Little Creatures

Aurelio Martinez

2012-02-15T22:21:00.000+10:00

Born in 1976 into a family possessing a long and distinguished musical tradition in the small Garifuna community of Plaplaya in Honduras, at the age of six, he was already playing drums at social gatherings and picking up his father’s guitar as soon as he was big enough to hold it. Inspired by his grandmother and his father, Aurelio gathered a vast repertoire, which later enabled him to develop his playing and his own style.

As an original member of the Garifuna All Star Band, Aurelio has taken his Paranda music to stages in France, Japan, The USA, Mexico and neighbouring Central American countries. ( read more )

Andy Palacio | Watina

2012-02-15T21:59:00.001+10:00

Andy Vivian Palacio (December 2, 1960 – January 19, 2008) was a Belizean Punta musician and government official. He was also a leading activist for the Garínagu and their culture.

Danyel Waro at the Moz'aique Festival 2011

2012-01-02T11:27:00.001+10:00

Reunion Island : DANYEL WARO - LE HAVRE - MOZ'AIQUE FESTIVAL, 2011.

Posted by "percaflo" .

Beauler Dyoko Group & Dancers, Harare 1999 .

2011-12-29T17:44:00.000+10:00

Mongolia: Enkh Jargal

2011-12-04T22:14:00.000+10:00

Enkh Jargal plays Morin Khoor and sings Kharchira (Throat singing) and Xööni (vertone chanting).

Dafnis Prieto

2011-11-09T21:00:00.003+10:00

Gang Gang Dance - "Chinese High" (4AD Session)

2011-09-30T13:59:00.000+10:00

To mark the release of fourth album Eye Contact, Brooklyn's Gang Gang Dance is the latest act to record a 4AD Session. Filmed in early April at Angelic Studios in the heart of rural England, the band convened in a purposefully built 20ft square mirrored room, encased by endless reflections of themselves.

Inspired by the so-called 'infinity rooms' of the seminal Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, the construction of the space comprised most of the time allotted to recording. Consequently, the session didn't begin until midnight, and continued through until sunrise the next day. Inevitability, the twilight hours suffused the performance with a subtle euphoria, which allayed with the warped environment crated by the mirrors, touched the renditions of 'Glass Jar' and 'Adult Goth' with an otherworldly quality.

With the idea to create all effects live in the space sans digital manipulation, the resulting performance channeled a raw responsiveness to the music as it was being played, as witnessed in the 15 minute take on the visceral dancehall of 'MindKilla' and the Balearic feel of 'Chinese High'. Indeed, spontaneity was key to the entire session. 'MindKilla' was recorded in one take and improvised to include an exclusive airing of previously unreleased track, 'KOU-DA-LEY', while 'Adult Goth' likewise segues into a delirious version of 'Bond'. Adding to the room's ambience, the hanging crystals lent a prismatic quality, rendering the kaleidoscope of Eye Contact in primary colours, and helping mark the session as a true landmark in the series.

4AD Records

Photography: Alberto Seveso

2011-08-14T17:08:00.002+10:00

Alberto Seveso was born in Milan / Italy in 1976, but has lived most of his life on the island of Sardinia, in the center of the Mediterranean Sea, in this corner of paradise has begun to take its first steps towards the art, computer graphics and photography.

Alberto has not attended school of Art or Design is a self-taught, began in the early '90s following the "Amiga" scene and start using graphics softwares like Deluxe Paint and mid 90s as a street artist, in the early years of the new millennium, he moved to Rome, where he began his career as a graphic designer / illustrator.

Bharatanatyam Dance - Malavika Sarukkai

2011-08-08T21:13:00.003+10:00

01:36 , 05:13

Bharata Natyam is considered to be a 'fire dance' — the mystic manifestation of the metaphysical element of fire in the human body. It is one of the five major styles (one for each element) that includes Odissi (element of water), Mohiniattam (element of air), Kuchipudi (element of earth) and Kathakali (element of sky). The movements of an authentic Bharata Natyam dancer resemble the movements of a dancing flame. Contemporary Bharata Natyam is rarely practiced as Natya Yoga, a sacred meditational tradition, except by a few orthodox schools.

Bharata Natyam proper is a solo dance, with two aspects, lasya, the graceful feminine lines and movements, and tandava Ananda Thandavam (Tamil) (the dance of Shiva), masculine aspect, which is identical to the Yin and Yang in the Chinese culture.

Jon Hassell | Live at Lausanne 2009

2011-07-21T09:37:00.002+10:00

"If you're looking for interesting new music, I recommend all the works of Jon Hassell." PHILIP GLASS

"Ever listened to really early Pink Floyd? 'Interstellar Overdrive' era Floyd? Or King Crimson? There's something special about certain types of music. They reach in behind the ears...and pull out things that you could swear never belonged to you...Jon Hassell's Maarifa Street: Magical Realism II is an immersive experience... This is music that plays with the ephemeral curtain between the conscious and the unconscious. No...really."

CD REVIEWS.COM / Peter Dolan

Joe Mangrum

2011-07-20T23:02:00.002+10:00

Joe Mangrum was born in Florissant Missouri. At the age of 16 he was awarded a trip to India sponsored by the Asia Society of New York 1986. After completing his BFA with a focus on painting and photography from the School of the Art institute of Chicago in 1991 he traveled for many years before making his home in San Francisco. His first solo exhibition was at San Francisco State University in 1995, titled “Hypothesis”.

Joe uses a variety of materials in his work creating 4 dimensional experiences with everyday objects including auto parts, computer parts, food, money, bullets, flowers, fire and glass. His most recent medium of choice is colored sand. ( more )

The Shook Twins | Toll Free

2011-07-17T23:26:00.000+10:00

The Shook twins are identical twin sisters originally from Sandpoint, Idaho. They play banjo and guitar with beatboxing, looping, whistles, wawa pedals, tambourines and djembes intertwined. Their identical, chilling vocal harmonies take the lead on most of their unique, quirky folk songs. “The sisters’ voices blend and braid with amazing clarity and depth, their guitars percolate brightly, and the intensity builds to incendiary proportions with layers of percussion gradually added to the mix.” -Spokesman Review (Spokane WA)

Sri Subash Chandran & Ganesh Kumar

2011-06-26T23:10:00.002+10:00

Sri Subash Chandran - Scat Singing and Ganesh Kumar- Kanjira

Cassandra Wilson - "Love is Blindness"

2011-06-13T22:21:00.002+10:00

Live at Warsaw, 1996 .

The voice is more visual than audible; shaded, iridescent, tangible, substantial. It seems to flow effortlessly. Read any of the dozen or so biographies on Cassandra Wilson and you’ll discover some basics: born and reared in Jackson, Mississippi in the 1960s and 70s by musician and educator parents.

Classically trained on piano from age 6 until the age of 13, she also received further musical instruction as a clarinetist for the concert and marching bands of secondary school. During the 70s, she could be found performing Joni Mitchell songs behind an acoustic guitar, or singing with a blues band in Little Rock, Arkansas, in front of a large funk band in Jackson, or in the company of long-time friends in an all-girls ensemble. In the eighties, Cassandra moved to New Orleans where she performed with local luminaries Earl Turbinton and Ellis Marsalis. After a year, she relocated to East Orange, New Jersey where she made a decision to take her chances on the New York jazz scene. After a stint as the main vocalist with Steve Coleman’s M-Base Collective, Cassandra began recording on her own.

Her development can be tracked through her discography. From the standards on Blue Skies to the Grammy-winning projects New Moon Daughter and Loverly, to the combination of originals and interpretations played by a collection of Mississippi and New York musicians on both the 2001 release, Belly of the Sun, and 2003’s Glamoured, Cassandra continues to evolve as a vocalist, songwriter, and producer. She is a world renowned vocalist, songwriter and producer, with an extraordinary following, but at heart she is still a Mississippi girl whose art reflects her deep musical and cultural roots, anchored in the fertile Mississippi soil.

All About Jazz

Posted by "darominu" 2010 .

Zap Mama in New York 2009

2011-06-13T21:41:00.001+10:00

Zap Mama at The Brooklyn Academy of Music's R&B Festival at Metrotech.

Zap Mama is an all-female a cappella quintet founded by Zaire native Marie Daulne. Daulne's father was killed during the revolution of 1960 while her mother was pregnant with her, so the remainder of the family fled to the forests and found refuge with a tribe of pygmies. Daulne was raised primarily in Europe, but when she heard a recording of traditional pygmy music at age 20, she decided to return to Africa to learn about her heritage. She was trained in pygmy onomatopoeic vocal techniques before returning to the West to found Zap Mama. Her group blends world music styles from all over the globe with little, if any, instrumental or percussive backup other than what group members can do with their voices and bodies. Their 1993 debut, Adventures in Afropea, became the biggest-selling non-compilation album in the history of Luaka Bop Records, helped in part by an opening slot on that summer's 10,000 Maniacs tour. A year later they released a follow-up, Sabsylma; 7 followed in 1997. A Ma Zone appeared in 1999. Zap Mama returned to Luaka Bop for 2004's Ancestry in Progress. Supermoon was issued by Heads Up in 2007. The group evolved around Daulne into an increasingly more pop-directed world beat configuration, and while Zap Mama may have lost a few of their more traditionally focused fans in the process, the infectious persuasiveness and danceability of the later era version of the group brought in just as many again. ReCreation, a perfect example of the sort of global urban tone Daulne had been grafting into the group's DNA, appeared in 2009.

