The Whole Music Experience

 Let's go on a musical treasure hunt.  For this post we're heading to Spain to sample some flavorful music traditions. Grab your headphones and get on a board. Tucked in northwest Spain, the province Galicia hosts a variety of music traditions, including folkloric traditions that Galician musicians innovate then present to international audiences.  While I'm mostly familiar with the folkloric songs thanks generous Spanish labels that send this music to me, I also have Galician jazz ensemble recordings in my collection. The region hosts several music festivals each year featuring an array of genres of music, from opera and early music to pop rock, jazz and folkloric.  http://www.galiciatunes.com for details.  However, I'll focus on the folkloric and jazz recordings and artists for this post. The Celtic region of Spain along with Asturias, Galicia is situated between Portugal to the south, Asturias to the north, and bordered by the Atlantic Ocean on one s...

World   Ses Co Xenio Destrozado   (With a Broken Spirit) Folmusica Never judge a CD by its cover.   When I first laid eyes on the cover for Galician folk musician Ses (Maria Xose Silvar)’s sophomore album With a Broken Spirit , I thought I would be greeted by hard rock music.   Thankfully, the CD features delightful Spanish folk music and no hard rock. While Ses provides a few old-style rock and roll songs towards the end of the CD, clearly her forte is the folkloric material that resembles Mexican rancheras at times, regional Galician at other times, and she sneaked in a Cuban rumba, Canto aquí, canto na Habana , and a tango, Rebelarse ā conciencia (beautifully performed). Ses (a nickname given to her by her family) has a good ear for jaunty melodies and an expressive voice that wraps around strings on the tango, guitars, bass, percussion and folkloric instruments on other tracks.   A simple arrangement of acoustic guitar, voice and...