The Helsinki-Cotonou Ensemble
Thursday, July 1, 2021, 10:00am
Have you ever listened to an album for the first time and just new moments into the first track that it was just really, really good? The new 2021 release by the Helsinki-Cotonou Ensemble is even better. Better yet, I was tempted to overload last Saturday's broadcast with it. "2009 Finnish...
120,000 Stories
Thursday, July 1, 2021, 10:00am
Upon receiving the new 2021 CD released by Smithsonian Folkways titled "120,000 Stories," I was reminded once again of the global breadth and rich diversity of sounds linked to World music. This album features Asian American artist Nobuko Miyamoto. Generally, when I receive a CD for airplay...
Japanese Folk Songs
Thursday, April 1, 2021, 10:00am
Editor's Note: "This CD includes Japanese folk songs, arranged by Joji Hirota (vocals, shakuhachi, Japanese percussion and drums), with the London Metropolitan Orchestra and two children's choirs from schools destroyed in the 2011 tsunami. Hauntingly beautiful melodies conjure images of Japanese...
In Harlem in Montmartre
Wednesday, November 18, 2020, 10:00am
My budding enthusiasm for ragtime music led me to the following text. Join me in reading, learning and pondering the question asking if the Paris music scene in fact played a 'legitimate' role in helping to 'legitimize' jazz in the U.S. From the introduction: During the years between the world wars...
Granada 1013-1502
Tuesday, November 10, 2020, 10:00am
From the introduction of this 2016 recording: "On this moving portrait of Granada, Jordi Savall leads Hespérion XXI and La Capella Reial de Catalunya in an exploration of 500 years of Spanish history. Granada is a symbol, like no other, of the fruitful but conflictual encounter of the three...
Susana Baca - Ambassador for Afro Peruvian Culture
Friday, September 25, 2020, 10:00am
My 2009 visit to Peru introduced me to the deeply influential music created by the country's Afro Peruvian communities especially in El Carmen, Cañete and Chincha that have significant Afro Peruvian residents. With the voice of Afro Peruvian musician Susana Baca, and exponent of the Afro Peruvian...
BETWEEN THE SKY & PRAIRIE by THE GRASSLANDS ENSEMBLE & DANIEL HO
Friday, September 11, 2020, 10:00am
Ukulele artist Daniel Ho collaborated with The Grasslands Ensemble from the Inner Mongolian prairies of Hulunbuirto create works like theare the Mongolic-speaking East Asian ethnic in Northeast China. Just a rich and delightful recording. Bravo! Daniel Ho, Hawaiian ukulele master with more than 100...
James Weldon Johnson's 1930 work "Black Manhattan"
Thursday, July 23, 2020, 10:00am
James Weldon Johnson (1871-1938) has long been a musical friend of mine, even though he was not known primarily as a musician. He and his brother J. Rosamond Johnson compiled and published in 1940, a representative collection of “American Negro Spirituals." The two-volume set served as a constant...
Hear and See The Music of Duende Libre
Tuesday, July 7, 2020, 10:00am
“The Dance She Spoke” by Duende Libre has been lingering in my mind for several days. I hesitate to say that it fits within the specific category of a collector’s item, though I can without reservation that it is well worth adding to your library. I also pause to confine the collective’s upcoming...
The Art of the Theremin - Risk and Reward
Friday, June 26, 2020, 10:00am
Say the name "theremin". If you're old enough there might be a good chance it will conjure up eerie memories of movie soundtracks from horror or sci-fi movies, like 1951’s “The Day The Earth Stood Still.” The theremin, the grand father of the MOOG Synthesizer is as of 2019, one hundred years old,...
The Pulsating Beat of Baka Beyond
Thursday, June 4, 2020, 10:00am
Collector's Café - Recordings For Your World Music Library. Check here each week for my thoughts on CDs and vinyl recordings in my collection as well as those I've recently added. Once something catches my eye, I generally look for and purchase those on sale as "used in good condition." On occasion...
Voices From Women Of The World
Friday, May 29, 2020, 10:00am
Collector's Café - Recordings For Your World Music Library. Check here each week for my thoughts on CDs and vinyl recordings in my collection as well as those I've recently added. Once something catches my eye, I generally look for and purchase those on sale as "used in good condition." On occasion...
In Cue - "Women's Work"
Friday, May 22, 2020, 10:00am
Not a day went by without music playing in the background in our home. My parents loved music and naturally so did I. My father loved jazz. My mother had an affinity for women in music. Her womanist views profoundly shaped mine while I was still a youngster growing up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Songs...
In Cue - "Sounds of the South Pacific Islands"
Thursday, April 30, 2020, 10:00am
Listening to this CD compilation reminded me of the unparalleled innate beauty, multiple cultures, and music the islands of the South Pacific have long represented. Beyond their international reputation as earthly islands of paradise captured by the paintings of Gauguin, or their local maps...
In Cue - "A Tribute to Miles"
Tuesday, April 14, 2020, 10:00am
While we all collectively navigate through this chaotic period of unprecedented turmoil, I am reminded by the ‘challenge of the day’ that the cosmos is not at this moment well-ordered, nor is it indestructible. So, I’ve elected to spend some quality time reconnecting with old musical friends that I...
In Cue #2 April 10, 2020 Dining with Rachmaninov
Thursday, April 9, 2020, 10:00am
While we all collectively navigate through this chaotic period of unprecedented turmoil, I am reminded by the ‘challenge of the day’ that the cosmos is not at this moment well-ordered, nor is it indestructible. So, I’ve elected to spend some quality time reconnecting with old musical friends that I...
In Cue Dining with Sam Mangwana
Thursday, April 9, 2020, 10:00am
While we all collectively navigate through this chaotic period of unprecedented turmoil, I am reminded by the ‘challenge of the day’ that the cosmos is not at this moment well-ordered, nor is it indestructible. So, I’ve elected to spend some quality time reconnecting with old musical friends that I...
The First Lady Of Salsa
Thursday, April 9, 2020, 10:00am
Here's what Compass Records has to say about the passionate singer Cecilia Noël's return with her newest album, "Havana Rocks", a Latin-infused collection of American classics recorded in Havana Cuba, with special recording and distribution permission from the US Government, and featuring an all...
In This Moment - Suggested Artists and Albums for Relaxation
Monday, March 23, 2020, 11:00am
"Kenyan singer-songwriter Ayub Ogada was a busker (a street musician) on London’s Northern Line when he came to Real World’s attention in the late 80s. And this 1993 set —his only record for the label— proved that it was a meeting of minds, with his disarmingly simple arrangements allowed to hang...
Rumba On The River
Tuesday, March 17, 2020, 11:00am
Author Gary Stewart offers a "history of the popular music of the two congos" through an insightful-inside analysis of Congolese Rumba, a form of African musical expression that would alter the path of African music-making with dance infused music layered with social and political commentary. "...