The Klezmatics, Apikorsim, Heretics

The Klezmatics are by now a central institution of the Klezmer revival, celebrated for their irreverent attitude but vibrantly idiomatic take on the tradition. Their new album, Apikorsim, Heretics (World Village 450031) gives us more spirited music with songs that are new to me, irreverent as ever, most frankly espousing an enjoyment of life in spite of troubles, others wearing the mantle of tradition lightly, with the unorthodox freely mingling with the orthodox.

The instrumental and vocal excellence of the band is paramount, and again they take on Klezmer tradition seriously but playfully, sometimes straying adventurously into modern jazz territory and other non-traditional realms, widening what Klezmer can be without losing sight of the roots.

It is music to savor, an album that will remind you that the musical world we inhabit is a remarkably
fluid one, that the river of world heritage is wide so long as we have creative musicians like the Klezmatics to renew our immersion in living form, in tradition as interjected into our polyglot present, just as past Klezmer was a melding of disparate influences.

Kudos!

Shujaat Husain Khan, Katayoun Goudarzi, Ruby

I was planning to cover today's album regardless of world events, but Donald Trump's vitriolic racism of late prompted me to respond immediately with this musical example. Only a racist sees the culture and practice of major world religious groups as monumentally singular and evil. Fact is Eye-sill is a rogue upstart in a Mideastern world, a dangerous group threatening to all other Mideastern polities as well as the West. They are no more representative of Islam than Hitler was of Christianity, or for that matter, Trump is of Christianity. They are barbarians in a region where Judaic, Christian, and Islamic civilizations continue to thrive, where it was born. The three "people of the book" have much in common, a shared heritage belied by extremists alien to the traditions of civilization's heartland.

So to counter that we have some beautiful music based on the poetry of the Persian master poet Rumi, one of the cornerstones of world civilization, a genius among geniuses. It is music in the Indo-Pak classical tradition, arranged by sitarist Shujaat Husain Khan and sung beautifully by Katayoun Goudarzi. The words are in Persian, based on the poetry of Rumi, but it is not necessary to know Persian to appreciate the lovely music here.

Along with Khan's lively sitar we have a fairly large Indo-Pak ensemble of master players of the flute, tabla, sarangi, santoor and percussion. It is very engaging and inspired music. Music brings peace. I hope people can hear this music in the spirit of appreciation and yes, in the spirit of solidarity with those oppressed and in opposition to our common enemy.

Very recommended!

Abelardo Barroso and Orquesta Sensacion, Cha Cha Cha

Abelardo Barroso will be a familiar name only to those who are intimate with the history of 20th century Cuban music. Yet he experienced fame as a singer of son in the earlier recorded days and resurrected himself to acclaim in 1955 as the singer with Orquesta Sensacion. The best of those latter sides have been remastered and reissued as Cha Cha Cha. Leader Rolando Valdez gets a beautifully hot yet sweet sound from the strings, flute and rhythm players of Orquesta Sensacion and Barroso soars atop with his golden-toned voice.

The Cha Cha was a hot commodity in those days and the group scored with several hits that played in Cuban jukeboxes continually. The album covers all of that and more.

It's classic Cuban dance music of the era, sounding today every bit as vibrant and infectious as it no doubt did then. With the strings riffing in bowed or pizzicato style, the solid flute player, the horns and the insistent rhythm...and Barroso! This is the band at their height, a period between 1955 and 1959.

It is music that still packs a huge punch. It is an essential slab of Latin music you definitely need to hear and dig!

Maldivian Traditional Music

Something different? What about music from the Maldive Islands? They are off the coast of India and now are independent. There is a recent 3-CD set out (though I have only heard one disk for preview) called appropriately Maldivian Traditional Music.

The music on the DL I got for review consists of male vocal music, in unison or as call-and-response with hand clapping and hand drumming of a vibrant sort. It is stirring, elemental music that sounds related to Sufi music from that part of the world and pockets in the Mid-East.

