World Music

Congratulations to Tom Schnabel on his article on World Music, "International Bandstand" (Jan. 7). It does my heart good to know that this music that I have listened to and shared on my radio program, "The Nixon Tapes," at KPFK for many years is finally getting the exposure it deserves. However, Uday Shankar made recordings of Indian music in the '40s that far from swarmed with insects and birds. Tom, you should have gone to Vogue Books and Records in Westwood in addition to the UCLA Ethnomusicology Library.

Justin Bieber has released his latest music video, "All Around the World," and is giving fans and critics a glimpse of his life during his "Believe" tour. The video plays out as a mash-up of footage from the 19-year-old's world tour and his performances of the song at various venues. It also shows the tour from his point of view. So it's fitting and fairly clever that his team approached the song in this manner. The YouTube sensation-turned-global pop star teased to the video on Twitter Thursday and finally made the big reveal on Friday.

In April, Fool's Gold, the Afropop-influenced outfit led by singer/bassist Luke Top and guitarist Lewis Pesacov, played a monthlong residency at the Echo that burns bright in their memories. "Those were our best shows ever," Top said on the phone from Eugene, Ore., a stop on the band's current North American tour with fellow buzz act Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. "We got to design our own bills, our own lighting and DJs. Every week we packed it with our people. It was an amazing awesome dance party."

As the high-profile worlds of fashion and music collide at the Grammy Awards on Sunday night, one need only consider David Bowie to see why the two will be forever intertwined. Five decades after he introduced the first of his myriad manifestations, Bowie and his stylistic influences still reverberate from Hollywood red carpets to glossy magazine covers to the runway shows going on now at New York Fashion Week. And, if the first month and a half of 2013 is any indication, there's every reason to believe that the Thin White Duke will cast a long shadow across popular culture this year.

MUSIC The seven-woman-strong percussion ensemble Adaawe blends African beats and gospel harmonies with pop and R&B for a new musical twist on an ancient Ghanaian tradition. Expect an energetic fusion of voice and drum. The group's soon-to-be released album is "Passages. " Skirball Cultural Center, 2701 N. Sepulveda Blvd., L.A. 8 p.m. Fri. $20. (310) 440-4500. http://www.skirball.org

We asked Tom Schnabel, host of "Cafe LA" on KCRW-FM (88.9), to create a guide for the novice looking to sample and explore the world music landscape. Here are Schnabel's top 10: 1. Caetano Veloso, "Livro" (Nonesuch) This is one of the most elegant albums I know of, combining European chamberistic finesse, a la Ravel and Debussy, with subtle but insistent African rhythms, all anchored by Brazilian Caetano's ultra-suave voice. 2.

For many native Angelenos like Gail Samuel, summertime concerts at the Hollywood Bowl are a Southern California ritual as eagerly anticipated as the opening-day bite of a Dodger Dog. This year Samuel will be taking her lifelong Bowl-going habit to a new level in her recently appointed role as chief operating officer of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, which spends its summers at the Bowl. Her programming prescription for the venue, Samuel said, will hew closely to the Bowl's decades-old philosophy.

New music in Manila is a too-little-looked-at phenomenon. We've been missing something. For a Monday Evening Concerts program, built around the U.S. premieres of works by two Philippine composers, Zipper Concert Hall became, in Jonas Baes' "Patangis-Buwaya," a rain forest. The sounds made by a quartet of low winds and whistles and stones handed out to the audience were so uncannily authentic that all that was said to be missing were the mosquitoes. But the big piece of the night, José Maceda's "Strata," proved an even more peculiar sonic and spiritual wonder.

MUSIC. Lila Downs is an artist who always seems to have her act together. The Mexican American singer has a stunning voice, a confident multicultural vision grounded in her Mixtec Indian roots and a successful career in world music circles, finding a natural fusion of disparate strains of music and different sides of herself. Luckman Fine Arts Complex, 5151 State University Drive, L.A. 8 p.m. Sat. $25-$55.luckmanarts.org.

David Byrne is, to use one of his favorite words, a context unto himself. Founding member of Talking Heads, he blew up the concept of that band at least three times before disbanding it in 1988 for good. By then, he was already a film director, artist and composer, working on projects such as Robert Wilson's 1985 "The Knee Plays" and Twyla Tharp's 1981 ballet "The Catherine Wheel. " In the years since, he has created his own world music record label, written movie soundtracks and published half a dozen books.

Artists often want their audiences to see the world the way they do. Malian musicians Amadou Bagayoko and Mariam Doumbia, professionally known as Amadou & Mariam, have taken that to literal extremes on a few occasions in the last year. They're blind. The married couple has realized a long-held dream with a handful of "Eclipse" concerts in England and Europe, performing in complete darkness. "The intention is really to plunge people into the world of the blind in a way, and also give a very strong message of our evolution and demonstrate the hope we feel," says Bagayoko, the husband and electrifying guitar player, speaking in French via translator Joe Gunton.

Bluegrass legend Del McCoury has been touring for more than 40 years, but the 73-year-old still likes to shake it up when he performs. "I do an all-request show where the audience shouts out what they want to hear. The band doesn't know what we are going to do, I don't know what we are going to do. That's what keeps it exciting," he said, speaking from his home in Nashville. With his distinctive high-ranged vocals, some nimble guitar picking and sons Ronnie and Rob on mandolin and banjo, the Del McCoury Band are returning favorites at this year's Flights and Sounds Summer Festival, a world music feast that spans five themed weekends during the month of August at the Orange County Great Park in Irvine.

MUSIC Dance your heart out in the desert at the 10th Annual Joshua Tree Music Festival. This fantastic roster of bands including Fork Knox Five, Gaudi, Breakestra and MC Rai is guaranteed to satisfy all your world-music and open-space cravings. The Joshua Tree Lake Campground, 2601 Sunfair Road, Joshua Tree. Various times, Fri. to Sun. $120. http://www.joshuatreemusicfestival.com.

The European Union's antitrust regulators have approved Sony Corp.'s $2.2-billion acquisition of EMI's publishing business, clearing a major hurdle in Sony's ambition to create the world's largest music publishing group with rights to about 2 million songs, including some by David Bowie, Stevie Wonder and Pink. The deal announced Thursday still needs to clear U.S. regulators, who have historically been more lenient than their European counterparts. Nevertheless, antitrust experts cautioned against celebrating too soon.