Bowl’s New Series Makes Its Mark on Map

Halfway through the maiden season of the Hollywood Bowl’s World Festival ‘99, the series is beginning to look like a distinct success.

The Bowl has just released figures that place the brand-new world music program in a highly favorable position compared to similar events around the country. WOMAD, the Seattle world music festival founded by Peter Gabriel, drew 32,000 attendees for a three-day program last month. World Festival ’99 has drawn 33,431 over four nights.

New York City’s Central Park SummerStage--a free festival--averages between 6,000 and 10,000 for its afternoon events, less for the nighttime programs. World Festival ’99 has been selling between 5,000 and 10,000 tickets per night for concerts that often include new or relatively unknown artists.

“We’re pleased,” says Tom Schnabel, the series’ program director. “But the funny thing is that I can’t really say we’re surprised, because we didn’t really have anything to compare it to, at least insofar as the Hollywood Bowl is concerned. At the Bowl, you know, you usually go and just get one thing--maybe a lease night for mariachi or something like that--and never with this kind of diverse programming.”

Even more remarkable is the fact that the series has been doing so well despite the absence of major world music names.

“We didn’t bring in performers who had been here before,” Schnabel continues. “Later we’ll have Gilberto Gil, and he of course is well known.

“But people like Carlinhos Brown--who opened the season with a two-night event--had never been to America before. So bringing in people like that was a big unknown factor, and when you bring in four different bands--as we did last week, and as we will do again--that’s a risk, as well.”

But it’s a risk that seems to be working--emphasizing the fact that world music has a potentially large audience in the ethnically diverse Southland. And what is particularly important from the Bowl point of view is that it’s an audience with substantial numbers of people who have not come to the venue in the past.

“There were tons of people who came to see Carlinhos,” Schnabel says, “who were wandering around, trying to find the box office, because they’d never been to the Bowl before. And that’s great, because it reflects exactly what we’re trying to do with this program.”

There is room for improvement, however. Despite the promising box-office report, the average attendance for the four nights so far is less than half the Bowl’s capacity.

“We’re all on a learning curve,” Schnabel says, “with producing it, marketing it and trying to do it in a venue that seats over 17,000 people. I mean, you have to sell 5,000 tickets just to keep moving, whereas selling that many in almost any other venue would be a huge success.”

With three more events to go this summer, Schnabel is beginning to allow himself the luxury of looking forward to next season, when six events will be scheduled for the series.

“So far it’s worked out much better than anyone could have guessed,” he says. “Averaging in all the different shows, we’ve exceeded our expectations and our sales projections. And next year we’ll do even better.”

* World Festival ’99 at the Hollywood Bowl, 2301 N. Highland Ave., (323) 850-2000. “Hallelujah!” with the Campbell Brothers, the Mighty Clouds of Joy, Rahat Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and the Armenian Festival Ensemble, Aug. 15; “Gypsy Passion” with Alma de Flamenco, Vera Bila and Musafir, Aug. 22; “Tropical Heat” with Gilberto Gil, Waldemar Bastos and Fantcha, Sept. 12. All concerts at 7:30 p.m. with tickets priced $3-$75.

World Sounds: The Red Hot Organization is at it again. This time, it’s released an extraordinary collection of music from the Portuguese-speaking world, including tracks from artists representing Brazil, Angola, Mozambique, Cape Verde and other locations.

“Onda Sonora: Red Hot + Lisbon” (Bar/None Records) casts a musical net that encompasses fado, samba, AfroBeat, ambient, etc.

The list of performers--as in the other Red Hot compilations--reads like an all-star lineup of Portuguese-speaking artists. Among the participants, Brazil’s Caetano Veloso, Marisa Monte, Carlinhos Brown and Djavan; Portugal’s Madredeus and the Delfins; Angola’s Filipe Mukenga; and Cape Verde’s Lura. And the music bubbles with vitality, its varied expressions joined by a common love of rhythm and--even more so--by the ineffable sense of saudade, which, in one form or another, courses through Portuguese culture in every part of the world.

Funds from the sale of the “Onda Sonora” project will be dedicated to AIDS prevention in Portuguese-speaking communities around the world.