I believe I first began to fully fall in love with what has often been called “world music” one summer afternoon as I was driving from Baltimore, Maryland to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  Since compact disc (CD) players were all the “City of Brotherly Love” rather monotonous, I listened to several CDs in my car’s player.  One of the CDs I had taken with me was “Alma Del Sur” (Song of the South), a collection of South American music from artists such as Bernardo Rubaja, Roberto Perreira and Nando Lauria.  I was not accustomed to hearing the types of soothing vocal melodies I heard that day from a man’s voice, being accustomed as I was to men belting out more defiant lyrics in R&B, Hip Hop and some of the House I had found more familiar.  The instrumentation, a mix of European and Afrikan sounds, were also very melodic and smooth.  That’s when I began to really appreciate the fact that beautiful music could be found anywhere in the world.

It’s not that I hadn’t heard music from outside my own community before.  I had heard classic rock, classical and even some country-western songs that impressed me, and as a professional club DJ, I had received occasional promotional releases from record companies that had helped introduce me to Latin-pop artists in the United States as well as Afrikan artists like Angelique Kidjo (right), Mory Kante and Salif Keita.  But I had not heard much from “South of the Border” other than the more formulaic dancehall reggae releases and the music of Carlos Santana and Sergio Mendes that my father had listened to in my youth.  And the tracks I heard on this CD, from artists I did not know, was a bit of an eye-opener.

Almost right away, I began looking for more music from lands I had not considered.  My collection of music from Afrikan artists like Angelique Kidjo, Salif Keita and Fela Kuti expanded far beyond the promo 12″ singles I had once received from the record companies.  I finally put an end to my confusion between Salsa (mostly Latin-Caribbean) and Samba (Brazilian), both of which were influenced by Afrikan rhythms but in entirely different ways.  I learned of the scores of music superstars from Afrika I had not yet heard of.  I was introduced to the music of the Middle East and Asia.  And my stereotypes about European musicians were effectively blown up when I discovered Russian, French and Irish/Celtic tracks that boasted some serious funk while maintaining their own cultural roots.

One day, a co-worker at my day job asked me to DJ at her wedding.  The ceremony and reception were held in the same location, on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, at a location in the back yard of her father’s home, for a crowd that included a single person of Afrikan descent besides myself.  The bride, groom and most of the invited guests were into country-western music.  Needless to say, this was a challenge, but one I was willing to accept since it would allow (or rather, force) me to expand my musical repertoire further.  And the bride had asked for me because she knew me from work, or because of my reputation for professionalism, or because of a limited choice at her disposal (I’m not sure which was the most important reason).  But in the process I came to learn a lot about country-western music, and as a result of that reception I was contracted to play another one, again with a country-western emphasis, by one of the guests at that reception who was getting married herself in a month or two.  Country-western is still not my favorite music by a long shot, and I still don’t intend to play at any square dances (which many people don’t know actually came from another Afrikan tradition) anytime soon, but the experience was a valuable one in that it helped broaden my personal musical horizons.

From all of these experiences, WorldHouse, a division of KUUMBAMusic, was born.  While the two entities are of course able to operate between each other in a seamless manner (primarily because the same management runs both), WorldHouse concentrates more on international music while KUUMBAMusic maintains its dedication to music from the Afrikan and Afrikan-American cultural traditions.