This is music seriously intended, not in the least bit "commercial" but DIY traditional. I don't know what else is covered in the set, but this bit of music is enlightening and moving on the primal level, with in some ways a music that crosses the borders between African, South Asian and Mid-Eastern music sensibilities.

Check it out!

Post on Smithsonian Website for UNESCO Reissue Series

My UNESCO-Smithsonian review article just posted--on the music of the Kurds and of West Futuna. http://www.folkways.si.edu/news-and-press/unesco-collection-week-31-exploring-regional-identity-the-music-of-the-kurds-and-west-futuna. Paste the url in your browser to read. Thanks!

Ayelet Rose Gottlieb, Roadsides

Some albums are so unique one has to think for a minute before one tries to describe what you will hear. That is very true of Israeli singer-songwriter Ayelet Rose Gottlieb and her recent Roadsides (Arogole Music 021). Ayelet composed a series of 12 songs based on the work of Palestinian and Israeli poets, a gesture of solidarity with the people of the entire region one has to appreciate.

She does the singing and it has nuance and an expressive beauty. The songs are what one might call Mid-Eastern jazz with an emphasis on song form, some songs being squarely in a very modern-ish ECM-like or otherwise jazz zone, with the Mid-Eastern tonal minor element coming to the fore or receding a bit depending on the song. The ensemble that accompanies her reinforces that two-world (or is it three?) sound via an eclectic mix of oud and violin, guitar, piano, acoustic bass and drums, with the addition of traditional percussionists, etc., from time to time. Some songs have a jazz-rock underpinning, some not, but all are quite interesting in their arrangements, in their song-ful-ness and in their vocal presence.

The result is a modern pan-Israeli-Palestinian music that has much charm and substance if one opens up to it. Fascinating and rewarding listening!

Girma Yifrashewa, Love & Peace

We go through life and every so often we are surprised, pleasantly so, to experience something we didn't expect. That's the case for me with Ethiopian pianist-composer Girma Yifrashewa and his album Love & Peace (Unseen Worlds 13). This is an album of compositions for solo piano, played by the composer.

What's striking for starters is how Yifrashewa uses Ethiopian minor and pentatonic modes in the service of a hauntingly atmospheric, at times almost Satie-esque introspection. Then there are more rollicking numbers, too. But all reflects a classical poise and the vibrant Ethiopian sense of tonal form, something which if we had a time machine we would see goes back many centuries, I suspect.

You might say that Girma Yifrashewa does for Ethiopian music what Abdullah Ibrahim did for the music of South Africa. That is, he puts the essence of his home music into a very pianistic set of expressions. Only perhaps here the music is less obviously jazz-influenced, more classically oriented. But only in degree. One can certainly imagine jazz musicians doing versions of this music with authentic success. But that's for another time, perhaps.

For now we have this very attractive set of piano pieces that rings out true and clear! I love it. You may too.

Ravi Shankar, A Night at St. John the Divine, 1976, Nine Decades Vol. IV

East Meets West Music's ongoing project of digitizing and making available some of Pandit Ravi Shankar's recorded performances is surely a noble one. The fruits of this endeavor can be readily enjoyed in the latest release, A Night At St. John the Divine, Nine Decades Vol. IV (East Meets West 1013), a recording made at New York City's imposing cathedral on August 6, 1976, an all-night concert celebrating the then 20th anniversary of his first US concert.

It must have been some night, with a full troupe of Indian classical masters each giving a recital segment, climaxing with Ravi Shankar appearing with Alla Rakha for a performance of two ragas that coincided with the summer dawn.

It is of course Ravi at the peak of his powers in many ways and the performance lives up to how masterful and brilliant an artist he had become. Pandit Shankar's affiliation with tabla master Ustad Alla Rakha was his most famous, at least here in the West, and for good reason. The recording of Raga Vachaspati that concludes the recital tells you why--especially in the magical concluding movement where a rhythmic figure of four-fours plus "one-half and one half" holds sway. The pattern is brilliantly worked around by Shankar and Rakha with the exceptional creativity and rapport that they had developed working together for so long.

