The Whole Music Experience

Aaron White & Anthony Wakeman Handprints of Our People Canyon Records Neither Dinè-Ute guitarist-flutist Aaron White or Lakota flutist Anthony Wakeman are new to my ears. I’ve heard at least two incarnations of White’s duos and heard Wakeman’s solo and collaborative recordings. So listening to White’s and Wakeman’s Handprint of Our People comes as a lovely respite. White’s bluesy guitar (listen to the stunner Dunes of Time ) coupled with Wakeman’s ethereal flute connects the earth and the sky. Needless to say I find the duo’s warm acoustic album deeply relaxing. Certainly the music here would benefit massage and energy healing clients who prefer new age and indigenous music with an edge. Wakeman’s flute provides more washes than melodic hooks which contributes to the relaxing vibe. And the deep tones of White’s guitar relieve tension. On End of My Trail , White plays lilting arpeggios which Wakeman’s dragonfly-like flute dances around. On Return of the Twins Wak...

Cantus That Eternal Day Independent release I’m not a religious person, but I enjoy some choral music especially when it’s sung a cappella as it is on Cantus That Eternal Day. The Twin Cities (Minnesota) nine voice men’s choir has already been lauded with praise by Fanfare and for good reason. The men sing perfectly calibrated harmonies delivered with contagious enthusiasm—think African American gospel (listen to the driving Run On ),  and Shaker songs. Think Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring rendition of  Simple Gifts which appears also appears on this disk. Listening to this collection of songs ranging from African American spirituals, to Sacred Harp Hymns, and Shaker tunes, you can hear the love and research that went into this project. From American colonial composers to Goin’ Home by Antonìn Dvořàk and Bobby McFerrin’s The 23rd Psalm , Cantus pulls many colorful threads together into a musical quilt. The album can be viewed as a music history document, a co...

Contradanza Tentenelaire Galileo Music Hailing from Seville (Andalusia, Spain), the folkloric quintet Contradanza performs a mix of flamenco (no flamenco on Tentenelaire ), renaissance dances, Arabic music and jazz. In some respects Contradanza shares common musical themes and styles with Eliseo Parra and Aulaga Folk, other Spanish folkloric groups that mix traditions. But please don’t ask me to elaborate since I know little about this group and can find scant information in English except a stub on Wikipedia and a review of a previous recording. The music on Tentenelaire  exudes warmth and exoticism. Arab baglama, accordion, flutes (Celtic and Arabic), fiddle, bass, guitar, African drums, accordion, mandolin provide a backdrop for Ricardo de Castro’s laidback vocals. While the songs flow together seamlessly and at a similar tempo, careful listens to the recording reveal a Spanish Celtic tinge on Cigüeña , heard mainly in the misty flutes and fiddle. The song Vo...

In-Tune with Neptune (The Outer Planet Returns Home to Pisces on April 4) Besides researching and writing about music, I practice astrology as a hobby. I tend to favor watching the trends caused by the outer planets, Pluto, Neptune, and Uranus because these planets stay many years in a sign. Uranus stays around 7 years, Pluto and Neptune around 12-14 years slowly transiting a sign. In fact, since the discovery of Neptune during the Victorian Age (September 23, 1846) the planet has only made one round of the zodiac, starting and ending in Aquarius. On April 4, Neptune transited into its home sign, Pisces. I find this significant because I work in a field that is governed by Neptune and I also have this large and beautiful planet smack on my MC/10th house of my natal chart (career). So it’s no accident that I discovered the healing power of music since Neptune basically rules my chart. Incidentally, I think its fate that I write this article because Neptune was discovered whe...

According to Scott Wurtz B.A., LMP, PBP and drummer, drumming boost immune systems, helps with depression and reduces stress levels.  This article appears in the April 2011 issue of New Spirit Journal which you can view at http://www.newspiritjournal.com This concise article includes well-documented research and inspires us to join drum circles.  I've always found dancing and listening to poly rhythms healthy, but playing the drum with others has some fabulous benefits, plus it's fun.

Trio Mediaeval A Worcester Ladymass ECM New Series The first time I listened to a Trio Medieval recording ( Stella Maris ), I ended up with a strange dog in my apartment. As soon as I slipped the disk and turned up the volume, I heard a crashing sound on my front door. When I opened the door, a large Alaskan dog entered my small apartment. Fortunately, the dog seemed mesmerized by the polyphonic vocals coming out of the speakers and stayed calm until its human companion showed up to retrieve him. The reason why I’m sharing this dog and music tale is because I too found Trio Mediaeval interpretation of sacred medieval chants mesmerizing. The three Nordic women voices (Ana Maria Friman, Linn Andrea Fuglseth and Torrun Østrem Ossum), fit together so well, that we can only call the overall effect alchemical. Returning from a four year hiatus (the trio’s last release was Folk Songs on ECM New Series in 2007) this time around the trio interprets and performs the Ladymass of Worces...

