The Whole Music Experience

Fo lk/ Jazz   Mark Winkler The Laura Nyro Project Cafe Pacific Records     I used to hear the name Laura Nyro a lot during my early days of reviewing music, but I can’t say that I knew her music personally.  At least that’s what I first thought when I received Mark Winkler’s The Laura Nyro Project in the post.  On a trip to YouTube, I found two familiar tunes from my childhood, Wedding Bell Blues and Up on the Rooftop .  Born in 1947, Nyro represented the folksy-blues side of the baby boomer generation with her peak years in the 1960s and 70s.  In the realm of Carol King (another prolific songwriter), Nyro composed songs in styles ranging from girly pop to soulful blues with gospel of the Black Church tossed in, though Nyro was white.   With big shoes to fill, jazz stylist-vocalist Mark Winkler set out to honor Nyro’s melismatic vocals in his baritone voice on The Laura Nyro Project .  And I have to say, he’...

The Byrd Ensemble   Markdavin Obenza   In the Company of William Byrd   Scribe Records Seattle has for several decades acted as a hotbed for music communities, including an early music community that began in the 1970s.   These days, Seattle’s early music community features a few of the founders of the early music scene as well as, newcomers such the Tudor Choir, Renaissance Singers and The Byrd Ensemble, named after renaissance church music composer William Byrd.   On the ensemble’s latest recording, In the Company of William Byrd the singers explore the music of Byrd’s contemporaries and mentors who hail mostly from the European mainland. Here we have a lush recording of renaissance polyphonic singing exploring the sacred works of Philip van Wilder, a Flemish lutenist, Alfonso Ferrabosco, an Italian composer, Clemens non Papa (also covered by the Tudor Choir in a 2006 recording), Thomas Morley (English composer), and rounding off ...

As I'm updating the images (that were recently deleted) of the 590 posts, a few things caught my attention.  First, I lost a few of the CD images permanently and I don't have time to track down images.  Second, many of the CD reviews have only received 2 or 3 visits in the 2 or 3 years.  This implies to me that the musicians or labels who sent me the CDs have either done little promotion on their behalf or haven't pasted the link to the WME review on their websites, blogs or mentioned the reviews on a social network. Since Google /Blo gger did not start gat hering stats until 2010, any review prior to that date won't reflect its true traffic .  Most reviews receive their peak of traffic within two weeks of the post.  Some posts however, such as the Peyote Song article have over time drawn steady traffic.  Ravi Shankar r eviews have also drawn heavy traffic along with some Native American recordings.  Cl assical music tr affic needs improvement as do...

World   Ravi Shankar   The Best of...   Arc Music I’m sitting here listening to Raga Mian Ki Malhar which tells a story in a way about the roots of India’s musical dynasty.  Each Indian classical raga corresponds with a season, time of day, or mood.  This particular raga, which moves at a slow to medium pace, represents the rainy season and I’m thinking about the appropriateness of listening to a monsoon raga as I watch late winter rain fall here in the Pacific Northwest.  My mood matches this raga’s sentiments, but at least the late Ravi Shankar gives such a fiery performance on the compilation The Best of Ravi Shankar that by the end of th is raga (which does pick up speed and intensity in the way that a stream picks up velocity to become a raging river), I feel invigorated.     I’m not a Ravi Shankar or Indian classical music scholar, but I'm someone who enjoys international music on a regular basis and who has...

World / Native American   R. Carlos Nakai Will Clipman Awakening the Fire Canyon Records What happens when R. Carlos Nakai’s flowing flute weds Will Clipman’s tribal beats? In the liner notes for Awakening the Fire , this duo explores the contrasting realms of the Native American flute, a melodic instrument and structured percussion.  One instrument lives outside of time and space, while the other instruments mark time.  Here we have free flowing building a bridge with rhythmic structure and the musicians accomplish a virtually impossible fete where each instrument gives space to the other.  This could only happen with two musicians who have known and worked with each other for a long time.  This takes cooperation, compromise, and excellent listening skills, which Nakai and Clipman possess in abundance. When combined, the exotic percussion (Clipman has a special room full of global percussion and the intuition to always choose the right...

Gilad Atzmon & Orient House Ensemble Songs for the Metropolis World Village The last album I reviewed by saxophonist Gilad Atzmon and his Orient House Ensemble revisited cabaret-style jazz.  However, on this round, the quartet sticks with American-style jazz which the musicians graft onto impressions of metropolises from around the globe, including the chic destinations of Paris, Manhattan, Buenos Aries, and so on.  Songs of the Metropolis opens with Paris which features a conversation between sweet piano and a soft saxophone.  The rambunctious Tel Aviv follows allowing the musicians to have a bit of fun. The musicians tone it down for a sulky visit to Buenos Aries and the saxophone appears to shed tears.  Here we imagine unrequited love, tango dancers abandoned, alone on the dance floor.  We could expect the late tango master Astor Piazzolla to show up with his bandoneon.  And although this track drips with exquisite perspir...