The Whole Music Experience

Announcement from Pianist Lisa Spector/Through A Dog's Ear FREE MUSIC TO SHELTERS We'd like your assistance on an important community program. Can you help us spread the word about the Through a Dog's Ear Shelter Program? For free, we offer two hours of clinically tested classical piano music to non-profit dog advocacy groups (shelters, dog rescues, service dog organizations, etc.). Currently, Through a Dog's Ear music is being played in 75 shelters in three countries. Please tell your local shelters about our program.   Go to http://www.throughadogsear.com/

A Decade of Music: Top Recordings from 2000-09 Lo'Jo, World Village NPR (National Public Radio) came up with lists of favorite recordings from the last decade.  So I thought I would do the same, but what would be my criteria? Can I include albums produced in 2001 or 2008, if I received those albums years after the release date? I actually have a lot more favorites than what you will see on this list.  All the recordings fall into the world music genre because that is the only genre that I have reviewed for most of the decade.  I started reviewing world music recordings in 2002 when I launched my first music website, Cranky Crow World Music.  Then I began contributing reviews to World Music Central in the spring of 2003.  I did come across older recordings (2000 and 2001), during my first few years of reviewing.  And yes, I am including recordings that I did not receive the same year they were released.  Two examples of that are Barbara...

Mathias Eick, Pasha Hanjana and Ertan Tekin The Three Wise Men Kirkelig Kulturverksted Stephen Brandt-Hansen In the Light of Christmas Kirkelig Kulturverksted Since 2003 when I discovered the Norwegian blues musician Knut Reiersrud, holiday music released on the Norwegian label, Kirkelig Kulturverksted (KKV), has become a tradition for me. Founder of the label, Erik Hillestad and his colleagues produce holiday music with an ethnic edge, certainly the holiday records I listened to as a child did not feature Iranian nays (a reed flute) and Turkish instruments—I only wish that they had! A few years back, the Palestinian vocalist Rim Banna made her European debut on a KKV holiday recording. She would later follow up with three successful solo albums released on the label. For the 2009 holiday releases, trumpet Mathias Eick and tenor Stephen Brandt-Hansen set the stars in the firmament. The Three Wise Men featuring three wise musicians hailing from Norway (multi-instrumenta...

The bulk of recordings I received in late 2008 and 2009 were of classical and traditional (world) genres. Since I had a large pile of classical recordings, some of those recordings ended up on the Top Ten Healing Recordings. I received only a small collection of jazz recordings and some of the recordings I received in 2009 were actually recorded in 2008. Since my biggest discovery of the year was Galician (Spain) music, I included two recordings on the list below, a 2008 jazz recording and a 2009 world music recording. I feel fortunate to have received high quality recordings by some of the best names in classical, jazz and world music. The lists are random, meaning there is no number one spot—all being equal. Best Jazz Recordings (2008-09) 1. New Orleans Jazz Orchestra, Book One, World Village 2. Mario Adnet & Philippe Baden Powell, Afro Samba Jazz, Adventure Music 3. Mathias Eick, The Door, ECM (2008 recording) 4. Vaamonde, Lamas & Romero, Vellas Artes, Falcatrua...