Category Archives: Music

The Bridge Ceili Band’s Sparks On Flags

Judith Gennett wrote this review. Most popular in the 1950s, before the Chieftains and others transformed Irish music into performance art, ceili bands are traditional Irish dance bands. According to the liner notes of Sparks On Flags, the original nine … Continue reading

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Quagmyre’s Of Cabbages and Kings

Wendy Donahue wrote this review. Readers outside of Canada might not be familiar with Quagmyre, but may have witnessed the talents of several of the band’s members. In recent years fiddler Jon Pilatzke has been seen playing with well-known Celtic … Continue reading

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Various artists’ The King Has Landed: Songs of the Jacobite Risings

Patrick O’Donnell wrote this review. If you could boil down all traditional Celtic music and reduce it to one common ingredient, you’d end up with “oral tradition.” Clans and, before them, tribes, used songs to pass history down through the … Continue reading

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Voice of the Turtle: An omnibus review by Chuck Lipsig

From the Shores of the Golden Horn: Music of the Spanish Jews of Turkey (Paths of Exile, Quincentenary Series Volume I) Bridges of Song: Music of the Spanish Jews of Morocco (Paths of Exile, Quincentenary Series Volume II) Balkan Vistas, … Continue reading

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Manel Fortià & Libérica’s Alé: Iberian Chants

Over the past few years Catalonian jazz bassist Manel Fortià has risen to the top tier of musicians I hold in high esteem and always enjoy listening to. Whether with his trio, or with singer Magalí Sare, or with his … Continue reading

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Ensemble Voskresenie & Nikita Savostin’s Telega, Testo’s Marya.Ivan, and The Unknown Composer’s KOVRЫ (Carpets)

Here are three albums from the 2024 Russian World Music Chart. The music on Telega bridges the folk music of the Perm region of Russia, modern ethno-folk, and musical theater. The songs, most of them dance and other social occasion … Continue reading

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Coloma Bertran’s En Moviment, and Carmela’s Vinde Todas

Barcelona based composer and violinist Coloma Bertran released this EP of experimental dance tunes late in 2024. It’s a beguiling short album that leaves the listener wanting more. Playing entirely by herself with rhythms supplied in part by two guest … Continue reading

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Russian World Music Chart announces Top 20 albums for 2024

Vedan Kolod’s Birds topped the 2024 Russian World Music Chart, voted on by an international jury of 21 World Music representatives from around the globe. The Russian World Music Chart (RWMC), was launched in 2021. Its purpose is to attract … Continue reading

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Scroggins & Rose’s Speranza

I never tire of hearing new versions of the song “Wayfaring Stranger.” A quick spin through my music library finds at least 10 versions by the likes of Eliza Carthy, Emmylou Harris, Neko Case, Jack White, Maria McKee, 16 Horsepower, … Continue reading

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The Fury’s Live In Brooklyn, and Jason Palmer’s The Cross Over: Live in Brooklyn

Giant Step Arts keeps taking giant steps (sorry!) in recorded jazz, dropping this exemplary “supergroup” project as 2024 was closing. This quartet The Fury brings together four important names in current jazz, tenor saxophonist Mark Turner, guitarist Lage Lund, bassist … Continue reading

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