24 Apr
The Twelve Tribes by David Krakauer
Wednesday, 24 April 2002
Published in
World Music - CD Reviews
Klezmer musician David Krakauer with his clarinet journeys into new Jewish dance territory with jazz and blues motifs within a world music setting as he interprets classic …
19 Apr
Through The Great Smoky Mountains, a Musical Journey by Nicholas Gunn
Friday, 19 April 2002
Published in
World Music - CD Reviews
In a collection blended with world music, folk, and jazz motifs, Nicholas Gunn has created a masterpiece of musical expression. THROUGH THE GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS, A MUSICAL…
There’s this common ground where styles and genres of music - and of whole periods of history, in fact - converge and overlap, where it’s hard to hear where one "ends" and …
YARDENA Y SON LADINO is going to attract a lot of new listeners to the jazz vocals of singer Yardena. Yardena utilizes motifs from Cuban rhythms, Middle Eastern music, Afro…
For his first solo album, Justin Adams, a guitarist/player of many things stringed, has fashioned an absorbing walking tour of Northern and West Africa, with frequent stops…
09 Apr
Yonn-Dé by David Murray & The Gwo-Ka Masters
Tuesday, 09 April 2002
Published in
World Music - CD Reviews
David Murray has recorded so many albums and moved into so many different directions throughout his 25-year career that it’s hard to predict where he will go next. But on h…
Hassan Hakmoun is a Moroccan musician/singer currently residing in the US - while some of his recordings reflect a more traditional presentation of Moroccan and North Afric…
Gino Sitson is a young jazz vocalist from Africa, singing mostly in his native Bamileke language. Born in Cameroon, he studied music and languages in Paris, France, where h…
14 Mar
Peasant Songs by Lemon Juice Quartet
Thursday, 14 March 2002
Published in
World Music - CD Reviews
Here is an interesting concept. The music of Erie Satie and Bela Bartok performed by an acoustic quartet of a guitarist and trumpeter from Israel, a bassist from Brooklyn a…
10 Mar
Tanz! by Dave Tarras / The Musiker Brothers
Sunday, 10 March 2002
Published in
World Music - CD Reviews
Ah, the bins of the Great Record Store of History (the mythological store where EVERY album ever made is cataloged and available) are lined with fine albums that tanked sal…
Three musicians from various areas of jazz have come together to bring a new slant on world music. Percussionist Manolo Badrena of Weather Report, Stanley Turrentine's guit…
Jazzanova started by chance when the DJ’s of the group were working in Berlin’s Delicious Doughnuts nightclub. The club’s management wanted to create a compilation CD of th…
Like Jason and the Argonauts, Spiros Exaras is leading his World-Jazz Ensemble across the Aegean for an adventure in sound. As the title Phrygianics portends, you will be w…
02 Mar
Chimurenga Rebel / Manhungetunge by Thomas Mapfumo and the Blacks Unlimited
Saturday, 02 March 2002
Published in
World Music - CD Reviews
[NOTE: The following is a revised version of a review I did of an album that is now one disc of this new 2-CD set.]Thomas Mapfumo is an innovator in the music of Zimbabwe -…
A mixture of street sounds with traditional sounds of Southern countries best describes "Caravana" by Digital Bled. The group is the brain child of Joao Pedro Veloso Rodrig…
01 Mar
In Makedonija by Slavic Soul Party!
Friday, 01 March 2002
Published in
World Music - CD Reviews
For you folks not of the Slavic persuasion, the translation of this disc's title is "In Macedonia," wholly appropriate for a disc's worth of music recorded in that Balkan n…
24 Feb
Damian: In Concert From Bucharest by Damian
Sunday, 24 February 2002
Published in
World Music - CD Reviews
DAMIAN: IN CONCERT FROM BUCHAREST is 15 selections of pure energy, led by the creative pan pipes performances of Damian. This is a splendid CD collection, and it contains a…
Roberto Perera merges the Paraguayan harp with a contemporary jazz lineup in the 12-track album "Sensual."Exotic and romantic are two adjectives that can be used …
Born in Pakistan, raised in Southern California and having an impressive educational transcript that includes a study in India with tabla master Alla Rakha, guitarist and p…
For a debut collection, the CD titled SAKESHO performed by Sakesho is brilliant and innovative, original and inspired. This is world music with solid jazz motifs at its fin…
01 Feb
Electric Highlife: Sessions Form the Bokoor Studios by Various Artists
Friday, 01 February 2002
Published in
World Music - CD Reviews
Put simply, highlife music is a style of West African pop music that developed around the turn of the century: primarily guitar-based band music with rhythms and syncopated…
01 Feb
Pieces of Night: Three American Nocturnes by George Flynn
Friday, 01 February 2002
Published in
World Music - CD Reviews
PIECES OF NIGHT is a stunningly original work consisting of three American nocturnes for piano, composed and performed by George Flynn. It is a vision of the role America p…
A haunting and imaginative work filled with grace, style, innovation, and touching on world musical themes with jazz and classical motifs. AMERICAN REST will fascinate jazz…
01 Feb
A Symphony of Cities by Moye & Aoki
Friday, 01 February 2002
Published in
World Music - CD Reviews
A SYMPHONY OF CITIES is an intricate blending of world music vision with themes of improvised jazz and contemporary jazz, with a distinct and intimate focus on solo perform…
30 Jan
Christos Rafalides Manhattan Vibes by Christos Rafalides' Manhattan Vibes
Wednesday, 30 January 2002
Published in
World Music - CD Reviews
On his first CD as a leader, vibraphonist Christos Rafalides' Manhattan Vibes has recorded an amazingly creative and eclectic debut. From Afro-funk rhythms to the contempor…