The performance of Multani has a long and moving alap and beyond. It is one of those magical performances that Ravi could give us, akin to his recording of Raga Bhimpalasi from the famous Monterey performance some years before. His exploration of the lower register of the sitar with shruti bends and finesse has something extra-worldly about it, but then of course he goes on from there with customary brilliance.

In short this is prime Ravi Shankar, essential though as yet unknown until now for all those who had the misfortune of missing the performance. I believe I was working the midnight shift that night in New Jersey. For myself and the rest of us who couldn't be there this is a revelation; for those who were it will be a moving reminder, an excellently recorded commemoration and celebration.

Rather essential.

The Snow Lotus: Improvisations on Tibetan Buddhist Hymns

Those who know the music of Tibet, especially if they grew up imbibing the Nonesuch Explorer Series when it was in full flourish, may mostly know Tibetan Buddhist chant with its basso overtone singing, long trumpets and cymbal-meshing interludes.

Yet of course there is more. Tibetan Buddhist hymns, for example, are more conventionally melodic, more within the realm of song form, and can be quite beautiful and expressive in their own special way.

Examples of those have been available to westerners for years on Folkways Records, among others. But to my surprise there is a new album out that takes some of the hymns and rearranges them for vocals, harp, cello and flute. New age? No, not really, because these arrangements do justice to the originals but contemporize them with western instruments faithful to the tonality of the songs and their peaceful outlook.

The Snow Lotus: Improvisations on Tibetan Buddhist Hymns (RMCD-1052) is the result. As Joshua Cheek puts it in his very poetic liner notes, this is not just music that has beauty; it is about beauty. The songs are haunting, sung with feeling by Tsering Tan. Zhang Xiaoyin has a central role to play on harp. She is excellent. But the cello, flute and vibes players have much to add as well, when called upon to do so.

In Joshua's words the songs are, in the tradition, "strong, but not fierce; yielding, but not formless; pure, but not sterile; soothing, but not spiritless, and hearing them can help purify the hearts of listeners." Well-said and, if you give this music a chance, true.

I probably should resist the wordiness of a continuation. This music does what words alone do not--it conveys the concrete magic of considered tone. And sometimes that is exactly what you need.

Hear this one!

Ravi Shankar, Milestones, A Primer to the Maestro's Music

In honor of what would have been Ravi Shankar's 94th birthday East Meets West Music has released a CD and accompanying booklet that surveys the maestro's career in its many facets. Milestones (East Meets West) gives us a full CD with a myriad of different elements of the maestro's music. It is part of the Shankar Foundation's Access Raga initiative, which has as its ultimate goal the digitizing of as many of Shankar's analog recordings as possible.

The recording spans the period between 1950 and 2011, with raga performances, movie soundtracks, his compositional projects, excerpts of him teaching, and even a bhajan set to lyrics in English. Some of these examples are quite obscure, others less so. All of it is worthwhile, indispensable for Shankar adepts.

Of course this is not meant to replace or substitute for the long performances of ragas in context, something that is central to his art. But it gives you a taste of his musical personality, his genius over a long period of time.

Listen and enrich yourself!

FBB: Sibelius-Akatemian Folk Big Band

We live in an era where musically almost anything can happen. You might not hear much of it on the radio, but if you do a little searching some wonderful things may pop up. In many ways I am lucky that in the course of my blogs people who send things out for review by now know that I have an open stance and am pretty much ready for anything.

And so we have something extraordinarily unusual today thanks to those who present me with music to consider. It is FBB: the Sibelius-Akatemian Folk Big Band (SIBA 1012). Folk big band? That's right. As you might have gathered from the mention of the Sibelius Academy, this is a Finnish outfit. It is a group of singers, strings, guitars, winds, accordions, percussion and you-name-it.

The emphasis is on Finnish folk tradition and new music that extends that tradition. Folk fiddling is out front but then the whole band is out front. Sometimes you have the eerie feeling that you are listening to traditional Irish music, but no, it's just the affinity across regional traditions. Then there are things that sound like they could be medieval--and again it's part of the rootedness of this music. You'll hear all kinds of things mingling together that have lived musical lives in Finland. And it is beautiful, truly, all of it.

