The Whole Music Experience

Classical/ Blues Knut Reiersrud Band   Trondheimsolistene   Infinite Gratitude   Kirkelig Kulturverksted Last month I ran across a YouTube video of Norwegian bluesman Knut Reiersrud’s band playing along side a chamber orchestra.  The result was so astounding that I paused to compose my thoughts.  Normally, we wouldn’t think of blues and classical chamber music coming together on the same page.  Yes, we have heard pop, jazz, and rock versions of famous classical pieces.  And in reverse, symphonies performed pop or rock classics with mixed results.  On the album Infinite Gratitude , Knut Reiersrud and his blues band pair up with the chamber ensemble Trondheimsolstine where they explore the 2nd movements of Franz Schubert’s String Quintet in C major and Johannes Brahms’ String Sextet in B flat major .  The musicians literally wed blues to chamber music.    I much prefer the dreamier slower pass a ges ...

C lassical Matthias Goerne (Baritone) Andreas Haefliger (Piano) Schubert Erlkönig Harmonia Mundi Celebrated baritone Matthias Goerne brings us number 7 of a Schubert series, Erlkönig (title comes from a Goethe poem), a collection of songs set to Romantic Era poetry.  If I had only read the liner notes, I would have assumed that the recording only contains darker material.  The titular song indeed tells a dark supernatural tale but at least on this recording it only has one voice, instead of the original three from Schubert’s time (a man, his son, and a phantom).  However, diverse sentiments from a Scottish warrior bidding farewell to his distant love while on the battlefield ( Norman Love ), and spiritual musings ( By the Lake ) and familial love described in nature-based metaphors ( Sunset ) also appear in the 19 tracks. Goerne’s operatic talent comes through on the seductive Fisherman’s Song (which also resembles Mozart’s mirthful arias)....

  World Joël Francisco Perri The Andean Flutes Arc Music Bombo, charango, and Andean pan flutes--these instruments hail from the indigenous people of the Andean regions of South America.   In the 1970s many musicians, writers, and musicians fled Chile and Argentina to avoid persecution by ruthless dictatorships.   Many fled to Paris and formed a community where they brought the Andean instruments and songs from the nuevo canción (poetic and political songs) movement.   In 1971, Joël Francisco Perri, a percussionist of Sicilian and French descent encountered the South American musicians in Paris and eventually, this led the musician to dedicate himself to Andean flutes.  His son, Cedric Perri followed in his father's footsteps and appears on this CD. On his 2012 recording The Andean Flutes , we hear the jaunty side of several types of pan flutes including Bastos, Siku, Zampoña, Rondador and the bamboo recorder Kena played with the Ande...

World Will Clipman Myths & Masks (DVD/Educational) Will Clipman/Independent Will Clipman, master drummer/myth-maker/educator is the busiest musician I know.   If he’s not touring with R. Carlos Nakai’s band in Russia, appearing in concert in Phoenix, or recording with any of the Canyon Records musicians, he’s educating children about global cultures.   His educational DVD Myths & Masks features homemade percussion instruments, homemade masks and poetic myths about tribal people in Africa, Australia, and the American Southwest.   The purpose of Clipman’s delightful DVD revolves around representing humanity through stories that unite us and define this great blue planet where we reside. Clipman opens his concert with a djembe solo which sets the mystical space where Clipman shares his global myths.   With each masks representing Burkina Faso, the Australian Aborigines, the Kalihari Bushmen and the Pima Indians Clipman transforms i...