people feel proud of themselves."\nDowns' concerts include music from the traditional harps of Paraguay and the Veracruz part of Mexico, percussion from Mexico, Native American drums, fiddles, guitars, jazz piano and saxophone. On stage, Downs tries to wear a special textile from her native home in Mexico or something that expresses a story of female empowerment. Her music is about learning and embracing all aspects of her personality. Her music is definitely not about trying to fit into the American musical mainstream. \n"People are always going to ask those kinds of questions," Downs said. "I think it depends on what your values are and what your dreams are in life. I want to move me and move people who share things in common with me. If I choose to sing a song that has more massive appeal, I don't mind if that's what I want to do as long as what makes me do those things is the truth within myself."\nAntibalas: The sounds of afrobeat \nWhile it only takes a 10-digit phone number to dial up the Brooklyn-based home of Antibalas, the roots of the band and their style of music called afrobeat extend out through many countries and inspirations. \nThe music of afrobeat can be traced back to a Nigerian composer and performer named Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, explains Antibalas drummer and percussionist Phil Ballman. Kuti created his music by combining funk, jazz and the rhythms of Africa. \n"Afrobeat is a fusion of different musics that (Kuti) created, and we're keeping his tradition alive by playing original music in his style," Ballman said. "It's kind of like if James Brown was born in West Africa and he had an African drum heartbeat and a jazz horn line." \nFourteen musicians with Latino, white, African-American, African and Asian-American heritage by way of New York City form Antibalas. They create music using guitars, trombones, saxophones, conga drums, sticks, shekere gourds, trumpets, an organ and vocals. Lyrics for their songs are derived from the English, Spanish and Yoruba languages. \n"For myself, I first heard this kind of music when I was 19 and I was completely floored," Ballman said. "I listened to it for six months. I was playing drums at the time and I thought this would be such great music to play because it has elements of jazz and funk. The polyrhythms of typical African music are very complex and sophisticated but it is also extremely groovy and danceable." \nAlong with formulating afrobeat, Kuti also believed in social justice. This tradition has also been carried on in Antibalas. The group named itself after the Spanish word for "bulletproof" or "anti-bullets."\n"The name sort of symbolically carries on a tradition of being strong and being against violence," Ballman said. \nLike Downs, Ballman and the members of Antibalas are the first to admit that the music they love to play isn't the music that will make them rich in the financial sense. \n"Who cares?" Ballman said. "The idea is just to play music that you are really emotionally moved by and excited about. We all feel the music is really incredible and powerful; that's the reason why we play it."\nThe Lotus Festival will mark Ballman's first trip to Indiana. He and the rest of the band decided to make the trip after also committing to play at the Chicago World Music Festival. A trip to Bloomington turned one road trip into a mini-tour of both Midwestern festivals. \n"We hope what we can do is really get people excited about the music and moving," Ballman said. "We do try to somehow bring a message with the music and the message is more or less just to be aware. To stand up and be a free person"