Steve Huey & Steve Leggett, Rovi

Posted by "nycsummer"

Herbie Hancock: The Making of " Sister Moon"

2011-06-13T10:27:00.001+10:00

Redbull Breakers

2011-06-07T21:27:00.001+10:00

Posted by"remixes4U"

Prapancham Ravindran Raj TV

2011-05-29T11:01:00.000+10:00

Guitar-Prasanna, Mridhangam- Prapancham Ravindran, Ghatam- Dr. S. Karthik, Kanjira- Purushothaman.

Posted by" shiridiprasanna "

Trilok Gurtu, L. Shankar & Don Cherry at Mumbai 1978

2011-05-05T00:22:00.001+10:00

Don Cherry (trumpet), Trilok Gurtu (percussion , tabla) and Shankar ( electric violin) .

Taken from the documentary 'Bombay and Jazz', BBC's 'Rhythms Of The World' series. Posted by "kundalini76".

P18- "Bacalao con Pan"

2011-04-22T23:35:00.002+10:00

P18- Bacalao con Pan - Live 2008

Groupo Irakere

Date of foundation: 1973
Place of foundation: CUBA

Irakere is a Grammy Award winning Cuban ensemble founded by the pianist Chucho Valdés in 1973. They are known for their unique sound by using a wide range of percussion instruments, like batá, abacuá and arará drums, chequerés, erikundis, maracas, claves, cencerros, bongó, tumbadoras, and güiro.

Zong - "Pendiyé"

2011-04-17T13:30:00.004+10:00

Zong is an electronic outfit from the French Reunion Island . Their music incorporates elements of rock , dub , Maloya , techno , drum and bass , groove , or punk .

Posted by "YomghY".

Jenny Hval - "Blood Flight"

2011-04-02T22:12:00.002+10:00

From Jenny Hval's concert in Kulturkirken Jakob at by:Larm festival, 17.02.2011.

..." Jenny Hval, also known as Rockettothesky, has been described as “rigorously intellectual, poised and determinately instinctual”. She studied art of writing and performance at the University of Melbourne from 2001 to 2005. During her stay in Australia she also played in the bands iPanic and Folding for Air. She was nominated for a Norwegian Grammy in 2006 for her successful debut album To Sing You Apple Trees, and her second album Medea came out in 2008.

Hval’s music may be described as a mix of electronic, pop, poetry, mystique, sensuality and a smooth sound. She played at most of the big Norwegian festivals in 2007, as well as at different events in Scandinavia, France, the UK and Belgium..."

Norway's Official Site Abroad

Misinterprotato with Tunji Beier - "THE GENTLE WAR"

2011-04-01T22:36:00.001+10:00

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02:44 . Misinterprotato collaborate with Tunji Beier at a live concert in Brisbane, 2010 .

03:59

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Spring Heel Jack - "The Road To The Western Lands "

2011-03-21T21:20:00.001+10:00

LP : Oddities THI 57086.2 (2000). Written & Produced By John Coxon And Ashley Wales. Words By William Burroughs. HQ Audio.

Posted by "TheIDMMaster" January 2010.

EboTaylor with Bonze Konkoma

2011-03-12T12:15:00.009+10:00

EboTaylor with Bonze Konkoma , Heaven, LIVE 2011. Lead Vocals Henry Taylor .

..." Taylor's career as an outstanding Ghanaian guitarist, composer and arranger spans over 50 years. His music and style have shaped Ghanaian popular music over the last five decades substantially.

He has recorded twelve albums, once led several well-known bands, among them the Uhuru Dance Band, was the musical director for Essiebons, Gapophone and Polygram, and composed and arranged numerous songs, also for other great musicians like C.K. Mann, Pat Thomas, Jewel Ackah, Papa Yankson and others. His classic Highlife and Afrobeat compositions include "Sika Enyiber", "Odo Ye Wu", "Ghana Be Ye Yie", "Dofo", "Twer Nyame", "Heaven", and "Come Along".

Two years ago, with the support of Essiebons Music in Accra, Taylor started a new band called "Bonze Konkoma". The band features talented young musicians from around the area of Saltpond in the Central Region where Taylor lives, as well as music graduates from the University of Ghana, where he has been teaching Highlife and Jazz Guitar for the last seven years.

Having researched into Fante Akan music extensively with Bonze Konkoma Taylor draws on musical traditions like Adowa, Asafo, Osode, and Adzewa (a Fante dance music form traditionally mainly played by women) which he creatively reinterprets into a new Ghanaian musical form strongly shaped by Taylors own musical style: a unique blend of Highlife, Jazz, and Afrobeat.

The use of a Konkoma drum ensemble alongside guitars, bass, keyboard, brass section, and a prime emphasis on vocal music, to transpose Taylor's compositions and arrangements into a modern band idiom presents the Bonze Konkoma as a highly interesting and unique project in contemporary Ghanaian music." ( Ghanamusic.com )

Posted by "wideworldinc" 2011

Ebo Taylor -" Twer Nyame"

Posted by "The Paw 89"

John Zorn - "Exodus"

2010-12-23T22:19:00.000+10:00

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John Zorn - direction
Marc Ribot - guitar
Jamie Saft - piano, organ
Trevor Dunn - bass
Kenny Wollesen - vibraphone
Joey Baron - drums
Cyro Baptista - percussion

Uploaded by "uvisni" November, 2010 .

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Peter Paul and Mary - "Three Ravens"

2010-12-20T19:11:00.000+10:00

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Uploaded by "cschoon1213", 2009 .
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Brie Harrison: Print Designer & Illustrator

2010-11-11T18:48:00.003+10:00

www.briedee.com
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Shafqat Ali Khan - " Ishq Anokhri "

2010-11-03T16:39:00.004+10:00

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Shafqat Ali Khan performs a Kaafi by Ghulam Farid at BBC Bush House, London, with Nafees Irfan on Tabla. Recording Engineer: John Andrew. Shot by Mazhar Zaidi, Directed and Edited by Nofil Naqvi. Uploaded by "nofiln", 2007 .

Shafqat Ali Khan (Born June 17, 1972 Lahore Pakistan) belongs to the Sham Churasi school from East Punjab. This school of music has a long tradition that dates to the Mughul times of Emperor Akbar. This school was established by the two brothers Chand Khan and Suraj Khan. His uncle Ustad Nazakat Ali Khan and father Ustad Salamat Ali Khan, the internationally acclaimed classical singers, from the 10th generation of the Sham Churasi school.

Shafqat began performing at the age of seven. His first performance was at the Lahore Music Festival. Shafqat has performed throughout Europe with several important concerts in France, the United Kingdom, Italy, Germany, Holland, Spain, and Switzerland Geneva Festival. He is a well established performer throughout India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. He has performed as well Canada and the United States with some key performances at the Smithsonian Institute in the 1988 and 1996, and for the World Music Institute at the New York's Metropolitan Museum in 1988 and Merkin Concert Hall in 1991.

Shafqat in the recipient of a number of awards, in 1986 in Lahore he received the Amir Khusrau Award as the best young classical singer. In 1987, he received the Gold Medal from Faislabad University, Pakistan. In 1995 he received the Ghanda Award from New Deli University. He has appeared on recordings from Nimbus(UK), EMI( India), HMV( UK), WaterLily Acoustics (USA), Westron (India), MegaSound( India), Keytune Productiona (Holland), Plus Music India) (forthcoming), and Folk Heritage (Pakistan).

Florian Hecker- " Pentaphonic Dark Energy" , 2008 .

2010-10-25T18:26:00.002+10:00

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Florian Hecker: Pentaphonic Dark Energy from The Wire Magazine on Vimeo.

..." each work Hecker deliberately disrupts or distorts the usual order of our listening experiences, constructing a series of events in which fixed points and final decisions about what is heard slip out of reach. This is at its most immediate in Auditory Scene (2010), in which five loudspeakers placed at varying heights play a sequence of fast-paced tones, each starting at different points. At first the blurred, skittering sounds are baffling; further listening patterns them into impossible shapes that become almost compulsively elusive. In Untitled (2010), placed opposite, the loudspeaker shoots a single tone onto a ceramic-tiled section of the wall, creating a forcefield of oscillating sound. If the first of these is introspective, inviting a personal, physical response, and the second more concerned with the properties of the space and the physics of surfaces " .... ( More )

Boubacar Traoré & Ballaké Sissoko

2010-10-18T13:53:00.002+10:00

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From the documentary " Je Chanterai Pour Toi " with Boubacar Traore ( vocal ) and Ballake Sissoko ( Chora ) . Uploaded July 2010.
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Kurt Elling - " Nature Boy "

2010-09-30T16:16:00.003+10:00

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Kurt Elling and the Laurence Hobgood Trio, featuring Ernie Watts, Live in Umbria Jazz Winter, Orvieto Italy, Jan. 4th,2010.Posted by "MarioMaccaferriRules".

