The Whole Music Experience

Lokua Kanza Nkolo World Village/Harmonia Mundi With the kalimbas, flutes, percussion and soothing male vocals, Congolese Lokua Kanza’s solo album, Nkolo recalls the music of Ugandan Samite. However, Kanza’s covers more of the African Diaspora by bringing in gospel choirs (though more on the angelic than passionate side of things), and Brazilian fare. Gentle lilting guitar, percussion, bass, flute, and lush vocals appear on Dipano while Loyenge sounds like Congolese blues. The press notes sums up Nkolo , “His voice dominates the ensemble. Sometimes it’s thrown into relief or highlighted by angel choirs, bells, whistles, drums, a child’s voice…” The emotions (without reading an English translation of the lyrics), also offer contrasts from melancholy to pure joy of living on the planet. The Brazilian sound on the album should come as no surprise since Nkolo lives in Paris and Rio, but he hasn’t forgotten his homeland. “What I want to do through this album is convey the be...

Have CD; Will Travel Conversation with Putumayo World Music Co-Founder Dan Storper Today with so many of us on restricted food diets or dealing with stress of abrupt changes that have taken place in our lives (unemployment, loss of loved one or loss of habit due to natural disasters), we find that we must find comfort and even moments of peace through simple pleasures. For people dealing with economic restrictions that usual afternoon cup of designer coffee might not even be a reality any longer. Or perhaps dreams of traveling the world have been put on hold. One solution is to take a music break in the afternoon listening to a pleasurable compilation of exotic music. In the most extreme cases, it is my hope that some kind of healing music is present to help people deal with stress and trauma. We thrive with food, water, air and music.  We die without. Most of us by now are familiar with the Putumayo World Music label. We have seen the CDs with the distinct folk ...

Around the World in a Day Let’s sample 11 Putumayo CDs representing South America, the African continent, the Arab world, Europe and North America. We’ll start in 2009 and work our way down to 2003 creating a time capsule effect. And since compilations such as French Café and Italian Café bring out vintage performers, we will travel far and wide. Putumayo Presents Brazilian Café (2009)—This compilation presents a laidback Brazilian vibe. New and established artists perform traditional and not-so-traditional bossa novas and sambas. The right mix of female and male voices, lush horns, soft guitar and Brazilian rhythms make this the ideal music for a rainy day. Café Cubano (2008)—I bet the food is spicy and the rum plenty in a Cuban café. I don’t drink so if I visited a trova house or café, I’d hope to hear sones and boleros sung by musicians preserving their musical heritage. And that’s exactly what you’ll hear on this disc. Veterans and newcomers perform that hip-...

Javier Perianes Blasco de Nebra Piano Sonatas (1750-1784) Harmonia Mundi Baroque/classical composer and keyboardist Blasco de Nebra is only the second obscure Spanish wunderkind that has come to my attention in the last 2 years. The first one was a promising 19th century Basque composer Juan Crisòstomo Arriaga who died at a young age. De Nebra produced 172 compositions, but only 30 survived. The Andalusian composer died at the age of 34, not unlike his contemporary Mozart. But while Mozart has been celebrated to the hilt and loved worldwide, de Nebra has barely emerged from the shadows of obscurity. Certainly not for lack of talent or vision. Pianist Javier Perianes, also an Andalusian, performs Keyboard Sonatas op. 1 (from Madrid) and sonatas and pastorelas from the Manuscript 2998 found in the archives of Montserrat. While the work would have originally been played on harpsichord and fortepiano, Perianes plays the sonatas on a contemporary piano giving these baroque pie...

Freiburger Barockorchester Rene Jacobs Mozart Symphonies Nos. 39 and 40 Harmonia Mundi I came across information about Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s connection to the Vienna chapter of the Freemasons recently and I wondered about the brotherhood’s influence on the magical aspects of Mozart’s repertoire. Mozart joined the Freemasons (was initiated into the brotherhood) in 1784 at the age of 28. As someone not versed or even knowledgeable about the Freemasons outside of the fact that the brothers practiced metaphysics, the only conclusion I reached was that the opera The Magic Flute definitely had metaphysical symbolism. And I also noticed over the years that music scholars would refer to the architecture of Mozart’s compositions. That statement now makes more sense in the light of the Freemason connection. Sound healers, music therapists, and psychoacoustic practitioners, including the founder of psychoacoustics Dr. Alfred Tomatis (French ear, nose and throat doctor) have also...