Category Archives: Music

Lodestar Trio’s Bach to Folk

These days I particularly enjoy music that combines roots or folk music with other traditions including jazz and classical. The musicians of Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland seem particularly adept at this sort of thing: Norwegian guitarist Jakob Bro, the … Continue reading →

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Enkel’s Love Hurts

The third studio album by Finland’s folk quartet Enkel is an altogether enjoyable affair. Enkel is Finnish for angel, and Leija Lautamaja, Miia Palomäki, Maija Pokela, and Iida Savolainen indeed sing like angels, sometimes solo or in duet, sometimes all … Continue reading →

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Feufollet’s Cow Island Hop

The musicians of Feufollet are still quite young, but Cow Island Hop is their fourth CD. It is an excellent collection of Cajun music. The six musicians of Feufollet (the name is a Cajun word for a prairie spirit or … Continue reading →

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Morelenbaum2 / Sakamoto’s A Day in New York

Mike Stiles wrote this review. Every once in a while I get a CD to review like this one. It doesn’t really fall into my category of taste but it carries the distinction of high technical merit, sort of like … Continue reading →

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Franz Joseph Haydn’s Piano Sonatas Numbers 29, 31, 34, 35 and 49, Emanuel Ax, piano

Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) is one of the two giants of the Classical Period, the other being Mozart; like Mozart, Haydn’s music has been viewed in recent years, unjustly, as rococo, “snuff-box” music — charming, pleasant and good-natured. The name … Continue reading →

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Various composers’ Horowitz Live and Unedited: The Historic 1965 Carnegie Hall Return Concert, Vladimir Horowitz, piano

Much has been written recently about the doom awaiting the classical music recording industry as labels slash budgets, terminate artist contracts and reduce the numbers of releases. Orchestras with long associations with record labels now find themselves with no recording … Continue reading →

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Trio Mediaeval’s Messe de Tournai, Words of the Angel

The manuscript for the Messe de Tournai was discovered in the nineteenth century in the library of Tournai Cathedral. Its existence, as is so often the case with manuscripts of this period, owes as much to chance as anything else, … Continue reading →

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Al-Qasar’s Who Are We?

What do you get when you combine a French-American electric guitar whiz-kid, a Moroccan singer and percussionist, a versatile rhythm section, and guest singers and players from the top ranks of World music and punk rock? Probably something like Al-Qasar, … Continue reading →

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An interview with Nick Burbridge of McDermott’s Two Hours and other endeavors

Nick Burbridge, vocalist and tunesmith with McDermott’s Two Hours, joins me in the Green Man Pub for a conversation about him, his music, and his views on a number of political subjects. I first encountered his band when reading George … Continue reading →

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Craig and Kara Markley’s Once Upon a Winter Moon

Cleveland-area musician Craig Markley showcases the emerging vocal talent of his daughter Kara in this self-produced offering for the holiday season. In the title track, a plaintive flute melody over brooding synthesizer chords leads into a setting of the medieval … Continue reading →

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