"One of the few male jazz singers from around the baby boom generation, Kurt Elling is an anomaly simply by profession. Given the depth and broad vision of his recordings and performance style, Elling is in a league of his own. Planning a career in the academic world, he discovered jazz and took to it naturally. Deeply influenced by singer and poet Mark Murphy, Elling began to develop his idiosyncratic scat style in the smaller clubs of Chicago (primarily at the Green Mill, sharing the stage with legends Von Freeman and Ed Peterson) and then throughout the Midwest. An Elling show can contain ranting beat poetry, dramatic and poignant readings of Rilke, and hard-swinging scat. After sending a demo to Blue Note, Elling signed to the label and issued Close Your Eyes in 1995. He began to get attention from the jazz press, not only for his talent and original style, but also for his choice in sidemen, which included Laurence Hobgood and Paul Wertico for a time."..... ( Thom Jurek, Rovi )

Shafqat Ali Khan in Toronto, 2009 - " Raag Darbari"

2010-09-25T09:50:00.003+10:00

Darbari , Part 1 Darbari, Part 2

Darbari, Part 3 Darbari, Part 4 Posted by "ParamjitHans"

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Garikayi's M'biras - Marenje song with different tunings

2010-09-04T10:48:00.003+10:00

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Mavembe tuning - 02:58 , Nhemamusasa tuning - 03:48 , low Mahororo tuning - 04:37, Nyabango tuning - 05:15, high Mahororo - 06:20.

Garikayi is a Zimbabwean mbira maker, a woodcarver, carpenter and metal worker. He is also a highly inventive and creative player of the mbira, the traditional "thumb piano" of the Shona people. Playing both acoustic and electrified mbira--using a pick-up--Garikayi takes the traditions of the past and evolves them through his own life experience. He is a unique composer, a dreamer of music who sings sweetly in the voices of his ancestors.

The compositions of Garikayi are heard weekly in the village near Harare where he lives and plays the mbira dances for the community. These mbiras last through the night, dance parties of traditional music for the youth. Fables and stories of timeless truth are celebrated through the mbira, played so their wisdom is easily absorbed by the next generation. Garikayi's compositions keep these principles alive and relevant for people today. In 2003, he released his international debut recording, Maidei (Limitless Sky). It is a powerful presentation of this highly spiritual music's universal appeal.

Uploaded by Michal Shapiro July 2010 .

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Josie Lloyd on Kora - "Real Late Starter"

2010-08-30T21:55:00.000+10:00

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Cover of "Real Late Starter" by Nerina Pallot . Performed by Josie Lloyd on Kora (West African Harp).

www.myspace.com/josielloydkorasongs

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Raag Malkauns - Shafqat Ali Khan

2010-08-23T20:24:00.003+10:00

Classical Indian Vocals - Shafqat Ali Khan : Event hosted by the Canada Pakistan Association at University of Ottawa , Alumni Theatre, 2009 - 12:00, 16:00, 21:54, tabla: 25:00 .

Khyal (or Khayal ) is the modern genre of classical singing in North India. Its name comes from an Arabic word meaning "imagination". It is thought to have developed out of the qawwal singing style. It appeared more recently than dhrupad , is a more free and flexible form, and it provides greater scope for improvisation .

Khyal bases itself on a repertoire of short songs (two to eight lines); a khyal song is called a bandish. Every singer generally renders the same bandish differently, with only the text and the raga remaining the same. The compositions cover diverse topics, such as romantic or divine love, praise of kings or gods, the seasons, dawn and dusk, and the pranks of Krishna, and they can have symbolism and imagery . The bandish is divided into two parts — the sthayi (or asthayi) and the antara. The sthayi often uses notes from the lower octave and the lower half of the middle octave, while the antara ascends to the tonic of the upper octave and beyond before descending and linking back to the sthayi . The singer uses the composition as raw material for improvisation, accompanied by a harmonium playing off the singer's melody line, a set of tabla, and a drone in the background. The role of the accompanist playing the melody-producing instrument is to provide continuity when the singer pauses for breath, using small variations of the singer's phrases or parts thereof.

A typical khyal performance uses two songs — the bada khyal or great khyal, in slow tempo , comprises most of the performance, while the chhota khyal (small khyal), in fast tempo , is used as a finale and is usually in the same raga but a different rhythmic pattern. The songs are sometimes preceded by improvised "alap" to sketch the basic raga structure without drum accompaniment; alap is given much less room in khyal than in dhrupad. Uploaded by "tasawwuf".

Christopher Herwig Photography: "The Soviet Roadside Bus-stops "

2010-08-04T10:33:00.005+10:00

The Soviet Roadside Bus-stops

Departure from the common and boring , Next stop the wild and crazy

For the most part Soviet architecture and design is remembered for its heavy block buildings and functionally Spartan designs. Its overpowering desire for conformity left little room for individual creative freedom. A notable exceptions to this is in the transportation sector. One can admire this creativity in the Metro stations of cities like Moscow and Tashkent where the coldness and sterility of typical soviet urban architecture is abandoned and costs are not spared as creative freedom is unleashed. While many of us are aware of the elaborate splendor of the Moscow underground, it is easy to overlook the phenomenon of the common roadside bus stop as an example of soviet art and design letting loose and becoming a little weird and crazy. .... ( more )

www.herwigphoto.com
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Arvo Pärt - Da Pacem Domine

2010-07-28T06:43:00.001+10:00

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Tallinn Chamber Orchestra & Estonian Philarmonic Chamber Choir
Tonu Kaljuste, conductor
November, 2008 (New York City)

Video produced by Kinetic Media NYC for ECM Records USA www.KineticMediaNYC.com

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Photojournalist - Q. Sakamaki :"Haitian Quake Survivors - Homes "

2010-07-25T11:40:00.010+10:00

"This is a portrait story of Haitian internal displaced people, IDP, of the February 12th mega earthquake that killed 230,000 people. And people in this story are those of newly created one million and 200,000 homeless in/ around Port au Prince, the capital of the country.

I started to photograph them 6 days after the quake, in Pont-Rouge, one of the biggest earthquake refugee camps, probably the biggest: the number of the IDP is tens of thousand. They were so hungry and so thirsty when I first visited the camp. Nearly everyone asked me food and water, putting their hands on stomachs and saying “Grangou,” or (I am) very hungry in English. At the same time they were very tough and resilient people. Despite their starving, they started to build their own shelter by themselves, using shabby cloths, woods, plastic bags and whatever available... ( more )

Q. Sakamaki is a New York-based Japanese photographer. He has covered both U.S. domestic issues and international events, particularly the deadly conflicts and human rights issues. His photographs have appeared in books and magazines worldwide including Time, Newsweek, and Stern, Readers Digest, and Rolling Stone and he has been exhibited in solo shows in New York and Tokyo. He has received numerous awards, including the World Press Photo, Olivier Rebbot of Overseas Press Club, and Days International Photojournalism Award. Sakamaki holds a Master’s degree in International Affairs from Columbia University in New York. He has published several books, including the late ones: “WAR DNA”, the coverage of seven different deadly conflicts, published in Japan, and “Tompkins Square Park”, a photo essay of New York’s Lower East side’s anti-gentrification movement, published by PowerHouse Books. He has also been video-documenting world events. His footage of the Liberian war used in “Liberia: An Uncivil War”, was nominated on the 26th Annual News & Documentary Emmy Awards in 2005. ( Redux Pictures )

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Elfenbeinturm - "Past Present Future"

2010-07-19T21:06:00.003+10:00

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Titletrack of the Elfenbeinturm "Past Present Future" music composed by Ruralfaune Synth Series.

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Greg Sheehan and Tunji Beier- Fairbridge 2010

2010-07-04T22:21:00.002+10:00

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Tunji Beier on Kanjira and Greg Sheehan on Tamborine . Fairbridge Festival, Western Australia .

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Angus and Julia Stone-"Wasted"

2010-07-04T21:41:00.002+10:00

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Australian brother and sister Angus and Julia Stone perform a reggae style version of their song 'Wasted' from their debut album "A Book Like This" live in the Sugar Club, Dublin.

Uploaded by "IndieRockerHippie"

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Vong Co : Vietnamese theater Music

2010-06-26T22:47:00.004+10:00

Vọng cổ (literally "longing for the past") is a Vietnamese song and musical structure used primarily in the cai loung theater music and chamber music of southern Vietnam. It was composed sometime between 1917 and 1919 by a Mr. Cao Van Lau (also called Sáu Lầu or Sáu Làu), of Bac Lieu , a province in Southern Vietnam . The song achieved great popularity and eventually its structure became the basis for numerous other songs. The tune is essentially melancholy in character and is sung using Vietnamese modal inflections.

