Larry McDonald Drumquestra (MCPR Music, 2009) Jamaican master percussionist and sideman Larry McDonald has released one of the best percussion recordings in recent months. The…
Jamaican Drumming Explosion
Category: Album reviews
Peyoti Inconformity
Peyoti for President Rising Tide of Conformity (2009) Rising Tide of Conformity, the debut album from the [wiki:London] based band, Peyoti for President, delivers Protest…
Rare Elements Focus on Omar Faruk Tekbilek
Omar Faruk Tekbilek Rare Elements – Omar Faruk Tekbilek (5 Points Records, 2009) The Rare Elements remix series returns with a focus on one of…
La Musgana Celebrates 20th Anniversary
La Musgaña – 20 (Mad River Records) Although Castilian music is not as well known as flamenco or Spanish Celtic music from Galicia and Asturias,…
Justin Adams and Juldeh Camara Tell No Lies
Justin Adams and Juldeh Camara Tell No Lies (Real World Records, 2009) The sinewy strains of the riti, Gambia’s one-string spike fiddle, stretched tight over…
Revolutionary Afrobeat
Fela Kuti Alagbon Close / Why Black Man Dey Suffer (Wrasse, 2007) Two of Fela Kuti’s classics, Alagbon Close and Why Black Man Dey Suffer,…
Salsa’s Mr. Feeling
Cheo Feliciano El Señor Sentimiento (Fania, 2009) All right all you Latin fans, have I got the goods for you. Overflowing with 30 tracks of…
The Prism of the Kings of the Tsugaru Shamisen
Yoshida Brothers – Prism (Domo, 2009) Japan’s Yoshida Brothers have become very popular in their native Japan and abroad because of their fiery performances on…
Gracious Spirit of the Ethiopian Soul
Invisible System – Punt – Made In Ethiopia (Harper Diabate Records, 2009) How an aid worker, who spent eight years in Mali and Ethiopia,…
Mariachi Real De San Diego’s Songs of Old Mexico
Mariachi Real De San Diego – Mariachi Classics (Mardi Gras Records, 2009) Last March I taught a Latin music appreciation class in Bellingham, Washington. The…