The Whole Music Experience

Rolf Lislevand Ensemble Diminuito ECM Series  When Rolf Lislevand’s Nuove Musiche (ECM, 2006) arrived in my mailbox along with Trio Mediaeval’s 2006 ECM recording, I ended up with a stray Alaskan dog in my apartment. Trio Mediaeval’s recording had been playing in my apartment when the dog showed up at my backdoor. Now, how it found its way into the yard remains a mystery. I pulled the dog into my home and phoned its human companion. But in the meantime, the Alaskan dog gravitated towards the CD player and long before Joshua Leeds and Susan Wagner published the book, Through a Dog’s Ear. This dog preferred early music. Shedding dog story aside, listening to the Norwegian early music lute player Lislevand and the Scandinavian early music vocal ensemble, Trio Mediaeval in a single afternoon opened some much needed doors for me, musically speaking. And now two of the TM vocalists, Linn Andrea Fuglseth and Anna Maria Friman appear on Rolf Lislevand Ensemble’s Diminuito , an...

Mario Adnet & Philippe Baden Powell Afro Samba Jazz The Music of Baden Powell Adventure Music I spent two weeks listening to Brazilian guitarists Mario Adnet and Philippe Baden Powell’s Afro Samba Jazz and I am still savoring every minute of it. Similar to Virginia Rodrigues’ Mares Profundos (Edge Music, 2003), Adnet’s and Powell’s interpretations celebrate the much revered Baden Powell Afro-sambas. A bus load of musicians appear on the recording including Monica Salmaso, the Adnet clan, Teco Cardosa and too many musicians to name here. They bring their horns, drums, flutes, clarinets, saxophones, guitars and double bass, reminding me of carnival season 6 months premature. On first listen I experienced a memory of hearing Astrud Gilberto’s interpretation of Berimbau on a great hits album I once owned. Then of course, in 2003 I listened to Virginia Rodrigues’ Celso Fonseca’s covers of Baden Powell’s Afro-Samba classics. The sambas engage listeners with lush African po...