Doundounba party : West African Dance Party in Konakry

2010-06-18T21:37:00.002+10:00

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Guinee West Africa with all the local super stars showing and strutting their talents in dance.

Posted by Michael Pluznick.

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Asalato: Ghanaian Percussion Instrument

2010-06-18T20:20:00.003+10:00

Ghanaian musician Okaidja Afroso stopped into the Traders to show us how to play the Asalato (aka Bakita, or Thelevi). Okaidja is a first call drummer, dancer, and singer among his Ghanaian peers and many others. Here's a behind-the-scenes peek into Ghanaian rhythm.....

The Kosika (also known as Kashaka, Patica, Asalato, Kes Kes, Tchangot Tche or many other names) is a simple Ghanaian percussion instrument consisting of two small gourds filled with beans (essentially, two small kinds of maracas) and connected by a string. One gourd is held in the hand and the other is swung from side-to-side around the hand, creating a "clack" upon impact. Kosika can consist of gourds or high-impact plastic filled with hard plastic beads.

The Kosikas are said to improve one's sense of rhythm, ambidexterity and eye-hand coordination, as playing the Kosika is essentially a form of juggling. Kosikas are also thought to relax, stretch and strengthen the wrists, forearms and shoulders, and can be seen as a tension-release activity, and they are the more versatile shaker percussion instruments. ( Wikipedia )

Stella Chiweshe - "Rwavasekuru"

2010-06-09T18:37:00.004+10:00

When the young Stella Chiweshe decided to become a m'bira player, there was major consternation from all of those around her. She says the women were as opposed to the idea as the men. As m'bira playing was entirely within the male domain, Chiweshe spent a lot of her time surrounded by men, which led the women in her village to look on her as being "loose," as she states herself. "Men played m'bira, and for me to play m'bira meant that I had to sit with men on either side of me. It made the women very uncomfortable." But, without reservation, Chiweshe remains steadfast that what she went through, her pioneering force at that time, has made her stronger throughout the other areas in her life. Certainly she broke significant new ground for the likes of Virginia Mukwesha (her daughter), Chiwoniso (daughter of celebrated m'bira player, the late Dumisani Maraire) and the countless other female musicians in Zimbabwe today who juggle the burden of the traditional female role in society with the need to perform and be heard

The combination of m'bira and marimba might seem relatively obvious nowadays, but Chiweshe is often credited as the first artist to actually bring the two together. She said she had been searching for a sound that had been evading her since her very first recording back in 1974. She knew what she wanted to hear but couldn't quite grasp how to make this particular sound happen. After almost ten years it clicked, and she now uses two marimbas to recreate the sound of one m'bira, similar to Mapfumo's idea of reconstructing the m'bira sound on guitar. Talking M'bira contains two outstanding examples of this, Chachimurenga and "Manja." But why is it that everything she does harps back to the fundamental sound of the m'bira, and what is the universal appeal of that sound? Chiweshe firmly believes that the gentle m'bira timbre is "closely related to the sound of water, something that is innately familiar to all people, and therefore the m'bira is instantly memorable and comforting. It is a total form of therapy in itself." But it is the power of the spirit of the m'bira that is most vital to Chiweshe, the power to override all the worries of this world and render them inconsequential by comparison, whether one is open to the idea or not. In the liner notes to Talking M'bira, Chiweshe tells touching stories of individuals who have come across the sound of m'bira and suddenly lost the physical pain which has accompanied their lives, and of audience members who have been moved to tears which they feel are not even their own, tears experienced by them but coming from another source within. "People do not truly understand the strength of this power. It can take you completely by surprise." She says this is why people involved in the traditional bira ceremony remove their shoes, in order to let the full extent of the spirit move them with absolute freedom, devoid of inhibition.

( Jennifer Byrne , Roots World )

Nelson Tswatswa & Samson Bvure - " ? Zviri Pai "

2010-06-07T21:09:00.007+10:00

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NELSON TSWATSWA & SAMSON BVURE from the album "Dandememtande " . El Sur Records , Tokyo.

Posted by CHIMURENGAINJAPAN

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Nhememusassa

2010-06-07T20:59:00.002+10:00

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Posted by "CHIMURENGAINJAPAN"

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Stephan Bösch – Alpaufzug in Switzerland

2010-06-05T08:44:00.006+10:00

Alpaufzug in Switzerland

Doris stands hardly on the brake. A fox mother crosses the street with her two young. We are off to Toggenburg. A valley in the northeast of Switzerland. Today is an important day for family Ammann. At around 3 o’clock in the morning we arrive the farm. The whole family sits eagerly at the breakfast table.

Every springtime the alpine farmers ascend to the higher alp with their animals. The meadows of the valley are grazed. On the alp lush meadows are waiting for the cows. The quality of the milk is better because they eat mountain herbs. That’s the reason why the taste of the alpine cheese is different.

The ascent up the Alps is celebrated according to old traditions. The farmers dress themselves in Sunday-dress. The three nicest cows wear the “Gschell”. These three bells are tonally compatible. An other important thing is the “Zäuerle” or “Jodeln”. It is a kind of alpine chant without words.

After the caravan has left the street steep serpentines lead up to the hill. From time to time the farmers get some drinks at the wayside. After a few gulps and a short talk they continue to walk quickly.

While the ascent up the Alps you realize the value of the family. The kids don’t have to go to the school. Everyone of the family helps. In the mountain chalet all sit together comfortably and eat bread, cheese and sausage. The first cow gets milked to have milk for the coffee. After this eventful day silence comes and the the hard daily work begins. ( more )

Still-Dancing Blog

Carlos Casas

2010-05-30T07:47:00.008+10:00

..." Like in Smoke, another Fieldwork I filmed in Patagonia, where suddenly an AM programme started to transmit a tango classic at 4AM that was somehow filling the atmosphere too, in amazing ways. Of course I felt it so close to the image I was filming that it was somehow directing it, which brings me back to my collaboration with Phill Niblock that I will speak about later…

What is the idea behind the use of radio broadcasts on the soundtracks? Are these the main forms of communication between these isolated places and the wider world?

The use of radio frequencies came as an accident. I was using the radio to listen to some stories that were happening between isolated people in Patagonia, that also was our only way of communication, the telephone somehow. One day I started to film with the radio as a sound source, no natural sound only the radio connected to the camera. I was filming Pool, what I considerer my first Fieldwork, and the pool itself was acting as the antenna as an enhancer of the signals that were populating that place. That experience was key. I understood that radio waves inhabit the atmosphere as much as other sounds, they are an integral part, carriers of information, in a hauntological way somehow, to put it as David Toop says. Of course those sounds would have not mean so much to me if I would have not been fascinated by the work of Joe Banks and of course all the Touch approach to sound somehow.

What is fascinating is that radio frequencies in those isolated places are amazingly rich, due to the military, due to the late reflection of SW signals, and of course due to the position in the geographical sense and isolation. Of course there is a myth that accompanies all these theories about being able to listen to natural phenomena and atmospheric reactions in VLF frequencies. I am not a scientist, that is why that doesn’t worry me, I believe in it.

( The Mire, Interview with Catalan audio-visual artist Carlos Casas )

Camera Edit, with Ambient Sound and Radio Frequencies.
Captured in location. Shortwave radio signals. KHz Range : 5000-8000 AM SW

Shot on location in Tierra del Fuego, Patagonia , in 2002.

The Hypnotic Brass Ensemble

2010-05-28T21:07:00.003+10:00

The Hypnotic Brass Ensemble in Time Square Station, NYC .

..." Apart from drummer Christopher Anderson, the eight horn-playing members of the Ensemble are all sons of jazz trumpeter Phil Cohran, who was part of Sun Ra's Arkestra during its tenure in Chicago, and went on to become one of the founders of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), the city's support group for proponents of avant-garde jazz.

"Sometimes, parents have a plan for their children that the child doesn't necessarily see till later in life," explains Hubert. "[Our father] didn't want his music to be closed out of music history – because his music informed not just Sun Ra, but Curtis Mayfield and Earth, Wind & Fire, too – so he wanted to teach his children to spread that knowledge of music, its origins, how to heal people with it, that kind of stuff. We're still trying to fill his shoes."

Cohran schooled his children from an early age, teaching them not just how to play the various horns, but the theoretical knowledge of how one note relates to the next, the principles of families of notes. By the time they started high school, they were experts compared to their peers.".... ( The Independent )

Posted by "mondomatic"

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Gabo & Orchestre Poly Rhythmo -" It's a Vanity "

2010-05-09T21:20:00.001+10:00

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Posted by GeeRFX .

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Orchestre Poly Rythmo de Cotonou - "Noude Ma Gnin Tche De Me "

2010-05-09T20:43:00.007+10:00

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From the album 'Echos Hypnotiques' volume 2. Re-mastered on Analog Africa Label. 01:47 Guitar . Posted by "Buckbumble" .

