media
Here you will find our last press release, some published articles, photos of Carla Leininger and testimonials about Global Beats.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact Information:
Carla Andrea Leininger, Promoter
carla@globalbeatspitt.com
(412) 608-3946
The Cabaret at Theater Square hosts the hottest dance party of the year: GLOBAL BEATS NEW YEAR'S BASH
The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust's Cabaret at Theater Square hosts a Global Beats New Year's Bash featuring Kokolo Afrobeat Orchestra direct from New York City on Wednesday, December 31, 2008, at 10:30 p.m. Promising to be one of the hottest nights of the year, Global Beats New Year's Bash features a punk-infused blend of afro-beats, reggae, rock, swing, salsa, and funk. This one-of-a-kind dance party is presented by The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust and Global Beats, and sponsored in part by MCAI and Lanxess.
Formed in 2001 by singer/songwriter Ray Lugo and English trombonist Chris Morrow, Kokolo (slang in Spanish Harlem for aficionados of afro-beat) grew into an eight-piece band, becoming a New York fixture at legendary avant-garde haven the Knitting Factory. The band released its debut album, Fuss and Fight, in 2002, followed by More Consideration in 2004 and Love International in 2007. Kokolo performs a mix of music akin to such artists as Femi Kuti, Quantic Soul Orchestra, Tony Allen, Afro Celt Sound System and Jazztronik among others. Their most recent tour last summer included stops in London, Paris, Barcelona, Madrid and Dresden.
Following Kokolo, the Cabaret turns into a "Brazilian Carnaval" as guest DJ, Carla Leininger, host of the Brazilian Radio Show on WRCT 88.3fm and founder of Global Beats, spins a selection of Brazilian dance rhythms. Tickets ($60.50 each) include appetizers with an international flair, open bar from 10 p.m. to midnight, champagne toast, tax and gratuity. Global Beats New Year's Bash is a 21 and over show. Doors open at 10 p.m. To order by phone, call (412) 456-6666 or visit the Box Office at Theater Square or online at pgharts.org
The Backstage Bar and Cabaret at Theater Square, a project of The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, is located in Theater Square at 655 Penn Avenue. Hours: Tuesday-Thursday, 5 p.m. - midnight; Friday, 5 p.m. - 1 a.m.; Saturday, 5 p.m.-2 a.m.; Sunday, noon - 6 p.m.; closed on Monday. Menu & Listing of Live Entertainment: http://www.pgharts.org/venues/backstagebar.aspx. For more information about the Cabaret or Backstage Bar, please call (412) 325-6769.
About Global Beats:
Global Beats is the name given to an event that creates a venue for world music and cultural diversity. Its founder is Carla Andrea Leininger, a Brazilian native who felt the need for Pittsburgh to manifest its international cultures in a social setting favoring networking, dancing and the enjoyment of contemporary world music, in the same ambiance. Regular Global Beats nights are on the last Saturday of the month at the AVA Lounge, 126 S. Highland Ave, in the growing East Liberty area.
Allegheny_West_magazine pg 44 titled She Beats to the Drums of Other Worlds.pdf
A Unifying Beat
By: Mike Shanley
April 4, 2007
Without knowing the exact address of AVA, the relatively new lounge at 126 South Highland Avenue might be easy to miss. The dark awning hanging over its doorway dwarves the name, which is painted in the lower right corner of the front window, in letters just a few inches tall. At a quick glance, its façade looks similar to many storefronts in this transitional neighborhood. But walk by on the weekend, and it points to the future of this ever-evolving area.
On this last Saturday in February, Brazilian dance music blares onto the street as patrons work their way through the door. The throng of bodies — nearly 200 by the end of the night — adds extra heat to the packed room. The décor has yet to be completed, says Justin Strong, who along with Tim Guthrie, runs AVA as well the Shadow Lounge, the seven-year old venue around the corner on Baum Boulevard which connects to AVA via the back hallway. Seating is minimal. Besides a few streamers, the only decoration comes in the form of four candles, mounted a few feet from each other in glass cases along the left wall, which like the rest of the room is painted black. Yet, all of this is secondary to el ritmo that Carla Leininger is spinning from the DJ booth in the back of the room.