This is in every way a remarkable record. The artistry is top notch, the arrangements are just ravishing, and the music will haunt you. If the world is your home musically, this is definitely HOME. You don't want to miss this one if you look for things that are different yet musically alive! Live with this one a bit and you will find yourself opening up to it! Definitely recommended.

Wouter Kellerman, Mzansi

For whatever historical reasons the tin whistle has been well established in South African traditional music for many years. South African flautist and all-around musical artist Wouter Kellerman unleashes that and his standard flute in an album of traditional and modern South African music, Mzansi (Kellerman 47006).

The album has pan-African influences in its instrumentation and approach as well as a conventional rhythm section. We get South African vocal stylings, a funk ambiance, contemporary elements like reggae and the melodic, playful flute solos of Kellerman.

He is perhaps no Eric Dolphy (actually he owes more to a Roland Kirk soulfulness) but he has a beautiful tone and plays nicely in a folk-jazz sort of way. It's the sound of the album as a musical offering, a modernized Afro-funk that gives you an impactful experience, rather than a flute-plus-rhythm "pure jazz" effort. But that is cool once you listen a few times and adjust expectations.

It's a beautiful listen.

Kheshwa and Her Martians, Meadowlands, Stolen Jazz

Keshwa (Nonhlanhla Kheswa) is a South African singer in the SA jazz tradition and she is good. Her band is called the Martians and they have that gently rocking, swinging kind of groove within which soprano and tenor sax, piano and trumpet soloists come across as hip.

They do a full set on their album Kheshwa & Her Martians Meadowlands, Stolen Jazz (Xippi). It is filled with some traditional songs from earlier times (I recognize one or two), and what sounds like some originals.

Keshwa sounds slightly like Miriam Makeba but only as a reference. The band rips it up--and here you have CONTEMPORARY South African jazz! And it's good. So get onto it if that gives you anticipation, because it delivers.

The Road to Jajouka: A Benefit Album

Ever since Brian Jones of Rolling Stones fame recorded and released an album of music by the Master Musicians of Jajouka, Morocco, the group of wind players, drummers, etc., has been an important part of the musical map we who take note of such things have in our heads.

They've had a number of albums over the years and also been collaborators in meta-fusion encounters, notably with Ornette Coleman. And now there's a new album out, put together especially as a benefit for them and the funds they need to keep on, The Road to Jajouka (Howe).

This is a fascinating collection of collaborations between Jajouka musicians and contemporary jazz and rock musicians of note. The participants include Ornette Coleman, Marc Ribot, Medeski, Martin & Wood, Flea, John Zorn, Lee Ranaldo, Mickey Hart, etc.

It places the Jajouka tonality and playing style in a variety of Euro-American rock and jazz modes and does so with consistent success. And, best of all, you'll be helping them by getting the CD. Ultimately you should hear an album of their music in the North African context, but that can be something you can do later. This one is a kind of great adventure of musico-cultural integration and stands on its own with some very different twists and turns!

Raquel Bitton, Rhythm of the Heart

There is never a shortage of unexpected combinations out there in musicland. Here we have one today, singer Raquel Bitton and her album Rhythm of the Heart (self-released RB 4302-2). It's Raquel and a 20-piece Latin-cabaret group doing songs associated with Latin singer Tino Rossi. There are tangos, boleros, cha chas, sambas, bossas, merengues, danzons, all arranged nicely for the large group in classic '40s-'50s nightclub fashion. Rossi was especially a French sensation during his lifetime.

So Raquel singing these songs in French is definitely not a stretch. She has the voice of a chanteuse, well nuanced and well presented.

This is the sort of thing that left me at first hearing scratching my head, but a few listens later I fell into its spell and there I remain.

It's not exactly jazz, so don't expect a swinging band and lots of solos. There are strings, a Latin rhythm core and some nicely turned horn parts. Not jazz, no, though Xavier Cugat is not so far away when you hear it. What you get is total charm and a Cuban-French combination that sticks in your head after a while. And Raquel can sing.

Different!! Nicely so...

