Music // Multiculti

Multimedia web site dedicated to the Gnawa people, their music and culture...

'This exquisite recording finds one of the most gifted percussionists in Latin music today working in what is perhaps his true element - the Santeria liturgy. The spiritual power of this Afro-Caribbean religious ceremony, sung in Yoruba to the accompaniment of a three-man percussion bata is awesome, but it is the intense articulation of rhythm that makes this music so devastating, incredible.'-JD Considine,Musician Magazine'A wonderful album - absorbing, mesmerizing, beautiful and fun, graceful and sensual. It draws ou into a space and reality all its own, with a mood and flow quite distant from the everyday and yet hauntingly familiar. I found myself playing it over and over...' - City Paper (Washington DC)'Is a stone soul picnic, so party down. If you're going to buy one record this summer, here is one that, in the words of Hebrew National, answers to a higher authority.' - Glenn O'Brien, Interview Recorded in August 1985. Personnel: Milton Cardona (vocals, percussion); Steve Berrios, Hector Hernandez (bata); Jose Fernandez (percussion); Amma Dawn, Teresa Gomez, Sandra Wiles, Linda Evans (background vocals).

Thomas Altmann, 2003

I got the idea from John Santos first, to use chewing gum plus beeswax (again one of those recipes!). I had also learned that in India they mix the dough they use with FeO (black iron oxide) to give more gravity to the substance.

Self-Built Cajónes for Cuban Yambú / Thomas Altmann (2006)

Wayne Shorter (alto & soprano saxophones), Danilo Perez (piano), John Patitucci (bass), Brian Blades (drums). For a super-high-quality, professional video of this stellar performance given by Shorter on his 75th birthday, see: http://tr.im/DHhO

Presenting over 17 jazz radio channels for your enjoyment. Listen for free and enjoy countless hours of the best jazz music around. Similar to AccuJazz radio, with fewer channels and no way to see a "playlist" or "set list" of artists. Still, I like this service quite a lot.

Sharhabeel launched a new genre of Sudanese song, melding jazz vocals with a big band sound, and Sharhabeel and his band became Khartoum's most sought after ensemble. It was a popularity that mushroomed. His synthesiser-driven renditions of traditional songs brought further success and recognition. "It is ironic," he muses, "that in the 21st century, there is not a single recording studio in Sudan," in contrast to the exuberance & optimisim of the 1950s, after Sudan's 1956 independence from Britain. The pentatonic scale of Sudanese music contrasts sharply with the septatonic scale of Arabic music.

Jazz + Classical Music: Convergence + Rapprochement, or Third-Stream Genre :: Essay (Liner Notes for Mirage/New World)

The birth of soundscape aesthetics; postmodernism; minimalism and droning minimalism; second-generation minimalists; event music in the electronic age; collage and field recordings in the electronic age; collage in the age of the sampler; post-jazz; post-chamber; glitch; digital minimialism; ambient avantgarde; database of contemporary composers; chronology; selected works...

Amalgamation of elements of jazz tradition (especially free jazz and jazz fusion of 60s-70s) with instrumentation/concepts of avant punk rock (especially dissonant strains, no wave, grindcore, hardcore). Examples: John Zorn, Bill Frisell, Fred Frith, James Chance & the Contortions, Lounge Lizards. Roots of punk: Velvet Underground, Stooges, MC5. Roots of avant/free jazz: Albert Ayler, Archie Shepp, Roscoe Mitchell, Sonny Sharrock.

New Orleans; Chicago; New York City; Kansas City; Swing; Big Band; Bebop; Cool Jazz; Hard Bop; Post-Bop; Free Jazz; Creative Jazz; Post-Modernism; Latin Jazz; Fusion Styles; Traditionalism; M-Base; Acid Jazz; New-Age Jazz; Post-Fusion; Post-Jazz; Post-Creativity; Rebirth; Digital Improvisation...

Founded by Hugh Tracey at Rhodes University

Surprisingly clear information on video. First, learn to play a solo with only 4 notes. Of course, you can take it far beyond the lesson, using intonation, expression, style, different note-bending, polyrhythmic approaches, etc. Then...more notes! Great way to begin... And many more lessons available, even free, or for low-cost.

Guitarist Nels Cline, recently named a "Guitar God" by Rolling Stone Magazine, presents a brilliant solo CD that covers an extraordinarily brand range of musical styles, with a surprising acoustic sensibility. The provocative title is misleading as this intensely personal album demonstrates a daring musicianship and a willingness to take musical and emotional risks. Coward blends improvisation and composition with a huge and constantly changing emotional and timbral palette. "Coward" is a musical tour de force.

Dave Douglas - Trumpet, Adam Benjamin - Rhodes, Gene Lake - Drums. Marcus Strickland - Saxophones, Brad Joes - Bass, DJ Olive - Turntables. Moonshine, the newest album from trumpeter/composer Dave Douglas' Grammy-nominated band Keystone, is an album that moves musical genres forward into uncharted territory. The evolutionary/revolutionary aspect is found in the vibrant alchemy between Douglas' avant-garde leaning compositions, the relentless, polyrhythmic funk of drummer Gene Lake and bassist Brad Jones, the Sun-Ra-esque sonics of Adam Benjamin who plays a highly modulated Fender Rhodes and the post-post blowing of the front line featuring Douglas and saxophonist Marcus Strickland. But what puts this one over the top is the true integration of a DJ, in this case DJ Olive, into the constantly shifting improvisations of a cutting edge band. Rolling Stone called Keystone's 2005's self titled album, "a modernist requiem." Moonshine takes it a step further: a modernist recipe for the future sound of electronics, jazz, and new composition. "I think of it as Green Beat," says Douglas with a grin, referring to the organic way that the rhythms of vinyl, laptop, and drum set coalesce in this infectious, grooving new album. One forgets all the elements that go into this hybrid music, as each piece amounts to a masterpiece of modern jazz-informed composition and performance. There are many details buried in these tracks, and perhaps the most remarkable thing is that the basis for this recording was a single performance in front of a live studio audience. The state-of-the-art mutli-track recording of this session makes possible a hybrid of the best parts of studio isolation and live excitement. It allowed Greenleaf Music to raise to the highest level the post-production of these recordings.

Rich source of curious and rare information on jazz musicians, culture, history, etc.

Fantastic review/bio/compilation work here, with a playable mixtape of streaming tracks. Lots of goodies at this jazz portal ( www.kalamu.com )

"Festival Internacional de Jazz y Blues en San Miguel de Allende "