The Whole Music Experience

Marina Rossell Gran Teatre Del Liceu De Barcelona Classic Catalan Songs World Village Catalan/Spanish vocalist and songwriter Marina Rossell marries Lorca-like poetry, with traditional Spanish instruments and heartfelt vocals on this live recording. This delicious collection of songs, (23 in all), combines the taste of the sea, with sensual images and longing. And similar to other international vocalists, Mariana Montalvo, Tania Libertad, Arja and Claudia Bombardella, Rossell's repertoire on Classic Catalan Songs , travels the gamut from cabaret-style to spiritual and national hymns, to love songs that would cause troubadours to blush. These songs come to us from a September 11, 2008 (a Catalonian holiday), performance at Gran Teatre Del Liceu De Barcelona (Grand Theatre of Licea of Barcelona), and judging from the photographs that pepper the cover and liner notes, this performance was a grand event. The entire theatre with its many tiers was filled to the brim. Th...

Stile Antico Song of Songs Harmonia Mundi It's hard for many folks to imagine the Bible as literary text, much less containing erotic passages. It's even harder for some religious people, mystics excluded, to conceive of any sensuality coming from the Big Book. Yet, The Song of Songs , composed by King Solomon, reads as erotic text for some, and for others, as Marian text. During the European Renaissance, several esteemed composers, set this erotic poem to polyphonic church music. The list of composers included, Palestrina, Gombert, Clemens, Victoria and others. The emerging English Early Music choir, Stile Antico performs work of many of these composers' interpretation of The Song of Songs . As I'm writing this review, I'm suffering from a migraine, not to mention, stress from having to re-type this blog entry. In the past, I was able to heal migraines while listening to renaissance polyphony. I'm hoping I will achieve the same results listen...

  Ballet & Requiem Chicago Symphony Orchestra & Chicago Symphony Chorus With Jessica Rivera and Bernard Haitink Ravel Daphnis et Chloe/Poulenc Gloria CSO-Resound/Harmonia Mundi It’s odd to find a requiem and an Impressionist ballet sharing the same disc. However, Francis Poulenc’s Gloria, with its fanfare, and Copeland-esqe orchestration, not to mention vocal arrangement, hardly resembles a requiem—at least not the kind we have grown accustom. The liner notes mention that Poulenc, (“a bad boy of French music”), composed the requiem for a fellow composer, Pierre-Octave Ferroud who was beheaded in an automobile accident. Also in the liner notes, “Over the next 25 years, as Poulenc examined his own beliefs and confronted the Roman Catholicism of his childhood, he developed a unique religious musical style, one that confirms and, in turn questions the significance of faith.” The six movements are cited as both “introspective and breezy.” And the soprano role ...

Marjorie de Muynck Vibrational Healing Music Sounds True When it comes to psycho-acoustics and sound healing integrity, healer-musician-composer Marjorie de Muynck is at the top of the list. Her recording, In the Key of Earth (Sounds True), proved time again, to lift vibrations from my home environment. And de Muynck does so by recording only acoustic instruments, including overtones from those instruments. Her latest recording, Vibrational Healing Music represents another pioneering effort. The recording offers a fabulous marriage between nature spirits (not just the sound of waves and birds chirping), and acoustic instruments. But de Muynck takes this musical venture even further by setting moods that she experienced as a child in the Midwest and Oklahoma. We can be thankful then, that de Muynck’s Native American grandparents did not own a television set and they would sit on the porch with their granddaughter in the evening listening to the music of the natural world. ...

Soname Plateau World Village When Tibetan vocalist Yungchen Lhamo performed at WOMAD USA in 1998, she introduced me to Tibetan music. Her perilous journey across the Himalayas and her stellar vocals captured my attention. Vocalist Soname also hails from Tibet and she also fled Chinese-ruled Tibet, via Nepal, then India and finally landing in Brighton, England where she cleaned houses for a living. In 1998, she made her vocal debut and in 2000, she recorded her first album with borrowed money. Plateau , to be released on World Village this May, showcases this mezzo-soprano’s gorgeous and powerful voice. I could make a comparison between Lhamo and Soname, I would say that Lhamo’s vocals soar in the ethereal realm and Soname’s vocals feel earthy. And on Plateau , table beats punctuate and bansuri flute frames Soname’s amazing vocals. The opening track combines the best of India and Tibet, musically speaking. The closing track features some of the most passionate vocals I have he...

Songs across Walls of Separation Kirkelig Kulturverksted Norwegian record producer and founder of the label, Kirkelig Kulturverksted, Erik Hillestad and I had previous conversations about a project involving nations with walls that keep loved ones apart. Similar to an earlier peace project, the album, Lullabies from the Axis of Evil , Hillestad set out to make a political statement via music. He found vocalists from both sides of several national walls, from countries as far-reaching as Morocco and Cyprus to Kashmir, Palestine and Mexico. While some people thought that the crumbling of the Berlin Wall was the end to this type of divide and conquer practice, need to reassess the type of world where we choose to reside. Once Hillestad found these vocalists, he asked them to sing the same songs then later he would meld those vocal tracks together, thus bringing loved ones torn by politics-as-usual and social conditions, together again. In the case of Palestinians Rim Banna and Jami...