Jerusalem Quartet Mozart String Quartets K. 157, 458 & 589 Harmonia Mundi Who doesn’t love a composer who can turn 4 stringed instruments into an orchestra? The virtuoso composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart even on one his earliest quartets, K. 157 performed so lovingly by the Jerusalem Quartet, composed this full-bodied work. Although this early quartet is described as sad in the liner notes, the first and third movements sound lively to me. The slower second movement Andante , portrays aching sadness, and definitely sobs of grief. Just listen to the lamenting cello below the surface of the weeping violins and viola. And yet, this movement in all of its woeful melancholy recalls later work by French composer Erik Satie. In fact, I listened to this movement before watching a movie with Satie’s music in the soundtrack, which caused me to draw comparisons. String Quartet No. 17 in B flat, K. 458 composed much later in Mozart’s short life, recalls the work of JS Bach. If th...

Music Consciousness in the Work and Market Place Seattle, photo by Patricia Herlevi So many times I walk into a business or shop and leave immediately because I don’t enjoy the music playing in the store. In some cases, I’ve heard NPR or some other news source blasting from a radio. In either case, those shops lost my business because I felt unwelcomed by the audio choices. I’ve been blasted with heavy metal at an Aveda beauty school (Seattle), I’ve had to listen to 70s and 80s pop music getting my hair cut at other beauty schools and also strangely enough waiting for a counseling appointment and ditto for a naturopath clinic. Nostalgia is a dangerous thing and drum machines pattering away do not provide a healing environment. Some lyrics might trigger painful memories. This is why massage therapists and other energy healers provide either silence or soothing tension-free music to their patients. All of the above scenarios portray unconscious music/audio choices that might...

Susanne Lundeng Mot Kirkelig Kulturverksted In 2004 I reviewed Norwegian fiddler-violinist Susanne Lundeng’s Strange Journey for my former website Cranky Crow World Music (2002-2007). While I found that album ambitious blending jazz and traditional music, her 2011 recording Mot (Courage) represents contemplative Nordic music where jazz, traditional, and classical intersect. Lundeng experiments with tonality on Imella where she’s joined by BØde Sinfonietta. On the remaining tracks she either flies solo or pairs off with a chamber musicians Min Ensemble, piano and accordion. While the songs moves along at a slower tempo, they possess a primal, untamed feel, such as on tracks 4 and 7 when the violin takes on a Hungarian gypsy quality. I think the courage in the album’s title refers mostly to Imella (track 6) in which the violinist experiments with tonality. However, the dissonance on the track leaves me feeling uneasy. I prefer the more pastoral songs on the album...

Here are 10 pop songs sure to uplift any mood.  Listen to them, sing them, or in some cases dance to them often.  And create your own list of go-to songs. 1. Spoonful--Willie Dixon 2. Here Comes the Sun--The Beatles 3. Smile--Charlie Chaplin (I love Madeleine Peyroux's version) 4. Ma Vie en Rose--Edith Piaf (sung by Edith Piaf in French) 5. Jammin'--Bob Marley 6. What a Wonderful World--Louis Armstrong 7. Maria (from Westside Story)--Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim 8. I Feel Pretty (from Westside Story)--Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sonheim 9. My Favorite Things (The Sound of Music)--composer? 10. Summer Time--George (and Ira?) Gershwin Also listen to Fellini soundtrack music by Nino Rota, Putumayo compilations, "Careless Love" and "Half the Perfect World" by Madeleine Peyroux, Mozart operas and Catherine Russell's "Inside this Heart of Mine" (World Village) hits the spot too.

Les Chauds Lapins Amourettes Barbès Records Imagine the Golden Age of French music (1920-1940s) revisited by an American bluegrass player and a side musician for They Might Be Giants. Meg Reichardt (Roulette Sisters) and Kurt Hoffman (The Ordinaires) pull of the Parisian accent and the atmosphere of the French swing and chansons on Amourettes . On the surface you might imagine that you’re sitting in a Parisian café with the smell of roasted beans wafting past your nose and Parisians rushing pass you, but the song lyrics border on the absurd at times and recall Godard’s cinema with Parisians cloaked in bohemian black philosophizing about love, sex, and death. The recording lends itself to daydreaming and provides wonderful dinnertime music.  I enjoy listening to the album while I'm cooking dinner. Musically, the songs have been arranged for strings, acoustic bass, trumpet, plucked banjo, guitar, and ukulele, that’s right, ukulele. The plucky songs bounce along like a...

