The Whole Music Experience

Putumayo Presents Vintage France Putumayo World Music The folks at Putumayo World Music love France and ever so often, the label releases a delightful compilation of French music, ranging from nostalgic fare to contemporary folk-pop performed on acoustic instruments.  Vintage France features nostalgic French music from the 1950s and 60s or the Post War Generation music performed by contemporary artists.  Chansons about love mingle with gypsy jazz rhythms and swirly accordion wafts through the air like a summer breeze.  It’s the kind of music you would expect to hear at touristy cafe and what many people imagine when they think of Paris --de bonair e male vocals and restrained Parisian women who's vocals barely raise a bove a whisper .  However, there is also hearty female vocals. The songs hang together, but a few famous ones stand out such as Martijn Luttmer’s instrumental cover of Les Parapluies de Cherbourg from the 1960s movie starring C...

World Yoga Putumayo   I felt surprised when I received this soothing gem in the mail.   I expected to hear a series of Kirtans sung in a variety of languages, but instead ambient world music greeted my ears when I played Putumayo Presents World Yoga .   The compilation opens with Sona Jobarteh from Gambia humming over a warm acoustic guitar and this short piece invokes our hearts to enter the yogic experience.   Quentin Dujardin (Belgium) follows with more acoustic guitar played slowly with shimmering notes lingering in the air.   It’s funny because until today, I thought the two first tracks represented one song. And if you’re going to listen to World Yoga while practicing your daily yoga (not a bad idea), you would want the 15 tracks to flow into each other, as you flow from one asana to the next.   Surprisingly, most of the songs hail from the African continent, but also Germany (Deva Premal & Miten), USA, Mexico, Tibet, Sweden,...

Have CD; Will Travel Conversation with Putumayo World Music Co-Founder Dan Storper Today with so many of us on restricted food diets or dealing with stress of abrupt changes that have taken place in our lives (unemployment, loss of loved one or loss of habit due to natural disasters), we find that we must find comfort and even moments of peace through simple pleasures. For people dealing with economic restrictions that usual afternoon cup of designer coffee might not even be a reality any longer. Or perhaps dreams of traveling the world have been put on hold. One solution is to take a music break in the afternoon listening to a pleasurable compilation of exotic music. In the most extreme cases, it is my hope that some kind of healing music is present to help people deal with stress and trauma. We thrive with food, water, air and music.  We die without. Most of us by now are familiar with the Putumayo World Music label. We have seen the CDs with the distinct folk ...

Around the World in a Day Let’s sample 11 Putumayo CDs representing South America, the African continent, the Arab world, Europe and North America. We’ll start in 2009 and work our way down to 2003 creating a time capsule effect. And since compilations such as French Café and Italian Café bring out vintage performers, we will travel far and wide. Putumayo Presents Brazilian Café (2009)—This compilation presents a laidback Brazilian vibe. New and established artists perform traditional and not-so-traditional bossa novas and sambas. The right mix of female and male voices, lush horns, soft guitar and Brazilian rhythms make this the ideal music for a rainy day. Café Cubano (2008)—I bet the food is spicy and the rum plenty in a Cuban café. I don’t drink so if I visited a trova house or café, I’d hope to hear sones and boleros sung by musicians preserving their musical heritage. And that’s exactly what you’ll hear on this disc. Veterans and newcomers perform that hip-...