The Whole Music Experience

Soul Music, Comfort Music and Junk Music When I was hanging out at my local food co-op recently I made the comment that Putumayo compilations are music’s equivalent of “comfort food.” I listen to those compilations when I need comfort, warmth or need to lift myself out of a funk. So I started thinking about soul music and junk music too. I’m not talking Stevie Wonder or Earth Wind and Fire when I say “soul music,” but of course, you could include those artists if you choose. Soul music massages the spirit. You could include actual music from various sacred traditions, but even The Beatles fit into soul music, depending on the song. George Harrison wrote a lot of “soul music” and so did Paul McCartney after all, sometimes a popular love song opens the heart chakra allowing a sacred feeling to entrench itself. Comfort music almost defies description. It can hail from a variety of traditions, countries and it’s not set to any specific rhythm or tempo. Depending on the circums...

The Return of Lo'Jo: Conversation with Denis Pèan Lojo, World Village Writing about the French globetrotting troubadours Lo’Jo requires some effort, as any music journalist familiar with the sextet will attest. A dictionary is required along with a sense of childhood whimsy. All preconceived concepts of world music must be tossed out so that an emphasis on “playing” music comes through loud and clear. When it comes to describing Lo’Jo to my friends and colleagues, not to mention readers of my articles, I’ve been stumbling over words since 1998 when I first caught these musicians on a small indoor stage at WOMAD USA. I wasn’t into world music yet nor did I have any idea that over a decade later I would blog about the healing power of music. Lo’Jo’s enchanting music elegantly brought many cultures onto a single stage, thus proving that we could all get along if we spoke the universal language. I woke me up from a collective trance. And since 1998 and 2001, (the 2nd appear...

Carmen Souza Protegid (Protection) Galileo Music Imagine if Billie Holiday sang in Creole and revisited her African roots then you would be half way to describing the voice of Cape Verdean Carmen Souza. The globetrotting musician possesses one of the most out-of-this-world voices to come along in a long time. On her album Protegid Carmen gives her vocals a tour of the African Diaspora, leaping back and forth between Cape Verdean music and American jazz. She sings in half-scat and half glissando uttering phrases in alto and then trilling in the soprano with her heavy vibrato voice fluttering like nervous birds. I recall Zap Mama more than I do Cesaria Evora, the Queen of Cape Verdean song. Protegid feels more like world travel than world music. The album possesses everything from heavily syncopated Manhattan cabaret jazz to Afro-Latin grooves and energetic funana rhythms that introduce the song Afri Ka . Accordion, double bass, syncopated piano, various percussion, an...