Various Artists – Brazilian Groove (Putumayo PUT 216-2, 2003) Various Artists – The Rough Guide to Brazilian Electronica (World Music Network RGNET 1123 CD, 2003)…
Brazil Up to the Minute
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.
Pancho Quinto’s Percussion Quintessence
Pancho Quinto Rumba Sin Fronteras (Riverboat Records/World Music Network TUGCD1031, 2003) A true master percussionist from a land that has produced many, Cuba’s Pancho Quinto…
New Highs in U.S./Jamaican Relations
The Slackers – Close My Eyes (Hellcat Records 80455-2, 2003) Zema – Black Sheep (Melchizedek Music MEL2040, 2003) It’s odd what you find in the…
Doin’ the Hip-Hop Horah
Solomon and Socalled Hiphopkhasene (Piranha CDPIR1789, 2003) If it had been made strictly to milk laughs, this disc could have been a disaster rather than…
Face the Music
John Wubbenhorst and Facing East – Facing Beloved (Facing East Productions 03050541, 2003) A lot of fusion music has been based on and around the…
Capping a Decade of Excellence
Africando – Martina (Stern’s STCD 1096, 2003) It’s been 10 years since Africando began the full-force re-Africanization of salsa. Of course, the musical give and take…
What Could’ve Been
Polo Montanez Guitarra Mía (Evolver EVL2017-2, 2003) Originally put out by the French label Lusafrica in 2002, this is a sparkling, joyous disc that nonetheless…
Peace In Our Time
Culture – World Peace (Heartbeat 11661-7764-2, 2003) “We can’t take another war/we want world peace.” So sings Culture’s Joseph Hill on the title track of this…
Sufi Serenity
Ensemble Ibn Arabi – Chants Soufis Arabo-Andalous [Arab-Andalusian Sufi Songs] (Long Distance 0450103, 2003) The mystical facet of Islam known as Sufism has long regarded artistic…
Ghazal Astounds, Khan Makes Sweet Sounds.
Ghazal – The Rain (ECM 1840, 2003) Shujaat Husain Khan – Hawa Hawa (World Village 468022, 2003) Ghazal, a duo comprised of Iranian kamancheh (spike…