The Whole Music Experience

World / Native American   R. Carlos Nakai Will Clipman Awakening the Fire Canyon Records What happens when R. Carlos Nakai’s flowing flute weds Will Clipman’s tribal beats? In the liner notes for Awakening the Fire , this duo explores the contrasting realms of the Native American flute, a melodic instrument and structured percussion.  One instrument lives outside of time and space, while the other instruments mark time.  Here we have free flowing building a bridge with rhythmic structure and the musicians accomplish a virtually impossible fete where each instrument gives space to the other.  This could only happen with two musicians who have known and worked with each other for a long time.  This takes cooperation, compromise, and excellent listening skills, which Nakai and Clipman possess in abundance. When combined, the exotic percussion (Clipman has a special room full of global percussion and the intuition to always choose the right...

Gilad Atzmon & Orient House Ensemble Songs for the Metropolis World Village The last album I reviewed by saxophonist Gilad Atzmon and his Orient House Ensemble revisited cabaret-style jazz.  However, on this round, the quartet sticks with American-style jazz which the musicians graft onto impressions of metropolises from around the globe, including the chic destinations of Paris, Manhattan, Buenos Aries, and so on.  Songs of the Metropolis opens with Paris which features a conversation between sweet piano and a soft saxophone.  The rambunctious Tel Aviv follows allowing the musicians to have a bit of fun. The musicians tone it down for a sulky visit to Buenos Aries and the saxophone appears to shed tears.  Here we imagine unrequited love, tango dancers abandoned, alone on the dance floor.  We could expect the late tango master Astor Piazzolla to show up with his bandoneon.  And although this track drips with exquisite perspir...

Cesaria Evora   Mãe Carinhosa   Lusafrica (Reviews of artists who passed away are the hardest to write, especially posthumous recording reviews.  I want every word to count and every word to honor the performer.  I put so much pressure on myself that I end up procrastinating instead of writing the review.  Not only that, but it’s hard to write anything objective when music journalists and researchers are also fans of the musicians we review and we’re only human). After the Cape Verdean vocalist Cesaria Evora died in 2011, her producer Jose da Silva felt reluctant to release a posthumous album, but according to the press notes that accompanied my media copy of Mãe Carinhosa , he was moved by tribute albums produced by other artists and he wondered what to do with unreleased tracks from Evora’s previous albums.  I think that Evora’s fans and colleagues will embrace this posthumous CD which possesses Evora’s warm and effervescent spir...

If you’re reading this blog then you’re not the average music listener.  I imagine that you prefer that music bolster some area of your life or bring healing to you on some level.  Or perhaps, you enjoy listening to music with substance composed by musicians with the intent of bringing beauty, power, and grace to the world.  As each of us grows our consciousness we need music to support us and musicians as well.  This begins with our music diets. A few years ago, I gave up eating gluten then eventually I also eliminated cow dairy from my diet.  I’m already a vegetarian so people around me asked the question, “Well, what will you eat now?”  I noticed a similar scenario when I stopped listening to pop and rock music.  People asked, “Well, then what will you listen to now?”  They asked this question because they prefer a life of limited options and ones that are spoon fed to them by the media and large corporations.  Little thoug...

Putumayo Presents Vintage France Putumayo World Music The folks at Putumayo World Music love France and ever so often, the label releases a delightful compilation of French music, ranging from nostalgic fare to contemporary folk-pop performed on acoustic instruments.  Vintage France features nostalgic French music from the 1950s and 60s or the Post War Generation music performed by contemporary artists.  Chansons about love mingle with gypsy jazz rhythms and swirly accordion wafts through the air like a summer breeze.  It’s the kind of music you would expect to hear at touristy cafe and what many people imagine when they think of Paris --de bonair e male vocals and restrained Parisian women who's vocals barely raise a bove a whisper .  However, there is also hearty female vocals. The songs hang together, but a few famous ones stand out such as Martijn Luttmer’s instrumental cover of Les Parapluies de Cherbourg from the 1960s movie starring C...