Various artists, continued
Fire Down Below: Scorchers from Studio One
proto-reggae/ska from such innovators as Burning Spear, Prince Francis, et al. Out of print apparently, but worth picking up if you can find it.
From Galway to Dublin
early (sometimes scratchily recorded) traditional Irish tunes. Perfect for drinking Jameson's, or reading Joyce. Ahem. In fact, I'm out of Jameson's at the moment.
Golden Era of Rock n Roll
box set I bought once in a historical mood. Don't listen to it much; Rock and roll got a lot more interesting to me once the artists discovered drugs, solipsism, and started listening to Bob Dylan. There are a lot of classic tunes on this collection, but how many times a week can you listen to Only the Lonely or Summertime Blues?
Great trance inducing music. Might be out of print. Spectacular bass lines/drum lines. The Axiom label has lots of similar music.
Copping the review from AllMusic:
As Paul Bowles states in his liner notes, the music of the Gnawa (Malinese slaves brought to Morocco in the 16th century) is very different than most of what's heard in Morocco. Indeed, there's a healthy strain of the kind of vocal and percussion styles heard in the Gnawa's West African homeland on this fine collection. And even though the Middle Eastern darbouka drum is occasionally used and the language sung in is Arabic, the predominant sound comes from large, deep-toned drums called the tbola (akin to the talking drum of Ghana) and from the chorus of singers heard on half the cuts (the harmonies produced being similar to those in both traditional and popular West African song). Sounding like a cross between the oud (the Middle Eastern predecessor to the lute) and the West African kora, the upright string instrument the sentir musically fuses the two cultures. Musicology aside, this Bill Laswell-produced recording is a must for fans of both African and Middle Eastern music. Half the pieces feature lead and group singers in call and response mode buoyed by a full compliment of sentirs, drums, hand clapping, and qrakechs (finger cymbals made from sheet metal). The other portion includes both drum features and sentir and vocal pieces. A great collection.
Rough Guide to Greece
I still have never visited Greece. It's on my short list.
Rough Guide to Haiti
Not as good as Konbit, but has the advantage of being in print.
Harder They Come
Great soundtrack to a good movie. Jimmy Cliff, the Maytals, Desmond Dekker, the Melodians. Can't go wrong.
Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar Masters
Ultimately fades into the aural landscape whenever I play it. Perhaps too close to New Age music for my taste. Bought mainly to flesh out my Hawaiian collection in order to create mix tapes for my friend Ms. Honoria.
Hawaiian String Virtuoso
In contrast to the Hawaiian Slack Key album, noted above, this album rocks! Well, to be exact, since rock wasn't even a common blues term yet, and nobody (as far as I know) even electrified any of their instruments, this is just sprightly, masterful guitar work. Not strictly a various artists album, as every band had King Bennie Nawahi as the guitar player. Whatever. Worth picking up a copy if you are at all a student of the guitar, or appreciate swing jazz, or up-tempo guitar melodies.
Hillbilly Music
This is apparently out of print, and currently lists for $58 on Amazon (U.S.). Wow. It's pretty good, but I wouldn't suggest paying $58 for any album containing less than 100 tracks (this one is only 24 songs). A decidedly non-Nashville country music compilation. Makes me want to belly up to the bar.
Indestructible Beat of SOWETODesert island disc for sure. Great, great collection of music from apartheid-South Africa township, SOWETO. If you own only one compilation of African music, you should own this one. Diverse styles, including the Lion of Soweto, Mahlathini. Get this album!
Is it Rolling Bob?
Reggae versions of Bob Dylan songs. Old chestnuts like the Times They Are A-Changing, One Too Many Moringings, Lay, Lady, Lay, etc. Some versions also include a second 'dub' disc. Includes a reggaefied 'remix' of I and I by Mr. Zimmerman himself. B+.
Kenya and Tanzania: Witchcraft
Ethnomusicologists only. And witchcraft in the meaning of spiritual healer, or shaman.
Konbit Burning Rhythms of Haiti Spectacular collection of Haitian popular music, including one song sung by the Neville Brothers. Possible desert island disc, unless the desert was somewhere in the Caribbean.
La Rumba de Cuba
More Cuban music to dance to, if you are into Cuban music.
Latin Jazz on Impulse
moderately listen-able Latin-jazz tunes, from Coleman Hawkins, Sony Rollins, Johnny Hartman, et al.
Left of the Dial Dispatches from the 80s
Maybe its due to nostalgia, or other chemical imbalances, but I love this set. A few quibbles (why this particular Butthole Surfer song?), and a few suck-ass tunes, but mostly a good solid collection of 80s music that mattered (at the time anyway). Some of these bands I already liked (Butthole Surfers, the Pogues, R.E.M., X, Husker Du, Joy Division), and some were forgotten until now (the dBs, Bauhaus). All in all, a high signal to noise ratio.
Masked and Anonymous
Covers of Dylan tunes, many in non-English languages (Turkish, Japanese, Italian, etc.), plus 4 (new) versions by Mr. Zimmerman. Soundtrack to the extremely odd movie of the same name.
Throughout his career, Bob Dylan has delighted in confounding expectations and reveled in being cryptic, but few projects have been as deeply confounding and cryptic as his 2003 film, Masked and Anonymous, where he stars as rock legend Jack Fate, who has been jailed in a post-apocalyptic, “mythological third-world America” (the words of the film's director, Larry Charles) in the throes of a civil war, but is let out of prison to perform at a “dubious benefit concert” (the words of Alan Light, who contributes necessary but still confusing liner notes). Within this scenario pass scores of celebrity cameos, all eager to be seen on-screen with the legend himself, particularly after the career revival of Love and Theft, along with numerous Bob Dylan songs, only a handful of which are sung by him and most of which are in radical reinterpretations (several sung in different languages)I don't hate the movie as much as everybody seems to (D couldn't watch the whole thing either), but I really should watch it again at some time. The soundtrack taken by itself, on it's own merits, has some quality covers (Shirley Caesar: Serve Somebody for instance, or the Grateful Deads' cover of It's all over now, Baby Blue).
More than Mambo
My first Afro-Cuban jazz purchase, and a great album to start with. Not a bad song on this 2 disc set. Cal Tjader is a genius. Desert Island disc.
Tags: music
