The Whole Music Experience

Joshua Leeds and Lisa Spector Through A Dog's Ear Music to Calm Your Dog in the Car Sounds True Concert pianist Lisa Spector has the good fortune of a dog named Sanchez who relaxes when he hears classical piano. So when Lisa takes Sanchez along in her car, playing a recording of classical piano music is similar to hitting Sanchez' snooze button. Sound unreasonable? Too good to be true? For those folks with anxious dogs that pant excessively or bark in the car or won't get in the car to begin with, there is hope. The latest installment of the Through A Dog's Ear project, Music to Calm Your Dog in the Car is now available. Again, psycho-acoustic expert Joshua Leeds, pianist Lisa Spector have teamed up. The beauty of this recording is that it relaxes dogs without putting the driver to sleep. Music by Chopin, Brahms, Bach, Beethoven, Scarlatti, Mozart, Gluck and Debussy flows generously off of this disc. While the music acts as a wonderful soundtrack for a d...

Singing for Life Songs of Hope, Healing, and HIV/AIDS in Uganda Smithsonian Folkways Music has the power to heal. This we know and time and again this point garners further proof. A new Smithsonian Folkways recording, Singing for Life compiled and recorded by ethnomusicologist Gregory Barz, brings us another hopeful musical project from the heart of sub-Saharan Africa. According to the ample liner notes, 38 million people worldwide are infected with HIV and roughly two thirds of those infected reside in Africa and 25.3 million live in sub-Saharan Africa. "Uganda is the single sub-Saharan African country that demonstrated remarkable, constant decline in overall infection rates. Many factors have contributed to this decline, and a critical one, Singing for Life , tries to show, is music." In Uganda where music plays a crucial role in everyday life, acting as a vehicle for educational messages, rituals, ceremonies and other activity, various musical groups, healers, a...

Shastriya Syndicate Syndicated Sense World Music Mandala ensemble Mandala Sense World Music It was one of those gorgeous late spring Saturdays with every plant under the sun blooming, and nothing could go wrong. I received two new Sense World Music recordings, both ensembles that literally blew me away. First, Shastriya Syndicate which features some of India's masterful young talent including, sitarist Purbayan Chatterjee, Carnatic veena player Jayanthi Kumaresh, tabla player Subhankar Banerjee, sarangi player Murad Ali, bansuri flutist Rakesh Chaurasia, mridangam player Patri Satish Kumar and percussionist Pramath Kiran (from Carnatic and Hindustani traditions). This fiery ensemble performs original compositions on their debut recording, Syndicated . The playing here, borders on 60s psychedelic--exploding with fantastic colors reminding me of Jimi Hendrix' saying, "are you experienced?" I am not sure why exactly, except that the experience of listen...