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Kuku: Ballads & Blasphemy
by James Nadal
Yorubaland is a region of southwest Nigeria which extends into parts of Benin and Togo. It is the ancestral homeland of the Yoruba people, and remains a vital source of cultural identity, especially spiritual music and rhythms. Kuku is a singer/songwriter who though born in the United States, is a Yoruba Nigerian, now residing in Paris. He has been in a cross-cultural existence his whole life, brought to light in his 2012 release Soldier of Peace." Ballads & Blasphemy finds ...
read moreGino Sitson: VoiStrings
by James Nadal
The categorization of Jazz Vocal," which through time has come to cover an expanding field of wide ranging artists, might not be the appropriate tag to hang on Gino Sitson.VoiStrings is a showcase for Sitson's vocal extensions to take on another dimension as he explores in depth the art of singing as instrumentation. Accompanied by a tight ensemble that supplies a comfortable setting for Sitson to do his thing, he delivers a relaxed and assuring production, which not only demonstrates ...
read moreBKO Quintet: Bamako Today
by James Nadal
While most musicians have the convenience of being in a relaxed atmosphere while preparing to produce a record, this was not the situation for the members of the BKO Quintet. Amidst the revolutionary turmoil which embroiled Mali in late 2012 to the brink of civil war, they maintained focused on their musical endeavor, albeit with a warranted sense of urgency, until with the proper visas and connections they were able to fly to France to produce Bamako Today. Though it ...
read moreEtenesh & Le Tigre (Des Platanes): Ethiosonic
by Mark F. Turner
This wonderful collaboration of the French jazz group Le Tigre and Ethiopian singer Etenesh Wassie results in music that is visceral, infectious, and culminates with some of the most progressive world music in recent memory. The group is named after the sycamore lace bug (Corythucha ciliata), the nasty little tree-killing insect that was imported to Europe by accident from North America in the early 1970s. In the spirit of its namesake, the Toulouse quartet is all about crossing ...
read moreMulatu Astatqe: Ethio Jazz & Musique Instrumentale
by Chris May
Mulatu Astatqe Ethiopiques 4: Ethio Jazz & Musique Instrumentale Buda Musique 2002
An idiosyncratic amalgam of late 1960s/early 1970s US jazz and jazz-rock refracted through the prism of Ethiopian five-tone scales and harmonies, the early work of composer, keyboardist and bandleader Mulatu Astatqe, the godfather of Ethiopian jazz, has finally edged its way onto the world stage--or more accurately, the celluloid screen.
Following a chance encounter with Ethio Jazz & Musique Instrumentale, ...
read moreEither/Orchestra: Ethiopiques 20: Live in Addis
by Jerry D'Souza
In January 2004, the Either/Orchestra went to Ethiopia to play at the Ethiopian Music Festival. The band has always been flexible in its vision, and so it comes as no surprise that the group decided to play Ethiopian music (the musicians were already familiar with it, having recorded The Ethiopian Suite on More Beautiful Than Death). A natural progression was to invite Ethiopian musicians to join the group as guests. And so they got Gétatchèw Mèkurya, Mulatu Astatqé, Tsèdènia Gèbrè-Marqos, ...
read moreEither/Orchestra: Ethiopiques 20: Live in Addis
by Budd Kopman
Live in Addis, the latest release by the Either/Orchestra, provides a superb example of the way Russ Gershon, E/O's founder and main composer/arranger, keeps the band fresh and exciting by always moving into new territory and never standing still. The path that led to this historic concert has already been described in these pages, but the more important thing is how Ethiopian popular music is refracted through the peculiar lens of Gershon and company to produce something ...
read moreEither/Orchestra: Ethiopiques 20: Live In Addis
by Brian P. Lonergan
A horn lover's paradise exists and it is Addis Ababa. At least, the Ethiopian capital was for one night in January 2004, when the American Either/Orchestra, a proponent of Ethio-jazz, played a rousing concert at the city's third annual music festival. The fortunate result of that night, the two-CD Live in Addis, is the 20th volume of Ethiopiques, a series of albums on Buda Musique dedicated to preserving and promoting Ethiopia's rich musical heritage. The music on ...
read moreEither/Orchestra: Ethiopiques 20: Live in Addis
by Paul Olson
Here's to the wonders of recorded music and cultural exchange. Either/Orchestra leader Russ Gershon's encounter with the Blue Silver label's Ethiopian Groove album, a compilation of the seminal, brass-packed Ethiopian jazz/pop of the 1970s, led him to arrange some of its pieces as The Ethiopian Suite. They were recorded by the E/O for the 1999 album More Beautiful Than Death and eventually were heard by some of the songs' composers, as well as Buda Musique label curator Francis Falceto.
That ...
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