Music Evolution

Argentinian composer Gustavo Santaollala is best known for his soundtracks (Brokeback Mountain, Babel, Motorcycle Diaries), but his side project, Bajofondo Tango Club, now called just Bajofondo goes back to before he became a big soundtrack composer.   I first heard his music with on Ronroco, on which he plays solo charango, the Argentine folkloric instrument made from an armadillo shell.  It is a gorgeous album, …

This week I attended a very unusual show that showed once again how music transcends all boundaries:  music as universal language.   The two artists on stage at the Skirball Cultural Center—thanks to Yatrika Shah-Rais for programming this show–were Vincent Segal and Ballake Sissoko.  They played two instruments that developed concurrently in West Africa and Europe centuries ago.  The kora is the traditional 21 …

The April issue of Stereophile, an audiophile magazine, features an interview with a man named Yves Beauvais.     Like other Frenchmen, Beauvais appreciated America and American culture and so moved to New York City, to be closer to their heart.   He worked as top A&R man/staff producer at Atlantic Records for almost two decades, reporting directly to its legendary founder, Ahmet Ertegun,  successively …

I’ve never been a top 40 kind of guy.  I like music much more obscure that than what you’d find in Billboard  magazine or the checkout line at Starbucks.
And so I am continually amazed by how much music Shazam–the smartphone app– can identify.  I’ve already written on how Shazam—available as a free app on iPhones and probably on Samsung and other platforms–can help failing …

We had a piano in our home when I was growing up, a nice Chickering quarter grand.  It was given to my teenage father after his recital by a rich lady who was impressed by his budding talent.  My father would play it to relax before dinner, with a few double scotches fueling his inspiration.  It was cocktail style piano.   We sold it …

Rotator cuff surgery last Friday means I only have one hand to type.  Hence this haiku:

1000 pages.  78′ of music spanning 1000 years, five continents,  texts in 8 languages.  Huge in scope, ravishing in its beauty;   in short, a remarkable accomplishment.  For $24.99, it’s also an amazing bargain.
 

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Big Carnival celebrations are happening right now.  It comes to an end with Mardi Gras (“Fat Tuesday”), after which comes the hangover and token repentance of Ash Wednesday.  You can see the influence of African culture and rhythms in these four Carnival capitals, which almost always happen in Catholic countries;  they are too risqué for Protestants, and usually are associated with certain Catholic saints …

Freshly Ground is now the most popular band in South Africa, even though they’re not that well known here in the U.S.. They did perform at the FIFA World Cup in South Africa a couple of years ago, but their star has yet to ascend most other places.  They have a new tour of the U.S. in March, so that may change things somewhat.
The …

How many styles of Gangnam style are there anyway? I asked my friend Rio Mohan Dluzak if there was going to be a bollywood version, and yes, indeed there was, and she sent me this.  The twist went to Africa, the lambada to Europe and to the U.S.,  the hustle went who knows where, but with social media, gangnam is sure to outdistance them all…….this …

I don’t know quite how they did this, but thank god for African music and dance…..without African rhythms we’d all be listening to Scottish and Irish folk music, German polkas and beer drinking songs…instead of rock and roll, r&b, blues, jazz the whole wonderful synergistic musical tapestry we have here…..now the Africans have given the megahit a little African spin……and look at the joy, …