I was born in Toronto, where I've been lucky enough to have the Global Village present itself to me. Okay, so that's my paraphrase on "I was born in ______, but I emigrated to the Global Village", part of the introduction to the award-winning CBC Radio show hosted by Jowi Taylor, and a key concept within the show's mandate. The show, as diehard fans of its 10-plus-years run know, is coming to an end in its current form on Radio One and Radio Two, though its content -- slugged "the news of the world in the world of music" -- will live on via shows like Dispatches "and many of the new offerings" rolling out March 19 on Radio Two. The new tagline "Everywhere Music Takes You" reflects that network's shift to a devoted arts, culture and music service, continuing its strong classical, jazz and folk music programs while adding new ones like contemporary music showcase The Signal and Canada Live. That's the flagship live performance show with a spotlight on live music in Canada (by Canadians mostly, but also international guests), taking Global Village forward with a night of tunes from a cross-section of Toronto's rising world music stars -- for free at Lula Lounge tomorrow night!

Canada Live in the Global Village celebrates Taylor's program and welcomes the new one with a live show recorded by CBC for air play on one of Global Village's final broadcasts. Bringing exquisite vocals from the subcontinent, Kiran Ahluwalia, among the artists Global Village first championed, heads up a bill also featuring African Guitar Summit's Donne Roberts and Madagascar Slim, Latin jazz siren Amanda Martinez and Afrofunksters Mr. Something Something, who just cut a live album this past weekend at the Trane.

It bears mention that the CBC programming changes mean beloved new music programs Brave New Waves and Radio 3 will no longer exist on terrestrial radio, though BNW host Patti Schmidt is set to host Canada Live (as is Toronto's Matt Galloway) and Radio 3 will continue online with more podcasts, band-uploaded videos and other interactive inclusions as well as their Sirius satellite service playing 24/7 with regular hosts and features (e.g. Fuse). The Radio 3 discussion on this move is here, while BNW's (and Eye Weekly's) Helen Spitzer and Michael Barclay have each blogged on their show's swan song.

I'm not sure what Global Village host Jowi Taylor will get up to, but with projects like his Six String Nation, I'm sure he'll keep busy. In the meantime, he and Garvia Bailey, host of Toronto music and culture show Big City Small World and herself a former producer in The Village, share the MC duties for the free show at Lula.

Canada Live in The Global Village
Wednesday, March 14 (doors 7pm, show begins at 8)
at Lula Lounge, 1585 Dundas St. West (w. of Dufferin)
(416) 588-0307, info (at) lula (dot) ca

Jowi Taylor image from Bright Eyed Inevitable/Global Village homepage.