Parisienne singer/flautist/percussionist Yaite Ramos Rodriguez—a.k.a. La Dame Blanche—creates her own compelling electronic fusion of hip hop, Colombian cumbia, Jamaican dancehall dance rhythms. Born to a musical family in Cuba, her trombonist father Jesus “Aguaje” Ramos served as artistic director of the famed Orquesta Buena Vista Social Club. She also received extensive musical training, studying classical flute at Havana’s prestigious Escuela Nacional De Arte De Cuba. After moving to Paris, she performed hip-hop vocals on the city streets and took her ironic name from the ghost in Francois-Adrien Boieldieu’s opera of the same name. But Afro-Cuban culture remains pronounced in La Dame Blanche’s work, especially in her 2018 disc Bajo El Mismo Cielo (Under The Same Sky). Along with French producer and engineer Marc “Babylotion” Damblé, her songs describe lives of people in Cuban neighborhoods and her lyrics also draw on the spirituality of the Santeria faith.

When Malian master musician Cheick Hamala Diabate toured the United States for the first time in 1995, he brought 800 years of musical heritage with him. Coming from a long line of musical griots, he proved his expertise on the n’goni (West African stringed lute) as a child and studied the guitar with his famous uncle, Djelimady Tounkara. After attending the prestigious National Institute of Arts in Bamako and working with a legion of his country’s stars, he began investigating American traditions. Now living in Washington, D.C., he demonstrates how much the n’goni resembled the American banjo and may have been its ancestor. This deep interest led to collaborations with bluegrass/jazz banjo player Bela Fleck and blues guitarist Corey Hart. His 2009 album Ake Doni Doni (Take It Slow) is an invigorating combination of all of these idioms from both sides of the Atlantic. Along with working in a host of different ensembles, Diabate also choreographs U.S.-based African dance companies.