delight or annoy, and Reich has done both in his time. Fortunately, on this disc the music itself is neither too complex to play nor too difficult to follow, and it could stand as an excellent primer for Reich's early minimalism. What genuinely triumphs on this disc is Octet (of 1979/80). It's an athletic work that brings various instruments into and out of play in carefully cadenced rhythmic patterns that are typical of Reich's very best writing. For Reich fans, though, there might not be anything new here; newbies, however, should be quite taken. --Paul Cook  (less)

real sense the musical ideas appear to evolve naturally from these capabilities without in any way being limited by them. As he writes in the program notes for Duodecaphony for viola and cello, I welcomed the opportunity to address anew the problems of melody, counterpoint, harmony and timbre as they applied to this somewhat restricted choice of strings. A winner of the 1992 Pulitzer Prize in Music for his orchestral work The Face of the Night, the Heart of the Dark, Peterson s music is marked by a wonderful rhythmic fluidity, which derives from his experience as an accomplished jazz pianist. Perhaps most importantly, Wayne Peterson s musical language is at once sophisticated and direct in its approach to the listener; it never compromises it...  (less)

instruments, singing lead and back-ground vocals, and showcasing their collabrative songwriting style. From the upbeat and funky "Better Off" to the soulful prayer "Yours Is The Voice", this album has something for every listener's musical taste.  (less)

"After decades of struggle and neglect, Conlon Nancarrow is finally being recognized as one of the major American composers of the 20th century." -- New York Times "The expatriate American experimentalist composer Conlon Nancarrow is increasingly recognized as having one of the most innovative musical minds of this century ... Yet despite its complexity, Nancarrow's music drew its early influence from the jazz pianism of Art Tatum and Earl Hines and from the rhythms of Indian music; Nancarrow's whirlwinds of notes are joyously physical in their energy." -- Village Voice  (less)

on trumpet and flugelhorn. The fifteen-track CD presents an ensemble with a Sybil complex of multiple musical personalities. "Yesterday Morning" resembles a New Orleans funeral dirge with a reggae beat. "It Calls Me" melds the Mississippi Delta with Huun-Huur-Tu's Asian-born Tuvan throat singing. The exotic array of instruments includes the Romanian cimbalon , zamponia , Hawaiian steel guitar, electric banjitar , contrabass sax, claviola , and bass marimba. In the hands of lesser musicians this stuff would sound like a mess, but these guys make it work, with dancing diplomacy that would put the U.N. to shame. If this isn't world music, I don't know what is. --Eugene Holley, Jr.  (less)

Irish Uilleann piper of 'Riverdance' fame Davy Spillane, Armenian vocalist, percussionist and instrumentalist Arto Tuncboyaciyan, special guest Grateful Dead percussionist Mickey Hart, and a caravan of nine other world musicians. Born of Winter's popular annual Solstice Celebrations in New York's Cathedral of St.John the Divine, the world's largest Gothic cathedral, JOURNEY WITH THE SUN boasts a vibrant mood that flows into more contemplative, ambient spaces such as the elegant ballet for cello and pipes called 'Pas de Deux', or the poignant elegy, 'Last Oasis'. Mickey Hart, on his new computer-linked percussion instrument RAMU, creates bouncy rhythms drawn from the sounds of African mbira, xylophone and sand drum on th...  (less)

spontaneously distilled during the culture clash of the '60s when the Indian population of the Peruvian Amazon blended Columbian cumbias with American rock & roll, particularly the twang heavy sound of surf music. With cheap electric instruments, Amazon Indians used the syncopated beat of cumbia as the foundation for melodies that sound to western ears like Andean folk music played on electric guitar supported by Tex-Mex style Farfisa. When the Indians moved to Lima, chicha became a thriving subgenre, but since the 70s the style has been dying out. Olivier Conan, owner of New York's Barbés nightclub and record label, discovered the music on a 2005 trip to Peru. In 2007, he put out a compilation called The Roots of Chicha. The music so captivated New York's downto...  (less)

Stephen Schwartz, Alan Menken , and Kander & Ebb ; and wunderkinds Goldrich & Heisler . Also includes stories from the road and backstage hilarities from Broadway. With musical director Christopher McGovern , Egan recreates the concert she has performed across the country over 200 times with a high-spirited audience and infectious energy! "This Broadway singing star is a high-voltage performer who dominates a stage with a galvanizing presence. [Listening to her] is like an all-night conversation with your best friend." -- Los Angeles Times "Egan's voice [is] the perfect Broadway instrument: a balanced combination of technique and moxie." -- Orange County Register "Egan is electrifying." -- New York Post "[Egan's] sharply focused...  (less)

tradition, and yet eerily and achingly redolent of its revolutionary moments, Dixon's compositions form an equally disparate and unified body of work that ranks among the finest this country has offered the world." -- All About Jazz 2008 marks the magnificent return of the legendary Bill Dixon : composer, trumpeter, teacher, and all-around musical force. His contributions to the body of great Black American Music first began in the 1960s: performing and recording with Archie Shepp and Cecil Taylor ; producing the groundbreaking October Revolution concert series in NYC 1964, and as architect of the Jazz Composers Guild . In the late '60s he left "the scene" but continued to leave an indelible mark on music by devoting himself to teaching fro...  (less)

15 years from the Dino Saluzzi Group, sometimes known as the Saluzzi Family Project. Dino SaluzziÂ’s soulful, sunny and universally accessible music speaks of roots while gently embracing musical forms from milonga to tango to jazz. The title of the album salutes a childhood friend, and the recording has a direct emotional appeal – there is tenderness, love, and yearning in the music. The Saluzzi clan are: Dino Saluzzi: bandleader, composer and endlessly inventive bandoneonist Felix ‘CucharaÂ’ Saluzzi: DinoÂ’s brother and unique saxophonist of the ‘post-tangoÂ’ tradition José Maria Saluzzi: DinoÂ’s son and guitarist – he provides surprisingly Metheny-esque shadings and floating suspend...  (less)

her connection with the roots of Celtic music is so deep that when she mixes instruments like the kora (African harp), erhu (Chinese fiddle), and tabla (Indian drum) with the less exotic violin, guitar, and tin whistle the results sound absolutely right. McKeown moved from her native Dublin to New York in 1990, an event that she says paradoxically made her feel more Irish. Songs like "The Snows They Melt the Soonest," which features the fiddling of Johnny Cunningham, and "The Lowlands of Holland," a lament about a lover's death at sea, are infused with the sense of loss and longing that haunt the emigrant in a new land. On Lowlands Susan McKeown performs a rare feat of artistic alchemy by transforming sorrow into beauty. --Michael Simmons  (less)

stamp it as a mature work. It was composed on commission from the League of Composers and its first New York performance was on January 24, 1940 by Vladimir Horowitz. The Richard Cumming "Twenty-Four Preludes for Piano" was written for, and premiered by John Browning on December 17, 1969. Mr. Cumming recalls, "Mr. Browning's one request was "make them hard" and I have been led to believe that I have not totally failed him. I tried to explore a variety of pianistic techniques and musical styles ranging from the cafe to strict 12-tone and, to the best on my ability, express my own joy and respect for that lyric, noble and dynamic instrument I dearly love, the piano."  (less)