02-25-19 | Songs for Listening | Chris Wangro

Chris Wangro, a NY-based director & producer, made the Monday, February 25 list at Songs for Listening. Wangro has made a remarkable & storied career: from touring a one-ring circus through Europe, to running city-wide events for NYC Parks, to producing events around the world for the UN, to making large-scale public art projects in collaboration with Amanda Parer and Ai Wei Wei.

Wangro is also a terrific listener, a collector of wonderful and extraordinary tunes from across the globe. He, more than anyone, has turned me on to important and joyful music — stuff that I treasure and about which I would not otherwise have had an inkling. He sat up close with me for Ali Farka Toure in his last N. American concert at Town Hall traveled with me to MerleFest in Wilkesboro, NC, and sojourned with me to Serbia for the Gypsy Brass Band Festival in Guca. He's a deep and truthful listener — I would take his word on music over nearly anyone.

‘A Khuya ma Tkerh el Jamal' by Mohamed Rouicha
'Izlel Je Delyo Hajdutin' by Valya Balkanska from 'Village Music of Bulgaria'
'Atisa Wangu' by Abana Ba Nasery from 'Classic Acoustic Recordings from Western Kenya'
'Spiritual Eternal' by Alice Coltrane from 'Eternity'
’Aik Alif' by Noori & Saieen Zahoor