seeline

I think you've managed to miss the top-drawer T. Rod. sides - as you say, he recorded so much that it's easy to do.

many/most of the vintage charts were by Rene Hernandez, right? When you talk about great arrangers, there's a name that should be mentioned, but never is. Sounds right, but I'd need to doublecheck. My brain is bit like Teflon these days.

Good album, though I like the 2-disc set on Traditional Crossroads better than this one... (2 separate discs, I should add, but they're meant to be a pair.)

You have me curious! Do you have any recommendations for Tito Rodriguez recordings? Probably the best place to look for recs. is www.descarga.com I downloaded a very nice comp from Emusic, titled Mambo Madness, that I'm planning on buying on disc (whenever I have $ for CDs again - might be a while!) I may be in the minority on T. Rod vs. Tito Puente, too... but I'm sticking to my thoughts on this. (My tastes are just that! ) ptah, you might also want to do a search on the AAJ board, as LuckeyRaffy1925 (former member) has a lot of knowledge on T. Rod. and others. it's a shame that his posts are basically buried in the archives.

That's a great album! (Dastgah nava.) Just posted a track from the following - haven't heard the entire CD yet, but so far, it's a keeper.

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.