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Various Artists: Modern Love
by Geno Thackara
Strangely, but perhaps inevitably, the strength of Modern Love is also the thing which makes it suited to niche appreciation more than widespread appeal. Mostly leaning away from the obvious pop and rock of David Bowie's catalogue, this tribute from the BBE Music label focuses on his cuts rooted in soul, R&B, jazz and blues (and often deep cuts at that). Likewise, the intent is for the artists involved not to play it safe but to take each piece somewhere ...
Continue ReadingVarious artists: Alligator Records: 50 Years of Genuine Houserockin’ Music
by Jim Trageser
Maybe this half-century commemoration of the Chicago-based, blues-focused label should have been titled, “The Last of the Independents." Almost alone of the mid-major labels that formerly thrived in the 1980s and '90s by specializing in non-mainstream styles of music, Alligator has managed to navigate stunning changes in the music business--from the vinyl of LPs and 45s to cassettes and CDs, and then, most recently, the virtual collapse of the retail record business and wholesale pivot to online digital ...
Continue ReadingVarious Artists: Excavated Shellac: An Alternate History of the World's Music
by Jakob Baekgaard
Every audio medium has its champions from CD oldies to tape hipsters and lossless purists, but those who like to play big discs with a needle instead of a laser should not be lumped into such a vulgar category as vinyl revivalists. It's both a question of material and size, and true afficionados prefer the fragile format of 78s made of shellac. One of them is Jonathan Ward, who runs the sound blog Excavated Shellac, posting rare ...
Continue ReadingVarious Artists: New Orleans Mambo: Cuba to NOLA
by Chris M. Slawecki
The distance between New Orleans (Louisiana, USA) and Havana (Cuba) is almost exactly 670 miles, about a two-hour flight. But it takes only one listen to Putumayo Records' anthology New Orleans Mambo: Cuba to NOLA to bridge the distance between the two. With such a wide and colorful net to cast, assembling this collection must have been a lot of fun. This includes the companion booklet, which contextualizes the cross- cultural dance between New Orleans and Cuba by ...
Continue ReadingVarious Artists: Indaba Is
by Chris May
There are probably several reasons why American jazz made the deep and lasting impact it did on South Africa in the 1950s. One may be that the colonial regime which was imposed on the country during Europe's pan-African nineteenth-century landgrab was among the most vicious of them all, and persisted the longest through the apartheid system which was in existence until the early 1990s. American jazz was born as protest and cultural-survival music in similar circumstances, and that vibe must ...
Continue ReadingBiennale Musica 2020
by Libero Farnè
Biennale Musica, LXIV edizione Venezia Arsenale: Teatro Piccolo, Teatro alle Tese 25.9—4.10.2020 A differenza che nelle passate edizioni, quest'anno Biennale Musica, sotto la direzione artistica di Ivan Fedele dal 2012, non ha ospitato concerti di jazz. Considerazioni tutt'altro che marginali vengono comunque stimolate dalle varie espressioni della musica contemporanea in programma, rappresentata da autori e interpreti di diverse generazioni, da produzioni originali, prime assolute o italiane e lavori multimediali. In nessun altro festival come ...
Continue ReadingArtisti Vari; Hal Willner: Angelheaded Hipster: The Songs of Marc Bolan & T. Rex
by Maurizio Comandini
Il maledetto killer invisibile, che tutto il mondo sta combattendo, si è portato via uno dei produttori più importanti della storia della musica moderna: il geniale, imprevedibile, incontenibile Hal Willner se ne è volato in cielo ai primi di aprile di questo anno terribile. Ha lasciato il pianeta mentre stava assestando gli ultimi colpi d'anca a questo flipper virtuale multicolorato che fortunatamente è stato poi completato adeguatamente, anche grazie al prezioso lavoro di raccordo di Marc Urselli. Questo doppio fa ...
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