Cotonou is the capital of the West African nation of Benin. In the 70s, Orchestre Polyrythmo was a household name in Benin. The group recorded dozens of songs and toured all over Africa. But they hadn’t recorded anything in decades.

Then in 2003, a German-Tunisian producer named Samy Ben-Redjeb heard some of the band’s tunes. He fell in love with the song: “Malin Kpon O.”

And he wanted to hear more of the band’s music. Ben Rejeb re-mastered a selection of their songs. This version of “Malin Kpon O ” is from his re-mastered CD. Today there are only 4 surviving members of the original band Orchestre Polyrythmo.

But they added new members and they’ve kept on playing. That’s how Radio France reporter Elodie Maillot heard them live in Cotonou. She liked their sound so much, she decided to help them tour Europe for the first time. But she knew it wouldn’t be easy.

Crazy or not, she went ahead with the plan. She even managed to get the band some badly needed horns, and guitars. This fall, the band did in fact tour Europe, their first foray outside of Africa.

The original members are all in their sixties now, but singer Vincent Ahehehinnou, says that hasn’t slowed them down.

“Just because we’re over sixty doesn’t mean we’re going to stand still on stage,” he says. “We will be grooving for the audience until we draw our last breath. You can count on us.” ( PRI's The World, hosted by Marco Werman )

City Boys Band

2010-05-09T13:05:00.007+10:00

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City Boys Band led by Obuoba J.A. Adofo Nya Asem Hwe. Ghanaian highlife music.

Osu A Meresu

The City Boys International Band of Ghana is one of those typical Highlife bands that is already for a long time highly popular inside Ghana. Because of their outstanding lyrics they had huge hits in their own country.

Their music has the ingredients of very typical sharp vocals on a organ and drum Highlife sound.

Posted by "Awesome Tapes from Africa" Blog . September 27, 2009 .
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Sunny Ade & His Green Spot Band -" Ija Pari "

2010-05-09T08:12:00.001+10:00

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Sunny Ade & His Green Spot Band from the album: Nigerias Juju Highlife at its Best - Series 2 ,1970 .

Posted by " GrooVemonster "

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Miguel Robles/Arvo Part - "Tabula Rasa "

2010-04-30T23:11:00.003+10:00

..." 1984, the essential record of Tabula Rasa was released on ECM records. The recording features not only the title composition performed by the Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra featuring Gidon Kramer on Violin (for whom Pärt wrote the exquisitely contemplative and hypnotic title work) and Alfred Schnittke on prepared piano, but the equally beautiful composition "Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten" and two versions of "Fratres"; a star performance from Keith Jarrett, and Gideon Kremer and its most sublime version for 12 cellos performed by the 12 Cellist of The Berlin Philharmonic.

The compositions are sparse, but the space between the sounds are as full of music as the notes themselves. The title cut the allows an inner fullness to resonate through the most fragile, ethereal wisps of tone against the mysterious clanging of prepared piano. The lament of the tubular bells in "Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten" is emotionally haunting and seems to descend from the heavens above. "Fratres" is a simple tune. On one hand it sounds like something from the 15th century, yet it clearly is something from the present day." .... ( Stylus Magazine )

Harry Belafonte & Nat King Cole - " "Mama, Look A Boo Boo "

2010-04-30T22:11:00.004+10:00

...'While I was in Jamaica on vacation recently, in one of the restaurants they had these three musicians who play traditional calypso music. And one of the songs I requested was this song. And the guy looked at me and laugh and said, " It's funny you should ask for that, because the writer of the song is right here.' One of the guitar players was indeed the writer of that song. He was about 154, he was brilliant. I was a huge fan of Belafonte, back in the Bronx. I even stole a riff, a phrase from this for a song I did when I was with Gichy Dan's Beechwood #9 " ( Kid Creole, Wire 2010 )

Natalie Merchant

2010-04-16T19:09:00.003+10:00

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From her recently released CD " Leave Your Sleep " . Live on BBC Radio, Feb 2010 .

The 26-song "Leave Your Sleep" co-produced with Merchant by Andres Levin began as a "lullaby record" and slowly transitioned into a project about childhood in general. "At that point my kid was already 5 years old and was asking questions like, 'What happens when we die?' " she says. "I wanted to be able to answer those questions musically." ( Billboard )

Medeski Martin & Wood - live at Jazz a Vienne, 2005

2010-04-10T15:33:00.002+10:00

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Medeski Martin & Wood - live at Jazz a Vienne, 2005 // a film by Emmanuel Pampuri // John Medeski - keyboards / Chris Wood - bass / Billy Martin - drums, percussion

Posted by BibiAudiofil.
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Steve Kimock with Chris Berry Trio

2010-04-09T23:11:00.001+10:00

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Steve Kimock with Chris Berry Trio--LIVE from Moe's Alley, Santa Cruz,California, 2/24/10

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Chris Berry @ The Relix Magazine , NY City

2010-04-09T22:28:00.005+10:00

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Chris Berry of Pangea Performs Live In The Relix Offices In NYC...Plus An Interview About His Current Projects and Living In Zimbabwe. Shot/Edited By Jesse R. Borrell. Oct 2009 .

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Digital Spray

2010-04-09T19:43:00.003+10:00

Digital Spray Museu imagem e som SP from gogavids on Vimeo.

Work performed by the collective Digital Spray (Charlie + Highraff) at the Museo de Imagem e do Som de São Paulo (Museum of Image and Sound , Sao Paulo )

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John Butler Trio - Ocean (Live at Federation Square)

2010-04-04T09:44:00.001+10:00

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Live at Federation Square on 5th April 2007

Melbourne locals witnessed John Butler Trio Live At The Wireless in Federation Square.

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Diamanda Galas - " Gloomy Sunday "

2010-03-26T10:58:00.003+10:00

Diamanda Galás (born August 29, 1955) is a Greek American born avant-garde performance artist, vocalist, keyboardist, and composer.

Known for her expert piano as well as her distinctive, operatic voice, which has a three and a half octave range, Galás has been described as "capable of the most unnerving vocal terror" .Galás often shrieks, howls, and seems to imitate glossolalia in her performances. Her works largely concentrate on the topics of suffering, despair, condemnation, injustice and loss of dignity. She has worked with many avant-garde composers, including Iannis Xenakis, Vinko Globokar and John Zorn. ( Wikipedia )

"Saint Of The Pit" - Part 2 (Mute Records, 1986) (Restless, 1989) - Phoenix/Nomadism TV
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Jason Hawkes' Aerial Night Photography : New York and Las Vegas .

2010-03-22T22:04:00.012+10:00

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The legendary photographer Jason Hawkes sharing at Boston.com some of his latest images of American cities seen from above at night: New York City and Las Vegas , both cities that undergo significant transformations after the sun goes down.

Jason Hawkes says: ..." We flew from heights of just over 500 ft up to 2,500-ft with no doors on, it was very very cold. The images of Las Vegas were shot for a separate project, using a range of helicopters .... ″.

Check out Hawkes’ newly-released book “London at Night”. A book of his New York at night photos is due for publication in the Autumn. Captions provided by the photographer.

Posted by Siarhei Karotki, " www.theblogismine.com "

Dafnis Prieto Sextet

2010-03-20T23:16:00.006+10:00

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"Taking the Soul for a Walk", New Album released by Dafnison Music, 2008.

Born and trained in Cuba, Dafnis Prieto is a drum virtuoso, a masterful composer, and a rising star on the international jazz scene. His driving, mesmerizing music, which twists folk motifs into next-generation Latin jazz, is widely respected for its sophistication, its structural and harmonic complexity, and its polyrhythmic punch. His accomplished sextet includes Peter Apfelbaum (sax), Ralph Alessi (trumpet), Felipe Lamoglia (sax), Manuel Valera (piano), and Charles Flores (bass).

Dafnis Prieto, drummer and professor of Percussion at the New York University's Steinhardt School, master class videos in Latin percussion .

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Susan Hauptman's Self portraits

2010-03-19T19:12:00.012+10:00

Susan Hauptman’s haunting self-portraits repeatedly explore the theme of identity while demonstrating her technical mastery of drawing. For the past twenty years, she has focused almost exclusively on self-representation, documenting the aging process with attentive honesty. Her surreal use of light and color, the large scale, and juxtaposition of symbolic elements produces psychologically charged portraits.

The Artist

A native of Michigan, Susan Hauptman is one of America’s most sought-after teachers of drawing, and conducts workshops throughout the States. She has had two solo exhibits in New York’s Forum Gallery, is the recipient of numerous awards, and her work is the subject of many articles. She has work in major collections in the US, including the Museum of Modern Art, NY and the Corcoran Gallery, DC.