Aulaga Folk A menos cuarto Armando Records This isn’t the first time a recording by the Spanish folkloric group Aulaga Folk has crossed my path. And once again I feel tongue-tied in trying to describe the folkloric music on the CD. In 2006 I reviewed the group’s no es mala leña which wed jazz to regional folk music (Extremadura, Spain). The CD was easier to describe than the current recording a menos cuarto (a quarter to the hour) which harbors elements of Celtic Spanish with Arab-Andalusian music, and yet is neither. The album comes with a CD featuring an array of special guests including other Spanish folkloric luminaries such as Javier Ruibal and Eliseo Parra, a second disc featuring mixes and a DVD with three music videos so we can see the band in action, and not just performing music, but also collecting it. The musicians feature music from the mountainous region of Spain, Hurdes, which doesn’t have the happiest of reputations and was featured in a 1933 documentary L...

Music as Magnetic Law of Attraction The topic of applying music to lifting vibration is not new to me. I’ve been using music to lift my moods all my life, and consciously since 2005 when I came up with the concept for my book Whole Music , and 2 years before I launched this blog. Then a few months ago I noticed that jazz vocalist Trish Hatley began a project combining affirmations with music to support the law of attraction concept. The other day when I played a Rough Guide compilation for the music of Bolivia, I had this image of the bombo drum and flutes in my mind’s eye and I found this music profoundly uplifting. This brought me to the idea that we all have different genres and instruments that lift our vibration. Perhaps the Andes music doesn’t lift your vibration, though this would surprise me. I’ve never seen a passerby frown when encountering street musicians performing Andes music. Just like I’ve never seen anyone frown around the music of Bob Marley or Cuban son. ...

Ana Moura Coliseu World Village While listening to a fado recording offers a special treat, listening to a live fado CD feels like luxuriating in a hot bath or indulging in chocolate cake. The sensual experience which combines poetry with a rainbow of emotions provides an opportunity for the listener to bond intimately with the singer. The super star Mariza came out with a live CD and DVD documentary several years ago which left a lasting impression. Now, Ana Moura, another Portuguese diva-super star leaves her mark on world music with Coliseu , a recording of a 2008 homecoming concert. The magical evening is captured in 15 tracks in which Moura wraps her mouth around words as if they were delicious morsels. She carefully shapes every musical phrase with emotional nuances ranging from devastating heartbreak to questionable cheeky humor ( And We Came Born of the Sea ). So often the younger generation of fadistas such as Moura and Mariza pay homage to Amàlia Rodrigues, but in ...

Jayanthi Kumaresh Mysterious Duality Just Me EarthSync I first heard veena player Jayanthi Kumaresh perform on collaborative recordings on Sense World Music in 2007. On rare occasions I heard classical Indian music from South India and even more rare that I heard veena recordings. In many ways, the veena resembles the sitar of North India’s classical music tradition, but the veena’s tones sound warmer and resonate deeper than a sitar. On her solo recording Mysterious Duality (Just Me) , Kumaresh layers several veenas, up to 7 overdubs on the 4 tracks that appear on the recording. I thought I read somewhere that she performed on 12 veenas for this recording, but now that I look for that information I’m unable to find it. In the press notes, Kumaresh reflects about how she wanted to bring out the nuances of the veena. “The pieces that emerged once Jayanthi found her footing move from contemplative layered arpeggios to energetic, complex melodies, from percussive grooves to da...

Sara Banleigh The Folk EP Self-Release Not many journalists are going to struggle about whether or not to include a review of a CD on a blog because of dark subject matter. But my blog features the healing power of music and leans towards softer material (even though Sara Banleigh introduces the song All My Trials with Bach’s Prelude #1 in C major ). So I’m reviewing Banleigh’s recording The Folk EP as a culture preservation project and not as a healing music CD. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to review a CD featuring Irish songs from 500 years ago, especially arranged for piano and voice. Banleigh mentions in the press notes that she preferred to give a grittier interpretation of these old murder and love ballads. She’s not the first to accomplish this task since Irish song interpreter Susan McKeown covered similar territory on her 2006 World Village recording Black Thorn: Irish Love Songs. Similar to McKeown, Banleigh provides gutsy vocals instead of the misty-e...

I was looking for an archival article on WME and I saw that I first launched the blog in January 2007.  So that means this year marks the 5th Anniversary of The Whole Music Experience. I never intended on launching a blog and was hosting the website Cranky Crow Whole Music at the time.  I had enrolled in an online marketing class and one of the class projects was creating a blog.  I was the only student who launched a community service blog since I didn't want to post my personal life online, nor did I think anyone would be interested.  I wouldn't even feel interested in reading about my personal life on a blog. Since the creation of WME, I have interviewed fabulous musicians, healers, and promoters, reviewed I don't know how many recordings, and branched out from just world music to traditional, sacred, new age, old age, classical and jazz.  It has been a wonderful journey thus far.  I hope you'll keep traveling with me down this musical road. Yo...