The Whole Music Experience

World Mahsa Vahdat & Mighty Sam McClain Love Duets across Civilizations A Deeper Tone of Longing Kirkelig Kulturverksted Missing the boat on the duets of Mahsa Vahdat (Iran) and Mighty Sam McClain (US blues) 2009 album, Scent of Reunion , I’m coming on a board with a new album of love duets, A Deeper Tone of Longing .   Featuring Farsi poetry by Mohammad Ibrahim Jafari and English poetry by founder of Kirkelig Kulterverksted, Erik Hillestad poetry almost eclipses the passionate vocals and musical arrangements by Knut Reiersrud (a Norwegian bluesman).   Actually, when you look at the musicians on this album, it feels like KKV brought in the whole team in fusing blues with Iranian classical music--something that looks like an impossible dream on the surface, but succeeds. When You Came shows off the bluesy side of the equation until a lonely ney (Iranian reed flute) comes in followed by Vahdat’s haunting vocals.   The song even features R...

World Hijos De Agüeybaná Agua del Sol Tumi Music So often we turn to Cuban music when exploring music of the Caribbean and don’t get me wrong, Cuban music possesses splendid qualities, combining the best of Afro-Latin and Spanish music traditions.   Even the Puerto Ricans in New York City turned towards Cuban music when they launched salsa music.   However, now that I’m listening to a traditional recording of Puerto Rican music called bomba by the group Hijos de Agüeybaná ( Agua del Sol ), I can’t understand why these delicious Afro-Latin dance rhythms haven’t enjoyed the same popularity as Cuban son, even if these rhythms along with Puerto Rican plena and Dominican merengue appear in salsa alongside the Afro-Cuban beats.  To think that my grandmother might have danced to bomba when she was a child growing up in Puerto Rico, warms my heart. With the call and response vocals, especially on the titular track, I bet there are listeners who would co...