Global Beats, which takes place the last Saturday of every month, features dance music not only from Leininger’s native Brazil, but from countries around the world, juxtaposing Arabic music with grooves from Turkey, Venezuela and Iran, to list but a few. The theme of tonight’s event celebrates the Brazilian Carnival, emphasized by the video of lavish parade in Rio projected on the wall. As women in beaded headdresses slink across the wall, women in crop tops on the dance floor fling their arms in the air and chant along with the foreign songs. One couple dances more suggestively with each new song while an ethnically diverse crowd, dressed in everything from ball caps and baggy pants to suits, comes together for the pulsating music and atmosphere.
An International Community
Leininger created Global Beats in 2004. A host of the weekly “Brazilian Radio Hour”on WRCT-FM 88.3, she launched the event at a club in the Strip District. “I saw a lot of people from the international community at Déjà Vu, and asked had they ever considered doing anything there in terms of a World Music night,”she says.
For the next year and half, Global Beats took place at Déjà Vu during the week, first on Wednesdays and later Thursdays. To welcome people of various ethnicities, Leininger contacted different community groups, such as Carnegie Mellon’s Columbia en Pittsburgh and the Pittsburgh Venezuelan Association, for assistance in programming the music. (Leininger also has her own Brazilian Pittsburgh website for natives: www.arrepiabrasil.org.) Other informal groups have contributed to evenings that featured Arabic and Persian music. “I can’t claim to know everything about World Music,”she says, modestly. “I need someone who’s involved with the culture too.”
Each Global Beats party has a theme, which makes up half of the evening’s music, with music from other countries blended mixed together for the rest of the set. “It tends to be the music that the youth in their [native] country are listening to when they go out dancing,”Leininger says. “I think a lot of people think of it as folk music, which it isn’t. I want to play whatever it is they’d be listening to, not what their grandparents would be listening to.”While some World Music has the potential to take its bare music essentials, reduce them to an elemental nature and mix it with a generic, programmed beat, the music at Global Beats maintains the exciting quality of the traditional music even as it takes on a modern identity.
Leininger took a break from Global Beats in early 2006 when a job change gave her less time during weeknights. Strong, of the Shadow Lounge, encouraged her to set up shop each month after she helped promote a concert through the Brazilian Radio Hour. AVA had been open a month at that time, but she was ready to pick up where she left off.
Hot Music, Hot Neighborhood
AVA’s location borders Shadyside, East Liberty and Highland Park, an area that has grown by leaps and bounds since Strong opened the Shadow Lounge in 2000. Kelly’s Bar and Lounge on South Penn Circle, as well as the restaurants Abay and the Red Room Cafe, are drawing more people to the neighborhood, and Strong says events like Global Beats add to it by fulfilling a need no one else is addressing. “Pittsburgh is far behind as far as providing a true diverse selection of entertainment and an infrastructure and support of different cultures moving into Pittsburgh,”he says. “A lot of times, it’s very black and white and if you’re anything but that, sometimes you don’t feel as welcomed or tolerated. We want to provide a platform that says this is supported and celebrated. At the same time, hopefully we’ll boost the global population moving into this area.”
testimonials
Carla is deeply committed and passionate about her mission - to create memorable and brilliantly nuanced musical events that build intercultural bridges while being hugely entertaining. The thought, effort and talent that she pours into crafting these exceptional events is most impressive - South America, Middle East, Asia, Europe... all regions have been featured and blended into a unifying force for peace and understanding. Global Beats does more for intercultural awareness and tolerance at a public level than all manners of summits, conferences and speeches, and makes it fun and exciting.
Kannu Sahni
You’re doing some very valuable work in the community.
Bob Ogara