National Geographic Music (National Geographic)

San Francisco multiculti shapeshifters Rupa and the April Fishes will join New York-based Brasileros Nation Beat for the second installent of the new global music series Is America Part of the World? at the Bell House in Brooklyn on Friday, November 13th.

Rupa & The April Fishes will be traveling to NY behind their new album este mundo, due out on Cumbancha on Oct. 27. The San Francisco-based musical agitators are specialists in crossing borders and building bridges, and on este mundo they effortlessly mix elements of Gypsy swing, Colombian cumbia, French chanson and Indian ragas.

Brooklyn based Nation Beat plays American music from both the North and South. They are rhythm gatherers, harvesting the fruit of 500 years of cultural cross-breeding from northeastern Brazil to the deep American South often breaking out into massive carnival parties at their live shows.

The Is America Part of the World? series aims to challenge the way we think about "American" and "World" music. The premise for the series came about when Nation Beat was invited to perform at a "world music" festival where they were asked to not play their songs that were in English, specifically their American country songs (the same ones that Willie Nelson sang with them at Farm Aid). This inspired bandleader Scott Kettner to bring together musical acts who blur the lines of world music, as well as foster a platform of discussion and debate about this controversial and vague term.

The series launched in Summer 2009 at the BKLYN Yard with an outdoor festival featuring Forro in the Dark, Nation Beat, Red Baraat Festival and DJ Nickodemus.