Yma Sumac, Recital, 1961

Vocalist Yma Sumac was a supreme presence in the late-'50s early-'60s. She came upon the scene as part of Capitol Records' somewhat ambitious series of hi-fi exotica releases of that time. Space-age bachelors and other adventurous souls suddenly found themselves craving a music that satisfied the paradoxical two-fold need of furnishing an aural complement to their professed modernity while at the same time giving them access to the remote far-away ethnic paradises they envisioned after work hours, after the incessant strivings of the work day had taken their toll and it was time to get away into sanctuaries of cooldom.

Enter Yma Sumac, Inca Goddess. The original LPs combined Les Baxter's faux-ancient exotic arrangements with real contemporary Peruvian musical touches. And of course Yma Sumac herself. Hers was a voice of extraordinary range and color, trained yet let free to reach some thrilling heights of brilliance.

Some time in 1961 she appeared in Bucharest for a full recital with a few traditional musicians and the full sonic arsenal of the Romanian National Radio-Television Orchestra. Fortunately the tapes were rolling and the results are available on a new LP/CD all-inclusive package as Recital (ESP 4029). The LP omits the instrumental orchestral interlude cuts in order to fit the time limitations of vinyl; the CD has the full concert.

This live setting gives you a good bit of Yma, many pieces from her LP releases and several I do not recognize. Either way her vocal exceptionality is in full-force on that evening. There is power, freedom and an experimental side to her vocal barrage. Listening here to this decent, quite acceptable if sometimes a little orchestrally cramped sonic stage, I think of vocalists in the jazz avant realm who followed and wonder if they had listened to Ms. Sumac. It is possible. There is a certain avantness to her singing.

The producers-arrangers in their wish to create the exotic ambience allowed, even encouraged Ms. Sumac a good bit of latitude at times and her exceptional vocal prowess led to some pyrotechnics that one can hear as in the "out" realm. Because, after all this was suppose to be music in the realm of "out." Out of the ordinary, out of the mainstream. And too as I listened again after so long I realized that Yma Sumac was to Inca music what Sun Ra quickly was becoming in that day for the music from Outer Space. It all came about once one felt one could (assuming the talent, ability, sometimes genius to do it well) take latitude to create imaginary yet very much living musical cultures on the basis of musical free license. I would not like to compare Les Baxter with Sun Ra because Sun Ra far exceeded Mr. Baxter for musical innovation and importance. Yet there is a relation. There was something in the air, then. And, though it would never have happened I suppose, it would have been something else and not that far a stylistic stretch to imagine a collaboration between Yma Sumac and Sun Ra's Arkestra. It would have been something to hear, I am sure. Especially with Sun Ra's music as the focus and catalyst.

But what we do have is this Recital and the original LP sides. The music works best when there is enough of a Latin-Peruvian cast to the overall sound yet the full-blown exotica fantasy is also operative. There is plenty of that on the Recital. And there are some nice moments of traditional Peruvian music too.

It's a great way to introduce yourself to Yma Sumac the artist. And for those who have the LPs and love what they hear this will be a treat!

Ravi Shankar, The Living Room Sessions Part 2

A titan has fallen. Ravi Shankar is no more. The Living Room Sessions Part 2 (East Meets West Music 1009), I can only assume, will be the last album planned and executed by Ravi during his lifetime, so it is in that sense his farewell to us.

I could fill many pages with how his appearance changed the course of Western Music and Western Culture. I will not do so today, except to say that his influence has been enormous. If today there are many here in the US who have become great appreciators of the classical Indian music tradition, if South Asian musical form has had great influence on both art and popular musics over the years in the West, much of that has to do with him.

And of course as an extraordinary composer and sitarist he has excelled and done much to extend ideas of form and to innovate with elements not ordinarily brought together in traditions of North and South India as well as with western elements. All this he has done. But it was primarily as sitarist brilliantly performing raga with tabla and tanpura that we first encountered him here and so it is perhaps fitting that he takes his leave of us in this way.

