Tag Archives: world music

Manel Fortià & Libérica’s Arrels

Catalan jazz, combining the blues-based American idiom with flamenco, is having a moment, and Manel Fortià is in the thick of it. The Catalan double bass player spent some three years in New York playing with the likes of Dave … Continue reading

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El Khat’s Albat Alawi Op.99

El Khat’s Albat Alawi Op. 99 is nothing if not exhilarating. Eyal el Wahab’s passionate and cryptic Arabic lyrics, set to polyrhythmic music that is alternately minimalist and maximalist, is one of the most intriguing releases of 2022 so far. … Continue reading

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Pere Romaní’s Harmònic

Pere Romaní is a Barcelona based musician and composer who plays melodeon in a variety of styles in several different ensembles and settings. He’s studied music for most of his 40 years, singing, playing piano and many other instruments including … Continue reading

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Club d’Elf’s You Never Know

So I guess now I’m a fan of dub? Or at least of some of its hybrids in world music, like the Turkish psychedelic dub of Baba Zula, the American Southwestern dub experiments of Calexico, and now this world-dub-jazz hybrid … Continue reading

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Almalé’s Hixa Mía

Pilar Almalé is a multi-faceted artist from Spain whose main focus is on early music, for which she plays the Renaissance instrument viola da gamba, a cello-sized instrument that has more strings and is played between the knees. But she … Continue reading

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Lorenzo DeStefano’s Los Zafiros: Music From the Edge of Time

There has been a re-awakening of interest in the music of Cuba. Even with its turbulent history, the island, which sits just 90 miles off the tip of Florida, was almost forgotten as the United States sought to ignore it. … Continue reading

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An omnibus review of music guides, Rough and otherwise, to folk, world, and opera

Neal Walters and Brian Mansfield’s musicHound Folk Adam McGovern, editor’s musicHound World Simon Broughton’s The Rough Guide to World Music, Volume One Simon Broughton’s The Rough Guide to World Music, Volume Two John Guinn and Les Stone’s The St. James … Continue reading

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Gail Holst-Warhaft’s Road To Rembetika

Judith Gennett wrote this review. Sometime during the late nineties our radio station in Texas received an archival rembetika CD from Rounder Records. It all sounded Greek to me, but then I began to read the lyrics. Pick-pockets, jail, knife … Continue reading

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An omnibus review of traditional Georgian and Russian Cossack music

Big Earl Sellar wrote this review. The former Soviet Union is one of the least explored areas in terms of traditional music, encompassing hundreds, if not thousands, of regional music genres. We have only begun to scratch the surface of … Continue reading

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Duo Temuzhin’s Altai-Khangain-Ayalguu; Ensemble Ardiin Ayalguu’s Solongo; Ensemble Temuzhin, Altai-Khangain-Ayalguu 2

Big Earl Sellar wrote this review. This is sort of a full circle review for yours truly. My first review (my “audition,” if you will) for Green Man was Tsagaan Sar’s White Moon, a disc of music from Mongolia. And … Continue reading

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