Sultans of Strings, Christmas Caravan Review

With a progressive world sound that embodies all the qualities that make world music so enjoyable, 3-time JUNO nominees, and 3-time CFMA winning ambassadors of musical diversity Sultans of String have expanded the traditional notion of Christmas music with their new, genre-hopping album, Christmas Caravan. Recorded and co-produced with JUNO Award winning engineer John ‘Beetle’ Bailey, this isn’t your typical holiday album. You may recognize a few titles, but you’ve never experienced seasonal music quite like this before. The guest artist include: 6-time Grammy winning Paddy Moloney (The Chieftains), Ruben Blades & Luba Mason (Panamanian 7 Grammy and 5 Latin Grammy winner), platinum-selling jazz vocalist Nikki Yanofsky; 2-time JUNO/Grammy winner Alex Cuba; Benoit Bourque of Quebec’s La Bottine Souriante (3 JUNOs, 4 gold, 3 platinum records); Sweet Honey in the Rock (Grammy winning, all-woman, African-American a cappella group); Cameroon’s Richard Bona (Paul Simon, Herbie Hancock, Mike Stern); Canada’s singer to the stars Rebecca Campbell (Emmylou Harris, Alanis Morissette); singer Mary Fahl from NYC’s October Project; a recording collective of Turkish Roma violinists in Istanbul; Sudanese-Canadian singer Waleed Abdulhamid; Nashville-based JUNO Award winning country singer Crystal Shawanda; sitar virtuoso Anwar Khurshid; and hang drum player David Charrier from France. Excellent music in every sense of the word, that’s the short of it!