Sunday, August 17, 2025

Ornette Coleman: Free Jazz

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Having first heard this 35 years ago (on vinyl) in the earliest explorations of jazz (along with classical and world music, to broaden liste...
Thursday, August 14, 2025

L. Subramaniam: In Concert

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From one violinist, Laurie Anderson, to another, we turn to the astounding Lakshminarayana Subramaniam, whose Carnatic music from South Indi...
Wednesday, August 13, 2025

Laurie Anderson: Big Science

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Why it took so long to get this album is another example of missing out for many years on an amazing landmark recording by a remarkable arti...
Friday, July 18, 2025

The Abyssinians: Satta Massagana

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This 1993 release, with a quartet of extra tracks, of the 1976 roots reggae classic is probably best known for the title track, which is one...
Thursday, July 17, 2025

Carlos Hernández Chávez and Los Trovadores: Songs of México (I)

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This 1994 JVC World Sounds release has the note on the back tray that "this disc is perfect for novice Mexican music listeners" an...
Wednesday, July 16, 2025

Muhal Richard Abrams: Levels and Degrees of Light

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The music coming out of Chicago's Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) from the mid-1960s and onward was nothing...
Monday, July 14, 2025

Joan Tower: Chamber and Solo Works

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This recording, another excellent release by Composers Recordings Incorporated (CRI), which existed for about a half century from 1954 to 20...
Sunday, July 6, 2025

Bruce Springsteen: Nebraska

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This album was purchased new after its late September 1982 release and for a 17-year old who'd heard familiar Springsteen songs like ...
Saturday, July 5, 2025

Iraq: The Maqams of Baghdad

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Here is another stellar recording in the series issued by Ocora, the label of Radio France, featuring amazing music from around the world.  ...
Friday, July 4, 2025

John Coltrane: Live in Japan

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In July 1966, a year before his far-too-early death at age 40, John Coltrane and his quintet toured Japan amid a period of American turmoil....
Thursday, July 3, 2025

Henryk Górecki: Miserere

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Miserere means "have mercy" and, in these particularly troubled times of war, sectional strife, deportations, political assassinat...
Wednesday, April 23, 2025

Brian Eno: Ambient 1/Music for Airports

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A prior post here covered the amazing first collaboration by Robert Fripp and Brian Eno, 1972's (No Pussyfooting) and, at some point, w...
Wednesday, April 16, 2025

Madagascar: Pays Antanosy Sarandra

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Madagascar, an island off the southeastern portion of Africa (and probably only known to most Americans because of the 2005 film of the name...
Tuesday, April 15, 2025

Tim Berne's Snakeoil: You've Been Watching Me

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With Tim Berne, there's pretty much a constant that there is no constancy in his prolific catalog of work dating back now close to a hal...
Monday, April 14, 2025

Edvard Grieg: Piano Music Vol. 2

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The prolific piano works of the master composer Edvard Grieg (1843-1907) have been issued by the Naxos label in many volumes recorded by Ein...
Sunday, April 13, 2025

Joni Mitchell: Court and Spark

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Why it took this long to get to listening to Joni Mitchell is an interesting question because she's certainly been someone who's bee...
Saturday, April 12, 2025

China: Uyghur Music

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One of the great tragedies of our time is the terrible treatment of the Uyghur people of the province of Xinjiang at the furthest western ed...
Friday, April 11, 2025

Horace Tapscott and the Pan-Afrikan Peoples Arkestra: Flight 17

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The great Horace Tapscott, as mentioned before, was the act in the courtyard of the now-leveled sections of the Los Angeles County Museum of...
Wednesday, April 9, 2025

Jennifer Higdon: All Things Majestic/Viola Concerto/Oboe Concerto

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Despite having a Pulitzer Prize and Grammy, the Brooklyn-native composer Jennifer Higdon, who grew up near Atlanta and in eastern Tennessee,...
Sunday, February 23, 2025

Burning Spear: Man in the Hills/Dry and Heavy

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This reissue of a pair of classic prime-era reggae albums by Winston Rodney's Burning Spear project on Island Records takes us back to 1...
Saturday, February 22, 2025

Bob Dylan: Highway 61 Revisited

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Before the film, A Complete Unknown , was known to this blogger, an interest in revisiting the music of Bob Dylan surfaced last year after c...
Friday, February 21, 2025

Music of Polynesia II: Tuamotu, Austral Islands

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This excellent release from the JVC World Sounds series from Japan includes 20 pieces, all but three from the Tuamotu Islands and the remain...
Thursday, February 20, 2025

Anthony Braxton/Kyle Brenders: Toronto (duets) 2007

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One of the many amazing attributes of Anthony Braxton's music is that he shines in duet performances, as this listener personally witnes...
Wednesday, February 19, 2025

PainKiller: Samsara

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Samsara  (the cycle of death and rebirth in our material world in Indian philosophy) is a welcome return to recording by PainKiller, the tri...
Tuesday, February 18, 2025

Fred Frith: Guitar Solos

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The last thing anyone should expect in listening to this remarkable and fascinating compilation are "guitar solos" in any popular ...