The self-portraits were begun in the early 1980’s as a communiqué for her husband while they were living on opposite sides of the country. Over the past 20 years, they have unfolded as a chronicle of her identity as a woman, and of the aging process that most people prefer to ignore rather than document. ( Avampato online Gallery )

Reblogged from " Figuration Feminine "

Kasai Allstars "Mbuji Mayi"

2010-03-16T22:05:00.004+10:00

Kasai Allstars filmed in Kinshasa during the recording of the album "In the 7th moon, the chief turned into a swimming fish and ate the head of his enemy by magic". Posted by "CrammedDiscs "

Using a spectacular mixture of traditional acoustic instruments, electric guitars, distortion-laden thumb pianos and soulful vocals, Kasai Allstars is a collective revolving around 25 musicians all based in Kinshasa, DR Congo, but originating from five different ethnic groups, each with their own language and musical tradition.

Kasaï Allstars' music is powerful and sophisticated, driving and raw. Compared to Konono N°1 (whose minimal and effective sound has been massively adopted by the international electronica, world music and alternative rock scenes), Kasai Allstars use a broader array of instruments & textures, and wilder, more complex, polyrhythms. They often sound like some kind of retro-futurist primeval rock band. ( Crammed Discs )

Arild Andersen - Hyperborean (live, Til Radka, 2009)

2010-03-03T08:05:00.006+10:00

Composed by Arild Andersen. From the concert "Til Radka" (tribute concert to Radka Toneff), August 10, 2009, at the Opera House during Oslo Jazz Festival, Norway. Arild Andersen, double bass, with Elin Rosseland, vocal, Arve Henriksen, trumpet and vocal, Steve Dobrogosz, piano, Jon Eberson, guitar, Jon Christensen, drums, and Alex Riel, drums. Posted by kaarekjohnsen .

Zap Mama 103

2010-02-28T22:13:00.001+10:00

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Céleste Boursier-Mougenot

2010-02-20T07:59:00.001+10:00

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Commission for The Curve, Barbican, London

Trained as a musician and composer, French artist Céleste Boursier-Mougenot creates works by drawing on the rhythms of daily life to produce sound in unexpected ways. His installation for The Curve will take the form of a walk-though aviary for a flock of zebra finches, furnished with electric guitars and other instruments and objects. As the birds go about their routine activities, perching on or feeding from the various pieces of equipment, they create a captivating, live soundscape.

Bassekou Kouyate - "Ngoni Fola"

2010-02-19T18:08:00.003+10:00

..."Malian ngoni virtuoso Bassekou Kouyate – who states that time-honoured intention to me through an interpreter, while waiting to record a live radio session at the BBC – the record in question actually achieves its goal.

In a year dominated by female-fronted electropop and breakthrough urban crossover acts, the propulsive pleasures of rock ’n’ roll have been a little hard to come by. But the momentum generated in the course of I Speak Fula (the marvellously propulsive second album by Kouyate’s seven-strong ensemble, Ngoni Ba, which includes three other ngoni players, two percussionists and his wife, the powerful singer Amy Sacko) locates the group closer to the hallowed hard rock terrain of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Freebird than the earthenware ghetto for which the world music circuit is sometimes mistaken.

The ngoni, Kouyate’s musical weapon of choice, is a hollowed-out piece of wood, covered in dried cowhide, with four strings running up a fretless neck. It looks like a kayak paddle or a small cricket bat, and creates (in the right hands) the thrillingly kinetic ripple of a more versatile banjo. As well as teaching the ngoni at his own academy in the Malian capital Bamako, rising interest in these increasingly fashionable instruments drives Kouyate to export them to Europe. ..." ( Telegraph, UK )

Amampondo - " Sens'Inkoma "

2010-02-12T19:50:00.007+10:00

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Amampondo

Formed in 1979, Amampondo is a group from South Africa's Eastern Cape (Pondo Land) that started playing Xhosa traditional music, mostly percussion and vocals. Now it has blossomed into one of the most interesting and experimental groups in the country, opening its doors to let in the breezy jazz of Cape Town as well as a variety of other African traditional elements. The result is a remarkable blend of marimbas, drums, horns, piano and layers of male and female vocals. ( Calabash Music )

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Omar Sosa and Tim Eriksen - " Promised Land"

2010-02-04T23:01:00.001+10:00

Three-time Grammy-nominated Cuban composer and pianist Omar Sosa has long been influenced by his African roots. On his latest album, Across the Divide, he explores how popular music was shaped by the tunes that entered two ports during the slavery years: Havana and Chesapeake Bay.

N. Scott Robinson & K. S. Resmi - Carnatic Bodhran Thani

2010-01-26T10:16:00.001+10:00

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N. Scott Robinson & K. S. Resmi - except from live concert featuring frame drum improvisation by N. Scott Robinson, Sep. 2008.
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Joanna Newsom - " Peach, Plum, Pear "

2010-01-16T20:10:00.002+10:00

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Sao Paulo, October 2007

Joanna Newsom was born in January 1982 and grew up in Nevada City, California. Part of a very musical family—her mother is a pianist and her father plays guitar—her introduction to music was via the Celtic Harp. Although her first instrument was piano, Newsom began playing the harp at seven years old. She later developed an affinity for the pedal harp and became interested in composition.

Although her harp playing is not completely divorced from conventional harp techniques, she considers her style distinct from that of classically focused harpists.She has been strongly influenced by polyrhythms. Her harp teacher, Diana Stork, taught her the basic pattern of four beats against three, which creates an interlocking, shifting pattern that can be heard on "Ys", particularly in the middle section of "Sawdust & Diamonds". The media have sometimes labeled her as one of the most prominent members of the modern psych folk movement, although she does not acknowledge ties to any particular musical scene.Her songwriting incorporates elements of Appalachian music, and avant-garde modernism.

Newsom's vocal style (in the November 2006 issue of The Wire she described her voice as "untrainable") has shadings of folk and Appalachian shaped-note timbres. Newsom has, however, expressed disappointment at comments that her singing is "child-like."

( Wikipidia )

John Zorn - "Khebar"

2009-12-28T22:00:00.003+10:00

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Zorn's Bar Kokhba troops performing Khebar

Marc Ribot - guitar
Cyro Baptista - percussion
Mark Feldman - violin
Erik Friedlander - cello
Greg Cohen - bass
Joey Baron - drums

..." While Zorn is often considered a jazz musician his schema is considerably broader. He stated "The term "jazz", per se, is meaningless to me in a certain way. Musicians don’t think in terms of boxes. I know what jazz music is. I studied it. I love it. But when I sit down and make music, a lot of things come together. And sometimes it falls a little bit toward the classical side, sometimes it falls a little bit towards the jazz, sometimes it falls toward rock, sometimes it doesn’t fall anywhere, it's just floating in limbo. But no matter which way it falls, it's always a little bit of a freak. It doesn’t really belong anywhere. It's something unique, it's something different, it's something out of my heart. It's not connected with those traditions." "But the music is not jazz music, it’s not classical music, it’s not rock music. It’s a new kind of music... So I feel like that created a deep misunderstanding in what this music is. People started judging this new music with the standards of jazz, with the definitions of what jazz is and isn’t, because stories about it appeared in jazz magazines. And now I’ll do a gig at the Marciac Jazz Festival and I’ll get offstage and Wynton Marsalis will say, “That’s not jazz.” And I’ll say, “You’re right! But this is the only gig I’ve got, man. Give me another festival and I’ll play there. ( Wikipedia )

Uploaded by " poophat "

Les Tambours de Brazza - Bastille Paris

2009-12-20T12:07:00.003+10:00

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Congo

Tambours de Brazza first found this "Given strength" in the Congo's capital Brazzaville, where Emile Biayenda, jazz drummer and founder of the band, gathered together hundreds of young Ngoma drummers from all over the country. Their revolutionary style will become a model for a new generation of musicians.

This "strength" helped them survive a civil war that devastesdthe Congo, in 1997, after a major european tour, unable to return to their country, they were forced for a while to settle in Cotonou the main port of Bénin, and from there to make their voice heard throughout Europe, West Africa, Hong Kong and Japan, before settling in France 2001.

The group was brought together in 1991 by drummer, percussionist and author/composer, Emile Biayenda who had been working in reggae, jazz and traditional music ensemble.

Les Tambours de Brazza fuse heritage with modernity: traditional instruments give the Bass-guitar, the guitar,and Sanza à jazz-like resonance.

Bob Brozman - Rhythm exercise & "La Mandoz"

2009-12-13T11:34:00.002+10:00

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" La mandoz " 03:34

Bob Brozman (born 1954) is an American guitarist and ethnomusicologist.

He has performed in a number of styles such as blues, Gypsy jazz, calypso, ragtime, Hawaiian and Caribbean music. Brozman has also collaborated with musicians from diverse cultural backgrounds such as India, Africa, Japan, Papua New Guinea and Reunion Island. He has been called "an instrumental wizard" and "a walking archive of 20th Century American music." Bob maintains a steady schedule throughout the year, touring constantly throughout North America, Europe, Australia, Asia, and Africa. He has recorded numerous albums and has won the Guitar Player Readers' Poll two years in a row in both the blues and slide guitar categories. In 1999, Bob and Woody Mann founded International Guitar Seminars, which hosts over 120 students annually at sites in California, New York, and Canada. From 2000 to 2005 his collaborations have landed in the European Top 10 for World Music an unprecedented five times.

