Category Archives: Music

Avishai Cohen and Big Vicious’s Big Vicious

This debut recording by Avishai Cohen’s Big Vicious is such a fun record. It’s a bit unexpected after the rather serious affairs of his quintet album Into The Silence (2015), and his quartet’s album Cross My Palm With Silver (2016), … Continue reading

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Emmi Kujanpää’s Nani

Finnish folk singer, composer, teacher and researcher Emmi Kujanpää continues her ongoing exploration of the intersection of Finnish and Balkan music with her first “solo” recording Nani. I put solo in quotes because this album includes the contributions of the … Continue reading

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The Unthanks’ Diversions Vol. 5 – Live And Unaccompanied

Rachel and Becky Unthank grew up in a musical family in Tyneside, North East England, and came up singing unaccompanied traditional folk songs. With Diversions Vol. 5 they’ve come full circle, making their first album of unaccompanied songs as a … Continue reading

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Western Centuries’ Call The Captain

On their 2020 release as on their previous offerings, Western Centuries plug in and play rock ‘n’ roll with a country accent … or maybe they play country music like a rock ‘n’ roll band. Either way, it’s some of … Continue reading

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Wolfgang Muthspiel’s Angular Blues

Austrian guitarist Wolfgang Muthspiel continues his run of top-notch dates for ECM with Angular Blues. He leads a trio that’s new in the sense that this particular threesome of Muthspiel, Scott Colley on double bass and Brian Blade on drums … Continue reading

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Divahn’s Shalhevet

Many Christian hymns and modern worship songs are based on the popular music of the day with the original secular lyrics replaced by religious themes and words. As it turns out, that’s also a tradition among the Mizrahi, the Jews … Continue reading

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What’s New for the 23rd of February: ’De Herinacio: On the hedgehog’, Don’t Talk About It by Australian expat Ruby Boot, live Irish Music from De Dannan & Skara Brae, Hobos, Mary-Sues, Live from Here replaces Prairie Home Companion and other matters

Most times we only see things for the way we are. But we’re good at lying to ourselves. Sometimes we need somebody who’s not living in our skin to point out how things really are.  ― Charles de Lint’s The … Continue reading

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Teddy Thompson’s Heartbreaker Please

It’s hard to believe that this year marks the 20th anniversary of Teddy Thompson’s recording career. He’d been singing and playing guitar on mom Linda’s and dad Richard’s recordings since the mid ’90s when he released his self-titled debut (which … Continue reading

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Carla Bley Trio’s Life Goes On

In addition to her prodigious output of composing, performing and recording in a wide variety of settings, 81-year-old Carla Bley has been playing in this trio with bassist Steve Swallow and saxophonist Andy Sheppard for some 25 years. This is … Continue reading

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Oded Tzur’s Here Be Dragons

Oded Tzur, a New York based, Tel Aviv born tenor saxophonist, has been intensively studying Indian classical music since 2007 with Hariprasad Chaurasia, master of the Indian bamboo flute known as the bansuri. He and his jazz quartet bring that … Continue reading

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