World Music - CD Reviews (427)
Ruben Blades won a Grammy for Best World Album, for his epic work Mundo released in 2002. The Panama born Salsa artist has moved far from his Fania All Star Roots and has i…
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Baka Beyond is a UK-based group/collective consisting of musicians and singers from Cameroon, Ghana, France, the UK, Sierra Leone and Senegal. Their specialty is co-minglin…
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The MATT GERAGHTY PROJECT is a stunning and exciting jazz work featuring contemporary jazz blended with cultural sounds of India, Brazil, North Africa, and Spain. It is a c…
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Sainkho Namtchylak is a singer from Tuva, a country near Mongolia. She’s one of the masters of the art of throat singing, which is where a singer can produce several notes …
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World music, infused with jazz motifs and gipsy motifs, oftentimes creates some highly memorable performances, and such is the case with guitarist Bireli Lagrene's new CD c…
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Harv are probably not inspired by The Honeymooners episode in which Ralph goes up again a bruiser referred to as "HAR-vee," but that’s OK. What they are is a Swedish…
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A former member of the super-fine Klezmatics, clarinetist David Krakauer might well be to klezmer clarinet what Sidney Bechet was to the clarinet in the 1930s, what Jimi He…
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On his most recent CD, Splashes, Russian bassist Alex Rostotsky expands his musical references to encompass cultures beyond his native country, even though Russia it…
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Some challenging music is originating in New England, and, against expectations, it’s not being written and performed by students from or the faculty of the Berklee School …
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Every now ‘n’ again, you just wanna slap a disc into the machine that’ll make you forget that we live in an impossibly, insanely complicated world. But at the same time you…
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The late Ustad Mohammad Omar was Afghanistan's most legendary musician, a virtuoso on the rabab (a plucked lute that's the ancestor of India's sarod). This disc may well be…
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Without doubt, Wayne Wesley Johnson is a world class guitarist, and the jazz listening audience will find his new CD collection, CANCIONES DEL ALMA, a wonderful blend of wo…
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It’s easy to dis the many multiculti/cross-cultural "World Music" compilations on the market these days in mega-stores and multi-coffee shops as so much trendy, plethora-zi…
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If piano playing were declared an extreme sport, attempted by only the most daring and most adventurous daredevils, John Stretch no doubt would win the gold in 2002. Ukr…
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Though it’s hardy trendy these days, there is quality "roots"-style reggae being created out there, and this recent disc by the UK outfit Misty In Roots is the evide…
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Mr. Bill Laswell, one of the world’s busiest producer/performers is at it again. This fellow’s got his fingers in so many diverse musical pies of his own and others (who’s …
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These fellows are an 11-piece brass band (well, brass, saxophones and percussion, to be truthful) from the strife-torn Balkan land(s) that used to be known as Yugoslavia. M…
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On their first album, NYC-based band Pharaoh’s Daughter sought a fusion of traditional Middle Eastern sounds (with slightly more emphasis on the Hebraic side of the equatio…
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You know, every once in a while, a group comes along that makes a reviewer glad to be of assistance in spreading the word about it. The Motet is one of those groups. Bas…
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Flamenco and Jazz share many similarities. They are both musics created by the persecuted and disenfranchised members of the larger societies - Africans in the America's an…
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