Brozman is also a linguist, anthropologist, and ethnomusicologist. He was formerly an Adjunct Professor at the Department of Contemporary Music Studies at Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia. He is starting a foundation for the purpose of getting some of the western surplus of instruments and other musical supplies directly into the hands of musicians in third world countries in Africa and Oceania.

Uploaded by " oahusteel75 "

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" Dangurangu "

2009-12-08T20:47:00.022+10:00

M'bira

Traditional Shona M'bira music- from Zimbabwe - is typically composed to two different parts, the Kushaura (meaning "to lead" or "to start") and the Kutsinhira (meaning "to follow"). Each part is played on two different mbiras, with the kushaura often being the more simple part, and the kutsinhira more complicated.

Kustinhira part, bass M'bira. Uploaded by "Gwenyambira". " ... I believe this is Forward [ Kwenda ] also ... Katsanzaira tuning. " mbiraside

" Dangurangu " Ephat Mujuru's group with Sekuru Gora on vocals... Uploaded by "dangurangu" .
Ephat Mujuru plays on a Dzavadzimu m'bira

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Boubacar Traoré with Ali Farka Touré - "Diarabi"

2009-12-05T13:34:00.004+10:00

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Mali

Boubacar Traoré (born 1942, Mali) is a renowned singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Traoré also goes by the nickname Kar Kar, "the one who dribbles too much" in Bambara, a reference to his soccer playing: "a nickname I got from playing soccer when I was young. People would yell 'Kari, Kari' - dribble, dribble - the name stuck with me".

Traoré first came to prominence in the early 1960s. He had taught himself to play guitar and developed a unique style that blended American Blues music, Arab music, and pentatonic structures found in West Africa's Mande cultural region. He was a superstar in Mali and a symbol of the newly independent country (see History of Mali). His songs were immensely popular and he enjoyed regular radio play. However, he made no recordings, and since there were no royalties paid to musicians, he was very poor and had to work odd jobs to make ends meet.

During the 1970s Traoré's popularity faded, until a surprise television appearance in 1987. Soon after this "rediscovery," Boubacar's wife died. Grief-stricken, he moved to France and did construction work to support his six children. While there, a British record producer discovered a tape of one of Traoré's radio performances, and he was finally signed to a record deal. His first album, Mariama, was released in 1990. Since then, Traoré has enjoyed international popularity, touring Europe, Africa, and North America.

Boubacar Traoré was the subject of the 2001 film Je chanterai pour toi ("I'll Sing For You"), released on DVD in 2005. ( Wikipedia )
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Habib Koite - "Batoumambe"

2009-12-03T16:33:00.002+10:00

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Mali

Koité is known primarily for his unique approach to playing the guitar by tuning it on a pentatonic scale and playing on open strings as one would on a kamale n'goni. Other pieces of his music sound more like the blues or flamenco which are two styles he learned under Khalilou Traore.

Koité's vocal style is intimate and relaxed, emphasizing calm, moody singing rather than operatic technical prowess. Members of Bamada play talking drum, guitar, bass, drum set, harmonica, violin, calabasa, and kora. Koité composes and arranges all songs, singing in English, French, and Bambara. ( Wikipedia )

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Sonkhiri Siprachuap

2009-11-25T22:30:00.011+10:00

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From the album : " Fon Tok Fa Rong ". Monrakplengthai's blog

... "Born and raised in Samut Songkhram province, Sonkhiri left school at a young age to work on his family's coconut palm farm, and later a pineapple plantation down in Prachuap Khiri Khan. Between shifts, he would always entertain his fellow farmhands by singing the songs of khamron sambunnanon, dreaming of becoming a famous singer. . . . . After many years of performing with a popular local ramwong group, came to the attention of Luk Thung maestro Phaibun Butkhan. With the hits of phaibun to propel him, Sonkhiri became a huge star throughout the [ Thai ] kingdom. Sadly, he was killed in a motor accident in 1972 ". ( Monrakplengthai's blog ).

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Coumba Sidibe - " Yali Djamou "

2009-11-22T23:35:00.004+10:00

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A video of a concert by Coumba Sidibé, star of the kamalen n'goni music of the Sikasso region in Mali. Recorded in the 1990s in Paris, France. Coumba Sidbé (born 1959) died in New York on May 10, 2009.( posted by wrldsrv, Netherlands )
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Marcus Miller - " Blast "

2009-11-15T22:07:00.006+10:00

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Uploaded by " zootopian07 " .....05:10: bass guitar/drumkit.. . . 04:05 : drumkit solo

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Michael Wolf Photography Gallery: "100 x 100 "

2009-11-14T17:31:00.015+10:00

Michael Wolf shot his series, “ 100 x 100, ” at the Shek Kip Mei Estate, the oldest public housing complex in Hong Kong.

. . . “Imagine if someone came to our place and asked to take a picture, we’d probably say no,” Mr. Wolf said. “And maybe if the photographer had a compelling reason, maybe we’d say, ‘Maybe tomorrow, I need to clean up.’ This never happened there. Once they said yes, they said, ‘Come on in.’ And so you basically had this immediacy of the interior. I love that about people. It also shows that they have a lot of self-esteem about how they live.”

( New York Times, Showcase: A Room of Everyone’s Own by Valerie Lapinski )

. . . more photos .

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Fabrizio Bosso : "The Funk Phenomena"

2009-11-13T23:21:00.003+10:00

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Jazz

Italian trumpeter ,Fabrizio Bosso , playing over Herbie Hancock's " THe Funk Phenomena " at "Live @ B Side (Radio Deejay)".

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Masterclass from Arvo Part - " Fur Alina "

2009-11-08T22:46:00.015+10:00

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From the DVD " Arvo Part - 24 Preludes for a Fugue "

. . ." These two small voices, amazing how in ten minutes they seem to speak decades of sorrow with such serenity. Thanks, Mr Pärt." ( PerhapslessMystery )

. . ." the silence between the notes " ( federicobarabino )

Arvo Pärt (born 1935 ) is an Estonian classical composer. Since the late 1970's, Pärt has been working in a minimalist style that employs a self-made compositional technique called tintinnabuli . His music also finds its inspiration and influence from Gregorian chant.
Continuing struggles with Soviet officials led him to emigrate in 1980 with his wife and their two sons. Pärt lived first in Vienna, Austria, where he took Austrian citizenship, and then re-located to Berlin, Germany. He returned to Estonia around the turn of the century and now lives in Tallinn.

Björk interviews Arvo Pärt for the BBC program 'Modern Minimalists' (1997).

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Super Chikan and the Fightin' Cocks at Juke Joint Festival 2009

2009-11-08T22:10:00.002+10:00

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Blues

James "Super Chikan" Johnson is an American blues musician, artist and guitar maker based in Clarksdale, Mississippi. He is the nephew of fellow blues musician Big Jack Johnson.

James Louis Johnson was born in Darling, Mississippi on February 16, 1951. He spent his childhood moving from town to town in the Mississippi Delta and working on his family's farms. He was very fond of the chickens on the farm, and before he was old enough to work in the fields, he would walk around talking to them. This led his friends to give him the nickname "Chikan Boy". At an early age, Johnson got his first rudimentary musical instrument, a "diddley bow", which was simply a piece of wood with a piece of baling wire stretched from end to end. As he grew up, he came up with new ways to improve and vary the sounds he could make with it, and finally, in 1964, at the age of thirteen, he bought his first guitar, an acoustic model that had only two strings, from a Salvation Army store in Clarksdale.
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L. Shankar - " Raag Abheri " ( 1995 )

2009-11-08T19:43:00.007+10:00

..."After obtaining a Bachelor's degree in Physics in India, Shankar moved to America in 1969 and earned a doctorate in ethnomusicology at Wesleyan University. Here he met jazz musicians Ornette Coleman, Jimmy Garrison, and John McLaughlin while working as a teaching assistant and concert master of the University Chamber Orchestra. In 1975 Shankar and McLaughlin founded Shakti, a pioneering, groundbreaking and highly influential east-meets-west collaboration, with a fluid sound that managed to successfully combine seemingly incompatible traditions. His first solo album, Touch Me There, was produced by Frank Zappa in 1979. Shankar founded his own band - The Epidemics, in 1982, with the composer Caroline. He released three albums with the band.

During the 1980s, Shankar recorded periodically as a leader, doing both jazz-based material and Indian classical music. His 1980 release of the album Who's To Know on ECM introduced the unique sound of his own invention, the ten-string, stereophonic double violin. This instrument, designed by Shankar and built by noted guitar maker Ken Parker, covers the entire orchestral range, including double bass, cello, viola and violin. He has recently developed a newer version of his instrument which is much lighter than the original..." ( more from Wikipedia )

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Gavin Bryars featuring Tom Waits - "Jesus' Blood never failed me yet"

2009-11-05T15:44:00.005+10:00

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Uploaded by "nednickerson2010".

"Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet" is a piece of music composed by Gavin Bryars in 1971. It is based around a recorded loop of an un-named tramp improvising a hymn; eventually rich harmonies are played by a live ensemble of strings and brass, always increasing in density. The recording was originally made for a 1960s documentary by Alan Power which chronicled street life in London. Later when listening to the recordings, Bryars noticed that the clip was very in tune, and that it looped well into 13 bars. The tramp died before being able to hear the completed piece.

For the first recording as an LP, Bryars was limited to a duration 25 minutes for the piece; upon the invention of cassette tape technology, Bryars made a 60 minute version of the piece, and for CD, a 74 minute version.

The studio in which Bryars made the piece was next to a busy art studio. When constructing the piece, Bryars unintentionally left the loop playing and his door open during a lunch break; when he returned, the usually lively studio was quiet, and some people were crying.

A new recording of this work was made in the 1990s with Tom Waits singing along with the original recording of the tramp during the final section.

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Afrikafestival @ Hertme - Espoirs de Coronthie

2009-10-31T12:27:00.008+10:00

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From Guinea, Conakry. Kora breaks 03:46 and 04:56. New song 07:28 .

http://www.myspace.com/espoirscoronthie

Uploaded by " barge182 "

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Denise Fort' s Drawings

2009-10-28T23:17:00.003+10:00

Denise Fort's blog

Born in 1981, Denise Fort was raised in Munich Germany. Her parents are from Czech Republic. After finishing her final examination at a special school for creation in 2001, she started working in several workshops, later as a furniture seller and decorator for Ligne Roset in Munich. In the same year, she started her studies in Industrial Design in Munich. She spent 6 month in Italy Bolzano at the Free University of Bolzano and throughout 2001 to 2007, she had several internships in Graphic and Product Design. She started her freelance work in Industrial Design and Illustrations in 2006.

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Indian Percussion: Kanjira

2009-10-28T18:38:00.003+10:00

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Indian Percussion instrument: Remo synthetic & tunable Kanjira start 00:50

The kanjira or ganjira, a South Indian frame drum, is an instrument of the tambourine family. It is used primarily in concerts of Carnatic music (South Indian classical music) as a supporting instrument for the mridangam. The kanjira is a comparatively recent innovation (having been used for fewer than 100 years), and was added to classical concerts during the 1930s.

Similar to the Western tambourine, it consists of a circular frame made of the wood of the jackfruit tree, between 7 and 9 inches in diameter and 2 to 4 inches in depth. It is covered on one side with a drumhead made of monitor lizard skin (specifically the Bengal monitor, Varanus bengalensis, now an endangered species in India), while the other side is left open. The frame has a single slit which contain three to four small metal discs--often old coins--that jingle when the kanjira is played.

The kanjira is a relatively difficult Indian drum to play, especially in South Indian Carnatic music, for reasons including the complexity of the percussion patterns used in Indian music. It is normally played with the palm and fingers of the right hand, while the left hand supports the drum. The fingertips of the left hand can be used to bend the pitch by applying pressure near the outer rim. It is not tuned to any particular pitch, unlike the mridangam or the ghatam.

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Joe Zawinul and Trilok Gurtu

2009-10-26T19:49:00.011+10:00

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Joe Zawinul & Trilok Gurtu in Orient Express . Live in Frankfurt . Uploaded by "digimaton"

Josef Erich Zawinul (1932 – 2007) was an Austrian jazz keyboardist and composer.

First coming to prominence with saxophonist Cannonball Adderley, Zawinul went on to play with trumpeter Miles Davis, and to become one of the creators of jazz fusion, an innovative musical genre that combined jazz with elements of rock and world music. Later, Zawinul co-founded the groups Weather Report and the world fusion music oriented Zawinul Syndicate. Additionally, he made pioneering use of electric piano and synthesizers. Zawinul won the "Best Keyboardist" award 30 times from American jazz magazine Down Beat's critics' poll. ( Wikipedia )

. . . " Joe Zawinul is deservedly renowned for his pioneering role in the Jazz world combining the elements of world music rock and jazz. In fact, many of the worldbeat sounds we take for granted today, simply wouldn't exist without his revolutionary compositions and performances with Miles Davis in the late 60s, Weather Report in the '70-'80s, and The Zawinul Syndicate in the '90s evolving into the year 2004. " ( " All About Jazz " )

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Orchestra Baobab

2009-10-21T17:29:00.025+10:00

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At The Poet's Corner in the Botanical Gardens - Womadelaide 2006 . Posted by "cdnoz".

Senegal's Orchestra Baobab came together in 1970, taking their name from the Dakar night-club where they were resident for most of the following decade. Baobab were different because of their multi-ethnic membership which drew in musicians from all over Senegal and even players from Togo and Nigeria. Consequently, their music wasn't based in any one tradition. They sang mostly in Mandinka, Portuguese Creole and Wolof, but also other local tongues, French and even faltering Spanish. Mellow Cuban boleros and sones were favoured musical templates as well as a bewildering array of adapted traditional tunes and Senegalese styles.

Perhaps most distinctive was the flowing guitar of Barthelemy Attisso, whose playing clearly helped them capture an international fan base. At home they reigned supreme until the end of the 1970s, when popular tastes moved away from Latin-influenced music in favour of the more hard edged and percussive mbalax style championed by the young Youssou N'Dour and his band Etoile de Dakar.

. . . On 5 May 2001, a reformed Baobab performed in London at The Barbican Centre's Urban Beats festival. Though they hadn¹t played together for more than 15 years, fears that the old magic might have been lost were soon banished as they ran through a sublime set of old favourites and fresh material. ( BBC )

"Nijaay" FMM Sines 2008, Portugal . Uploaded by " bunks07"

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Jaap Blonk performance with installation by Messa di Voce

2009-10-20T21:36:00.004+10:00

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Funny scene from 01:47

Messa di Voce installation. artists: Golan Levin and Zachary Lieberman

Jaap Blonk (born 1953, Woerden) is a Dutch avant-garde composer and performance artist. Blonk is primarily self-taught both as a sound artist and as a visual/stage performer. He studied physics, mathematics, and musicology for a time, but did not complete his studies.
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Bora Yoon

2009-10-20T20:24:00.011+10:00

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"Sons Nouveaux " - Live at Brooklyn Academy of Music.

Yoon grew up in the United States outside Chicago, Illinois. A graduate of Ithaca College’s Conservatory of Music and creative writing program, she is classically trained in the school of studied thought and improvisational sciences, with a first love of choral music.

Yoon's eclectic musical style uses unconventional sources (everyday found objects, chamber instruments and digital devices) to generate music.

She explores where sound connects to the subliminal through the timbre languages offered in the voice, violin (now viola), water, ancient Tibetan singing bowls, cell phones, music boxes, glockenspiel, guitar, walkie talkies, metronomes, shortwave radios, kitchenware, found sounds, and electronics.

Bora Yoon with Ben Frost : "O Pastor Animarum" : Church of the Ascension, NYC

"O Pastor Animarum" antiphon chant by Hildegard von Bingen ( 1098-1179 ) -- a visionary abbess, composer, and mystic of the 12th century. Phonation Records released 2008.

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Vermeer - " The Milkmaid "

2009-10-19T20:02:00.001+10:00

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Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou Dahomey

2009-10-19T19:18:00.013+10:00

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Afro Funk: "Gbeti Madjro" from the compilation "African Scream Contest" released on Analog Africa Records .

Orchestre Poly Rythmo de Cotonou is a funk band from Benin. Active since the 1970s, and having recorded over 50 full-length LPs and hundreds of 45s, they are still touring around the world today.

Uploaded by " diemsy "

What distinguishes Benin from its neighbours is the fact that it happens to be home to Vodoun - or as we know it over here Voodoo. So it should be no surprise that the popular music of Benin draws heavily upon the rhythms of Vodoun rituals, but what is surprising is the other influences that have come into play. The Vodoun Effect: Funk & Sato From Benin's Obscure Labels 1973-1975 a recent release on the Analog Africa from Germany, that has collected together fourteen tracks by one of Benin's most popular bands, Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou. Recorded in the 1970s on a variety of small independent labels, they show not only the Vodoun influence but how music from both South and North America found its way back across the Atlantic Ocean.

According to the publicity material that came with the disc, in the late 19th century a group of freed slaves from Brazil - Bahia region - returned to Benin and over the years their dances and songs were incorporated into Beninese ritual, and from there worked their way into the popular culture. In the 1960s and 1970s American soul and funk music started making its presence felt in Africa, and along with the sounds of pop music from neighbouring Nigeria were assimilated into the popular music scene in Benin. ( mojorisings )

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