Global Rhythm

Global Rhythm is a New York-based monthly music and lifestyle magazine featuring coverage of world music, film, cuisine and travel. It is published monthly and circulated across North America, Europe and hundreds of other locations worldwide.

Ever since its humble beginnings in 1992 in the basement of a church in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Global Rhythm has provided its readership with information on the arts traditions of the world's many cultures. Each issue contains music and film reviews and articles on foreign film, international travel and ethnic cuisine. A typical issue may feature articles on subjects as varied as Uganda's Jewish community, the reggae musician Burning Spear, Maya cuisine, Scandinavia's blossoming music scene and Bollywood's latest films.

Each issue is accompanied by Global Rhythm on Disc, a full-length music compilation CD allowing subscribers to hear some of the music they are reading about. Recent musicians who have appeared on the sampler include Senegalese Afro-pop star Baaba Maal, Cuba's Buena Vista Social Club, India's Susheela Raman, Corsica's I Muvrini, Brazil's Gilberto Gil, Ireland's Chieftains and Cape Verde's Cesária Évora.

Global Rhythm had its beginnings as Rhythm Music Monthly, (RMM) a Boston-area free-distribution journal published by Kyle Russell, a local music promoter, starting in 1992. The first issues were essentially compendia of upcoming concerts with feature interviews of local musicians and artists. Over the next two years a number of other individuals joined the effort, including Warren Senders, who edited the magazine until the end of 1993 (under the pseudonym Warne Russell), Raphael Brickman (graphic design), Vijaya Sundaram, Tomi Osuna, Leigh Maher, Jonathan Shulman, David Rumpler and many others. Alecia J. Cohen, who had been with RMM from the beginning as an unpaid assistant to Kyle Russell, began assuming more responsibilities. After Senders left to continue study in India in 1993, the editorship passed to Joel Segel, then to Larry Blumenfeld. Eventually Cohen took over as publisher in the mid-1990s, and remained in this position until late 2005, when the company was then acquired by Zenbu Media and Steve Bernstein was named Publisher, with Cohen continuing on as Associate Publisher. The Editor in Chief since 2002 has been Jeff Tamarkin.