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Tito Rodriguez was incredibly accomplished, a real all-'round musician - and by far my favorite from the era of Latin big bands in NYC. A lot of his music is available on emusic.com, too - really beautiful charts, playing, the works. Dare I say it? OK, I will - much better than Tito Puente. (IMO.)

It is, though the volume level is a bit lower than it might be... Very subtle music for certain!

Speaking of emusic, here's a nice find that I dl'ed last evening...

Mike, I think the Roman Bunka album works much better than the Abou-Khalil/Kuhn disc... it's surprisingly good, IMO. I guess part of the "problem" is that musicians from the Middle East are very familiar with our music, but the reverse isn't true - so we tend to mess up when we try to play it. A. Abdul-Malik's albums as a leader are (I think) a case in point. ECM "spaciness": Yeah. It kills Egberto Gismont's music, too. I still can't get over how different his recordings for EMI Brasil and his own label (Carmo) are - like, there really *is* a groove! There's a sterility on Brahem's 1st album that carries over into the pieces that should groove like crazy - very disappointing. (I've never gotten over it, either! )

Since he's from Tunisia and one of the country's acclaimed oud masters, it should ... Agreed - I heard this trio live - a little restrained, but beautiful. No piano here, fortunately ... Haven't heard this, only a more recent one with piano - I stick to my skepticism towards piano and Arab scales. Makes it sound like film music, somehow - themes in sarch of movies (Brahem did some soundtracks, and his music works great as such). I can understand your skepticism, but I think people who do know the music can make something good with this combination - like Roman Bunka and Fathy Salama on this release - and Rabih Abou-Khalil with Joachim Kuhn here - but - it's not easy to do well! I have to wonder if anyone is retuning acoustic pianos for this (as in Burmese music), or if most are sticking with electronic keyboards - it's so much easier to use the latter to get the correct intervals. Quarter-tone keyboards took the Arab world by storm early in the last decade (to an annoying degree, I think!) - understandable because they're so compact and allow keyboard players to do the work of several instruments all by themselves... As for A. Brahem, I like him, but I think it's important to note that his pieces are mostly through-composed. I was very surprised to hear his group play the pieces on Astrakan Café without much - if any - deviation from the way they were recorded. One reason that struck me as odd is that Barbaros Erköse (Turkish clarinet player) is such a fluid improvisor! Edited to add: the Roman Bunka album is live and well worth hunting down. Fathy Salama (piano) is Egyptian and did the charts for this recent release by Youssou N'Dour (not an oud album, but beautiful all the same) - mike, I think you're right about Brahem's music working as "soundtrack" stuff even when it's not meant for that purpose. There's something about the way his ECM stuff is recorded that - to me - makes even the most up-tempo, lively cuts recede into the background. Maybe it's the final mix that does it?

I think so, too! Mosaic hadn't even come into being when I was going through the aftermath of quitting, or I'd probably be up to my ears in boxed sets now.

Yeah!!! One step at a time - I think Quincy is right about gifts or rewards or whatever you want to call them, too.

Thanks muchly! I'm not big on gnawa music, but am very curious about this release - will have to check around on some European sites, i guess. BTW, I really like Umm Kulthuum.

Hmm... I don't recognize this cover, and am wondering if this material is available elsewhere. What's the label, 7/4?

I saw that 78-l post too, but decided to not repost it here because it's unconfirmed. Assuming that anything is going to be preserved is (I think) probably a bad call - most objects (not just recordings) seem to survive almost by dumb luck. (As in this case.)

I just did a bit of Googling and... people on the 78-L are sounding grim. I found this post on The Fedora Lounge: and hope against hope that it's not true....

I've long wanted to like Nina Simone - and i do like a lot of her writing. But (as someone mentioned above) her vibrato is very hard to listen to, for me, anyway. Cassandra Wilson is wonderful when she's at the top of her game. I guess I have such high expectations of her that anything less than her best is a huge disappointment to me, which is more about me than it is about her musicianship. I think the arranging on Blue Light til Dawn and Belly of the Sun are far and away the best (of what I've heard, that is).

many thanks for the links, CD title suggestions, etc.!

Sounds like fun!

That does sound like a fun gig! I haven't heard any of his recent CDs, but I know he's very much into Brazilian music and gigs a lot down there - I wish I could tag along to some of those shows. "Air pressure toms"? (I'm a hand percussionist, so please forgive my ignorance of drum kit-type gear.)

If you say so, Allen.

You think so, eh?!

Thanks! NJ: yeah, I know people who need to make the trip from D.C. to Edison when they're feeling really homesick. Nice! I *really* like his liner notes for the disc I've got; his clear explanations of how the rhythms work (and how they function melodically) are among the best I've seen. I'm not a tabla player (and probably never will be; I've been concentrating on other percussion), but his love for the music charms my drummer's heart.

I got a passel of them for review, about 10-11 years ago - one of them was Debashish Bhattacharya's 1st album for them, another is a killer solo tabla recital by someone whose name completely escapes me at the moment. They're not so easy to find where I'm now living, and I haven't really checked out any web sources - suggestions would be welcome. Edit: D'oh! I just looked at your post again (with CD cover) - the solo tabla disc is by Samir Chatterjee.

Looks nice - I really like India Archive releases I've heard (very few, but still...).

I might have posted about this before (I didn't double-check), but it deserves some PR regardless: Likembe Wonderful blog specializing in rare/o.p. African releases, mostly vinyl. The links on this site will get you to some great podcasts - and online music stores that specialize in imports from various parts of Africa. Enjoy!

Hot Ptah - Like you, I doubt that he was claiming to make any definitive statements, but... I think I said something back on page 1 about the context, in that I can see how he wanted to appeal to the kids by inviting them into an ultra "in crowd." (so in that it's out.) I'm still not sure that's the best way to approach HS music ed, but then, I'm not in there toiling away - and can appreciate what you said earlier about wanting the kids to wake up!

Quite. As it is indifferent to thousands of other things. I don't see why it should be otherwise. Metheny is falling into the time honoured trap of the middle-aged of believing that only he can see what is of value, that the world as a whole has lost the plot. Last-Roman-as-the barbarians-swarm-across-the-Rhine Syndrome. At a meeting over the weekend I was reminded of this thread (and many others on bulletin boards) whilst reading the comments of one Alvarus, a ninth-century cleric in Córdoba, who grumbled about the way that young Christian men could barely write decent Latin, yet were besotted by Arabic poetry. The era he was living in is now regarded as one of the jewels of medieval culture. - the last 'graph in particular! But of course, you should take everything I say with a grain of salt, because I'm supposedly "pretending to be a musician." (Though I am serious about taking what I say under advisement, 'cause I'm not the final authority on anything. )

The first album is the one I have and wrote about. Yes... my apologies! I was confusing Martinho da Vila with another male samba singer who was on the 2nd release. Either way, it's a great album.