Category Archives: Music

Chien Chien Lu’s Built In System (Live from New York)

I haven’t enjoyed any album of straight-ahead jazz this year more than I’ve enjoyed Chien Chien Lu’s Built In System. It’s an astonishingly assured sophomore release from a rising star of jazz and the vibraphone in particular. She’s one of … Continue reading

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Various artists’ 100 Ans de Musique Traditionnelle Quebecoise (100 Years of Traditional Quebecois Music)

I have to be upfront about this. I am a sucker for a box set! Just looking at anthologies excites me! 100 Ans de Musique Traditionnelle Quebecoise is just what it promises to be, on four double CDs, all packed … Continue reading

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Ken Whiteley’s Acoustic Electric, and Le Vent du Nord’s Maudite Moisson!

Ken Whiteley is a multi-talented musician. He has played behind such people as Tom Paxton and Leon Redbone; he was part of the Original Sloth Band; he and his brother Chris (not to be confused with American slide guitarist Chris … Continue reading

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Frank Zappa’s Zappa Picks – By Jon Fishman of Phish

Frank Zappa was an iconoclastic American musician. He surfaced in the ’60s but was decidedly non-hippie and anti-drug, and his music drew more on jazz and cabaret than the folk and acid-rock of that decade. If I had to pick … Continue reading

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Frank Zappa’s Zappa Picks – by Larry LaLonde of Primus

Frank Zappa has become legendary in death. He must be laughing as he looks down, or up, from wherever he is spending eternity. His music is still available in beautifully packaged editions, just the way he always wanted it to … Continue reading

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Vela Luka Croatian Dance Ensemble’s Vela Luka

Vela Luka has been one of the most popular acts at the Northwest Folklife Festival in Seattle, Washington, for many years. The ensemble’s self-produced, -released, and -distributed CD gives a good idea of why. Clocking in at a little more … Continue reading

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Various artists’ Cork Folk Festival Archive

Live music is the real music – there is a certain magic between audience and performer that is difficult to translate to the digital realm. Studio music often preserves the idea that inspired the artist, and creates a different magic … Continue reading

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Rabor’s Beyond The Outskirts

Rabor is a Moscow-based ensemble that currently makes ambient folk music based on old Russian folk ritual music. I say currently because until fairly recently they were part of the dungeon synth music scene, of which I knew absolutely nothing … Continue reading

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Shono’s Kolkhozoy Traktor

In this globalized world is there anything as common as a band that blends the traditional folk songs of its culture with modern rock? Or as wonderful when it’s done right, which is what Shono does. Shono, which means Wolf, … Continue reading

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Wolfgang Muthspiel’s Dance of the Elders

Austrian guitarist Wolfgang Muthspiel returns with the same trio that recorded the critically acclaimed Angular Blues, for another outing that seamlessly blends folk, classical and jazz. Drawing on the quieter aspects of the repertoires of bassist Scott Colley and drummer … Continue reading

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