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Various Artists: I Never Meta Guitar Three
by Mario Calvitti
Il terzo volume della serie antologica curata da Elliott Sharp e dedicata alla chitarra del XXI secolo segue l'impostazione dei primi due, aggiungendo il contributo di altri 18 chitarristi. Come nel caso dei due precedenti, l'enfasi è dedicata all'esplorazione delle possibilità di generare nuove sonorità con una chitarra, acustica o elettrica, utilizzando tecniche per lo più non convenzionali e facendo ricorso a effetti elettronici e elaborazioni varie. Se il primo volume vedeva l'intervento di diversi chitarristi noti come Mary Halvorson, ...
Continue ReadingVarious Artists: I Never Meta Guitar Three
by Glenn Astarita
Few would be more equipped to produce this series of various guitarists parading their avant-garde stuff other than New York City-based, and world-renown experimental guitar acolyte, Elliot Sharp. This third installment of the ongoing extravaganza showcases the far-flung imaginations of 18 artists, continuously pushing the envelope via a kaleidoscopic presentation sketched with unconventional acoustic-electric tone poems. It's a rousing celebration of oscillating sound designs, fuzz-toned voicings, and startling digressions as each piece tells a distinct story, largely nestled in atypical ...
Continue ReadingVarious Artists: Verve The Sound of America: The Singles Collection
by Marc Davis
Verve is one of the greatest labels in the history of jazz, and Norman Granz was one of jazz's greatest producers. So why is The Sound of America: The Singles Collection such a mess of a box set? This had such great promise. After all, Verve was home to many legendary performers: Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Jazz at the Philharmonic, Stan Getz, Jimmy Smith. So a boxed set of Verve's greatest hits should be ...
Continue ReadingA Deadly Sin: Gluttony
by Marc Davis
Many years ago, I committed the deadly sin of musical gluttony. I'm Pavlov's dog for a good box set. I love Springsteen's Tracks. I can listen over and over to all 5 CDs in the Brubeck For All Time box set. (Which isn't really a box set. It's just five previously released CDs crammed into a box. I like it anyway.) I'm a sucker for box sets of label histories, like the 9-CD RCA Victor 80th Anniversary box ...
Continue ReadingVarious Artists: Highlife on the Move: Selected Nigerian & Ghanaian Recordings from London & Lagos 1954-66
by John Eyles
This two-CD (or three-LP) compilation covers a period of musical history that remains under-documented but has been hugely influential on the ensuing half century. It brings together thirty-eight tracks by musicians of Nigerian or Ghanaian origin, recorded in Nigeria, Ghana or London, between 1954 and 1966. An indication of the music's vintage is that many of the tracks were originally issued on ten-inch 78 rpm shellac discs or seven-inch 45's; however, there can be no quibbles about the sound quality ...
Continue ReadingThe New Basement Tapes: Lost on the River
by Doug Collette
Suspect as its concept appears, at least at first, The New Basement Tapes: Lost on the River is another entry in the remarkable creative canon of Bob Dylan. And though the man himself does not perform here, he was nevertheless (in)directly involved: he had to give permission for the usage of a clutch of his lyrics from 1967 uncovered during exhumation of material for his 'Bootleg Series' of archive titles. And if the presence of T-Bone Burnett gives ...
Continue ReadingInto The Light: Music of Korea V
by Ian Patterson
The Korean Arts Management Service (KAMS) has put a great deal of energy and resources into promoting the Korean performance arts abroad in the past nine years. Music is one of its biggest exports, with traditional and contemporary Korean music increasingly finding its way into the World Music, jazz and numerous arts festivals of the world. The crossroads where jazz and contemporary improvised music meet was presented in the excellent third volume of Into The Light: Traditional Music ...
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