Norwegian Brass: Conversation with Mathias Eick While I was hosting a community radio show, Global Heartthrob, I came across Norwegian multi-instrumentalist Mathias Eick. This occurred around the time when my consciousness towards trumpeters was growing. I had been listening to Miles Davis, Terence Blanchard and other players. ECM Records and Kirgelig Kulturverksted had both sent me recordings featuring Eick's clear tones. Since I received several recordings around the same time with Eick's contributions, I told myself that at some point I would interview the musician. And actually, had I kept hosting my radio show, he would have been a featured artist. Similar to Blanchard's work, especially on A Tale of God's Will (A Requiem for Katrina), Eick also pulls colors from an emotional palette. But these emotions feel more like mood changes or perhaps light changes over the course of a day. The musician has in a short time, 29 years, has developed quite ...

Till Fellner J.S. Bach Inventionen und Sinfonien (And the French Suite V) ECM New Series I first discovered J.S. Bach's piano sonatas in 1999 after watching the film, 32 Short Films About Glenn Gould , in which Bach's most famous piano works were featured. Since that time, I have listened to various musicians performing the solo works of Bach on a variety of instruments from piano and harpsichord to guitar. My classically-trained colleagues and friends have told me about the challenges of performing Bach's repertoire. I have been fortunate to have heard this music played in the hands of masters. And this latest recording that arrived in my mailbox, performed by Austrian pianist Till Fellner, who received much acclaim for his previous Bach recording, Well Tempered Clavier book, has been added to this list. Inventions and Sinfonia along with the French Suite V , feature a sensitive and delightful performance. Similar to Gould and pianist Murray Perahia, who I a...

Culture Musical Club Shime! World Village Although Tanzanian taarab music is not completely new to my ears, I had to give Culture Musical Club’s Shime a few listens before reviewing it. So far the recording has captured the hearts of international music reviewers, including writers with New York Times, Chicago Tribune and the English music publication, Songlines. The music itself resembles Egyptian cinematic music with its Arabic modes, scales and rhythms. The instrumentation proves intriguing by combining North African-Arabic percussion, zither, double bass, oud, violin, and driving accordion, topped off with hearty vocals—both male and female. It’s ironic that during this post 911 era world music audiences and even a broader audience have been exposed to music with Arabic roots and Muslim cultural influences. Usually as peace and cultural exchange efforts, labels and concert promoters have brought music of Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and other Muslim dominant countries to our ...

Photo: By Daniel Sheehan WM The Samba Effect--Conversation with Brazilian Musician Jovino Santos Neto I discovered the healing effects of Brazilian music, samba in particular back in the early 1990s when I began listening to Astrud Gilberto classics. Even though I was not aware of the healing elements of music, I noticed that my spirits lifted every time I listened to a "best of" recording by the Brazilian chanteuse. Years later I discovered Joyce, Monica Salmaso, Jovino Santos Neto and Virginia Rodrigues among other Brazilian artists. Again, I felt that spiritual lift even in times of great darkness and despair. I did not wish to dissect the music--equal parts polyrhythms hailing from Africa, soaring melodies from Europe, etc... Then shortly after that, Masaru Emoto provided us with a water crystal of a Brazilian samba and earlier still, Don Campbell mentioned in his text, The Mozart Effect that he found the samba most healing. Although opportunities abound to s...

Bob Marley & The Wailers Exodus Island Records Cesaria Evora Sao Vicente Windham Hill Records/BMG Spring in the Pacific Northwest usually consists of two sunny days followed by a week or two of clouds, rain and wind. And if that is not enough to lower a person's spirit, then add the darkness of an economy that wreaks of a divide and conquer mentality--not to mention perpetuates more fear on the planet. I decided to empower myself. I took up Kundalini yoga as a practice and I found powerful recordings at my local library. Starting with the classic Bob Marley & The Wailer's recording, Exodus (Movement of Jah People) . I have been listening to this recording while performing the yoga exercises. The line, "Are you satisfied with the life you're living?" strikes home with me. The answer is "No, I am not satisfied and I won't be until we all learn to live more harmoniously on the planet." Do I want to be freed from the darkness and grie...

WM From the Heart of the African Bush: Conversation with Samite Mulondo Other journalists besides me have felt the soothing lullabies of Ugandan multi-instrumentalist Samite Mulondo. The storyteller -musician-humanitarian takes his audiences on journeys to the African bush and also deep into the human heart. Listening to his recordings provide an intimate musical experience and seeing Samite in concert provides a different type of emotional experience that opens eyes, ears and hearts. I first came across Samite when I was seeking African recordings to review for my former website, Cranky Crow World Music. Tunula Eno landed in my mailbox and as I listened to a beautiful set of songs I traveled through a gamut of emotions, from sweet humor to grief (the CD was dedicated to his wife who died from brain cancer). A few years later, another Samite CD came my way—his seventh album, Embalasasa , named after a beautiful, yet poisonous lizard. According to Samite, today the pois...

Photo: Nancy Smith-Jones Sounds of the Desert: An Interview with Master Drummer Will Clipman Fans of Native American music and especially performed by Canyon Records artists, need little introduction to master drummer-percussionist William Clipman. The master drummer resides in the Sonaran Desert, a landscape that leaves an impression on Clipman’s playing. Clipman and I have been exchanging e-mail correspondence since I reviewed his solo CD, Pathfinder some time ago. I thought now would be the perfect time to interview him for this healing music blog. Below you will find an unabridged interview with the global beat drummer himself. WME: We had spoken of this earlier how you knew your life path as a drummer since you were a child. Did you want to share your earliest experiences with percussion with the readers of this blog? William Clipman: I started playing my father’s drums and my mother’s piano when I was three years old. I had no doubt absorbed the sounds of these ...