26 Jan
Ska All Mighty by Various Artists
Saturday, 26 January 2002
Published in
World Music - CD Reviews
If you’re a connoisseur of pre-reggae Jamaican music, this wee package will make your day, if not your year. This compilation collects hits as well as rare & previously unr…
25 Jan
Live At The Quick by Béla Fleck & The Flecktones
Friday, 25 January 2002
Published in
World Music - CD Reviews
Live At The Quick is unlike any other CD you'll hear this year, or perhaps ever again in your lifetime. It's that unique. And to declare that Béla Fleck ha…
23 Jan
Black Ivory Soul by Angelique Kidjo
Wednesday, 23 January 2002
Published in
World Music - CD Reviews
One doesn’t have to know the literal meaning of Angelique Kidjo’s songs to understand them.Steeped in the rhythms and traditions of her West African roots, her music tra…
20 Jan
The Cactus Of Knowledge by Rabih Abou-Khalil
Sunday, 20 January 2002
Published in
World Music - CD Reviews
Lebanese oud whiz-kid/composer Rabih Abou-Khalil has been working his fusion of Middle Eastern folk & classical music and post-bop jazz since the early 80s, but The Cactus …
Solo percussion recordings can range from the abstract to the groove oriented. Percussionist Dave Storrs keeps things grooving here. Through multi-tracking, he lays down a …
16 Jan
Face To Face by Richard Galliano & Eddy Louiss
Wednesday, 16 January 2002
Published in
World Music - CD Reviews
Dreyfus Records--committed not so much to putting a European stamp on jazz as reveling in the universality of the music--has been making available to the American public a …
Klezmer, like Western Swing, was a "fusion" music that had lain dormant for some time, shoved into the back of the cultural closet by changing times and the desire by Jewis…
SENSUAL is the epitome of an excellent blending of Latin/Paraguayan/Brazilian jazz featuring the remarkable Roberto Perera on the Paraguayan harp. This 12 selection CD coll…
09 Jan
Fully Rigged by Aly Bain & Ale Moller
Wednesday, 09 January 2002
Published in
World Music - CD Reviews
Multi-instrumentalist Ale Moller will be familiar to some Jazz Review readers via his appearances on vocalist Lena Willemark’s two discs on ECM; Scottish folk fiddler Aly B…
This CD is not what it appears to be; at first glance, you notice a gaunt man with an acoustic guitar seated Indian-style without shoes on the inside cover; a placid villa …
The title of Renee Rosnes' most recent CD is certainly ambitious. Unlike Pearl Buck's novel, The Good Earth, which contained a double as well an ironic meaning, Rosn…
04 Jan
Black Cherry by Organic Grooves
Friday, 04 January 2002
Published in
World Music - CD Reviews
Polyrhythmic Paradise - Maintaining the philosophy that accompanied PIERCING THE VEIL, volume 1, William Parker & Hamid Drake have painted the landscape of the world of mus…
Omar Sosa is a Cuban composer and pianist who continues to create a world music setting for jazz which includes African themes, folklore expressions, Venezuelan and Morocca…
Jim Savitt's guitar playing is being compared to the likes of George Benson, Peter White and Marc Antoine. Very good company to keep, indeed, and the more I listen to the H…
03 Aug
Forgotten Voices by Brian Whistler
Friday, 03 August 2001
Published in
World Music - CD Reviews
Forgotten Voices is a quietly addicting album that slowly but surely works its way into the subconcious. An eclectic mix of world-jazz pop tunes with Balinese, Brazilian, a…
02 Aug
Hagesher Chai—The Bridge Lives / The Word by Jeff Haas Trio / The Word
Thursday, 02 August 2001
Published in
World Music - CD Reviews
THE WORD: John Medeski: Organ, Piano, and Keys, Robert Randolph: Pedal steel guitar, THE NORTH MISSISSIPPI ALLSTARS: Luther Dickinson, guitar, Cody Dickinson, drums, and Ch…
31 Jul
Jazz, Macedonian Folk Dances and Classical Music by Tale Ognenovski
Tuesday, 31 July 2001
Published in
World Music - CD Reviews
Tale Ognenovskione of the Greatest Instrumentalists and Composers in World Music has been released a brilliant Audio CD, entitled, "Jazz, Macedonian Folk Dances and …
Mari Boine (a.k.a. Marie Boine Person) is a Norwegian vocalist descended from the Samis, a people from northern Scandinavia once known as Lapland, from whence came a yodel-…
Exoticism is a hard shell to crack: we tend to find dialogue destitute unless "they" have something terribly different - wild and exotic - to offer "us." Musically speaking…
For jazz listeners who enjoy the eclectic with world music influences and jazz motifs, they will find WHEN ABOVE an exciting listening adventure. There are 9 original compo…
Paris Como has put together a highly creative collection of songs in ATTRACTION. It carries a lot of different jazz motifs, gypsy music, and has a surreal feel to its perfo…
04 Jul
Forces 1977 - 1982 by Terrorists
Wednesday, 04 July 2001
Published in
World Music - CD Reviews
Though their moniker might be more than a little edgy (to say the least) these days than in the band’s own time, Terrorists - from New York City - were a great reggae/ska/d…
For the uninitiated, Mari Boine hails from the frozen arctic area of Norway. She is one of the indigenous "Sami" people who inhabit the north of Finland/Sweden/Norway. Like…
Fado is a folk music from Portugal, a sort of plaintive folk-blues with undertones of Flamenco from neighboring Spain. This woman Mariza is a wonderful Fado singer - no, ma…
23 Jun
Mysterious Barracudas by Respectable Groove
Saturday, 23 June 2001
Published in
World Music - CD Reviews
For those who wish to expand jazz music beyond a single category, this album is for you.Uniting the worlds of classical, jazz and world music into one, Respectable Groov…