A term like “Eastern European music” gets bandied about by many, including me. It’s one of those convenient generalizations used to cover a category that’s…
Eastern European Ecstasies
Author: Tom Orr
Tom Orr is a California-based writer whose talent and mental stability are of an equally questionable nature. His hobbies include ignoring trends, striking dramatic poses in front of his ever-tolerant wife and watching helplessly as his kids surpass him in all desirable traits.
Breaking the Ground a Little More
The very names of the CDs I’m reviewing here (some, anyway) indicate that they’re looking to go to places that haven’t yet been fully explored…
African Friends New and Old
It’s not likely I’ll ever get a handle on just how many great African musicians are out there, despite over three decades of loving and…
Latin Changeups
I’ve long contended that Latin music (something of a loaded term) was the first world music (ditto) to catch on in a big way. Even…
Getting Reacquainted With Old Friends and Making New Ones
It’s been more than three decades since my musical tastes went global. In that time I haven’t stopped being amazed at the diversity of music…
Voices of a Better World
In this era of harsh voices speaking know-it-all rhetoric from various political, religious, cultural and elitist viewpoints, the need for musical voices to tame the…
Tradition and Getting Around it
Being a self-styled traditionalist doesn’t mean my musical tastes are so staunch that I shun any sonic adventurousness that steps over traditional boundaries. Cross the…
Lovin’ Haiti
Despite the persisting perception that Haiti is a place most readily associated with brutal dictatorships, impoverished masses and natural disasters, it is more so a…
Drawing the African Line
Call me a traditionalist, call me a purist, call me a snob, call me a journalistic hack. (Okay, that last one is kind of beside…
Different Combinations of Latin Spices
I‘ve long asserted that Latin music was the first “world” music to make its way into the mainstream. Arguable though that may be, there’s no…