Part 2 continues where Part 1 left off, Ravi Shankar in the comfort and informality of his own living room giving us extended raga performances with talented tabla master Tanmoy Bose.

As in Part 1 the alap and mid-tempo portions of a raga performance predominate. Ravi was at this point somewhat frail and so mostly shies away from displays of technical wizardry that were a usual part of a performance in earlier years. We get some very absorbed and profound meditations from Ravi that make up for it, plus some gats (compositions) that stay in the mind. He sings effectively and briefly in the Sindhi Bhairavi performance what may be a part of a bhajan (devotional song) that then serves as a gat. He dampens the strings for a time and he sometimes repeats a motif to engage in more purely rhythmic interplay with Bose, and at one point makes of the sitar a drum, playing one note in various rhythmic articulations.

In the end, Ravi is having a great time here, as he enthusiastically exclaims at the end of the last track. And along the way he gives us some engaging and profound last thoughts, musically speaking. He takes liberties and operates in a free zone for much of this CD. It gives him joy and that joy is contagious. We are grateful for a lifetime of devotion and genius. We now say goodbye to his earthly presence. His music will live on. Thank you so much.

Rabih Abou-Khalil, Hungry People

I've been listening to the music of oud player, composer, bandleader Rabih Abou-Khalil with interest for quite a few years. He has absorbed the oud tradition as practiced in the mid-east and created a modern sound that is as much mid-eastern as it is influenced by jazz fusion.

He has a new one, Hungry People (World Village), and it's good. He is joined by his "Mediterranean Quintet" of accordion, drums-percussion, contrabass/tuba, and soprano sax.

The band straddles eastern Mediterranean ethno-folk styles and traditional oud taqsim. Rabih is an excellent player and his bandmates have harnessed their considerable musicianship to a very spirited compositional amalgam that has rhythmic excitement and melodic substance.

A nice one! Get on your dancing shoes!

Antonio Zambujo, Quinto

Portuguese fado when done properly conveys the melancholic sophistication of saudade, which is the sort of sadness that comes to grips with something or someone that has gone from your life, that you can't have or cannot return to, yet you have a deep longing for.

Antonio Zambujo strikes me as one of the best modern-day fado artists I have heard. He manages to combine the traditional string ensemble sound and saudade-enriched vocals with memorable melodies and innovative arranging touches--like the use of a bass clarinet for part of the record. And his voice is strong, matter-of-fact yet moving.

What record? Quinto (World Village). It's a beautiful recital. Whether you know fado intimately or are new to it, you will find Quinto a thing of beauty. Really.

Duo Jalal Explores the Convergence of Indigenous Mid-Eastern, Modern Compositional and Improvisational Approaches on "A Different World"

We of course live today in a global village. We take as a matter of course that musical traditions that centuries ago would reach our shores solely in the form of immigrants now can be studied in depth via recordings and live concerts by world-class practitioners from every corner of the globe. We may only be on the edge of what this could mean for music in the world at large, but it is an exciting time for those who wish to reach out and explore what humanity has accomplished with their "second voice" in the widest sense.

Duo Jalal serves as a fine example of what we are seeing (hearing). It consists of violist Kathryn Lockwood and percussionist Yousif Sheronik. A Different World (Innova 793) devotes an entire CD to pieces that span traditional and compositional realms. Kathryn Lockwood combines classical technique, a ravishing tone, and a most definite feel for the mideastern musical mode. Yousif Sheronik adds his mastery of traditional mideastern and south Asian hand drumming (frame drum, tumbek, etc.). They tackle pieces that range from the more formal minimalism of Philip Glass to melodic frameworks that give room for improvisation within their form (such as David Krakauer's "Klezmer a la Bechet"), to the more through-composed modern post-classicism of Kenji Bunch.

Both artists show excellence in stylistic grasp and nuanced execution. Duo Jalal breathes a freshet of new wind into the sails of a form of music that goes back countless centuries. The composers represented do the same on their end.

A Different World, that. It is our world today. The maps we see have hard and fast borders. The music we hear transcends those borders, sometimes. Duo Jalal does just that with a very memorable album. Very much recommended.