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Jazz Articles about Ry Cooder
John Lee Hooker: The Best of Friends
by Doug Collette
In contrast to his often (always?) irascible peer Chester Burnett, aka Howlin' Wolf, John Lee Hooker has long been amenable to collaborations, reciprocal and otherwise. Bonnie Raitt, Los Lobos, Charlie Musselwhite and Carlos Santana, among others, appeared on The Healer (Chameleon,1989) and all those artists also populate the credits for The Best of Friends. (Santana, the Mexican-born guitar hero, appears with two different iterations of his band). Fittingly titled, this anthology is a suitable companion piece to Whiskey ...
Continue ReadingRy Cooder: Music Can Bring People Together
by Nenad Georgievski
The world of music is better because Ry Cooder is in it. He is now among a small handful of artists writing the book on how to keep pushing musical boundaries past the age of senior citizenship, continuing to take chances and exploring. His whole career has been incredibly varied and characterized by exploration, sitting on the edge between the traditional and the innovative. As a result, he has imbued the varied American folk traditions with his style and vision. ...
Continue ReadingRy Cooder and Taj Mahal: Get on Board: The Songs Of Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee
by Nenad Georgievski
There is an African proverb that says “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together." The intimacy and the dynamics of the duet setting have long appealed to virtuoso guitarist Ry Cooder. During his expansive six decade career, he has released several adventurous duets and collaborative albums with luminaries such as guitarist Ali Farka Toure, Vishwa Mohan Bhatt or Manuel Galban, to name but a few. Get on Board is ...
Continue ReadingRy Cooder, Ibrahim Ferrer & Ruben Gonzalez: Buena Vista Social Club
by Nenad Georgievski
One of the criteria for testing whether an album is a classic or not is to see its endurance and lasting appeal long after it was made rather than its immediate impact. When it comes to the Buena Vista Social Club album it not only made its impact soon after it was released, surpassing record sales projections, but almost 20 years ahead it still delights listeners, and most importantly it is still the best-selling recording in the “world music" genre ...
Continue ReadingRy Cooder and Corridos Famosos: Live in San Francisco
by Nenad Georgievski
Over the course of his illustrious career, visionary guitarist/producer Ry Cooder has been one of the most prolific and restlessly creative forces in contemporary music. For a period of over four decades his music and songs have helped shape the American music landscape by filtering the roots of his country's musical history through his own personal style and worldview. His music is a beautiful concoction of blues, folk, country, pop, rock, gospel, Norteno, jazz, and world music that he traverses ...
Continue ReadingRy Cooder: Ry Cooder & Corridos Famosos - Live in San Francisco
by C. Michael Bailey
Ryland Peter Cooder is the quintessential American Music iconoclast who spent more of his career creatively south of the border. Early American jazz and blues, Tex-Mex, Hawaiian, Cooder loved them all and delved deeply into each. A slide guitarist comparable to peers Duane Allman and Mick Taylor, it was Cooder who turned Keith Richards on to the open-G tuning that resulted in “Honky Tonk Women," and by extension “Street Fighting Man" and “Brown Sugar." Cooder had a string of eccentric, ...
Continue ReadingBuena Vista Social Club: At Carnegie Hall
by AAJ Italy Staff
Meglio tardi che mai. Un titolo che continua a “perseguitare” i Buena Vista Social Club. Giunti tardi al successo e alla notorietà, i grandi vecchietti cubani incisero nel 1997 il CD omonimo: il disco più venduto nella storia della world music. Per la prima volta, grazie a Ry Cooder il mondo conobbe la voce diafana di Ibrahim Ferrer, il chitarrista cantante Compay Segundo, la voce ancestrale di Omara Portuondo, il pianismo solare di Rubén González. Toccò a Wim Wenders il ...
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