https://vimeo.com/288972258 Update: the song is no longer a mystery! Read on to find out more. Caci Vorba (Poland) was one of the more cohesive and likeable bands at this years Crossroads … [Read more...]
Coven sings “Bread and Roses” at the English Folk Expo
https://vimeo.com/manage/296723262 https://vimeo.com/296723262 https://vimeo.com/manage/296723262 This performance from the English Folk Expo (EFEx) caught me by surprise, as I had never heard of the group Coven before. But I love surprises, and in truth, a sound man for EFEx, Tom Stanier assured me that I would be “blown away.” Which I was. … [Read more...]
Ranky Tanky at WOMEX 2018
https://vimeo.com/298769078 Ranky Tanky is one of those bands I had heard good things about but never seemed to catch here in NYC, but there they were at WOMEX in the Canary Islands, so I made it a point to check in on them. That’s the irony; sometimes you don’t see the domestic bands till you go overseas! They were playing in one of the larger venues, which was packed … [Read more...]
L’ubomir Gašpar’s Cimbal Project: Jazz at the Crossroads Festival
https://vimeo.com/287316995 Jazz-World fusions abound, but in general, the musicians that create this music play instruments that have already been integrated into the jazz “sound.” What is less common is to find musicians who play what the Jazz Journalists Association’s Howard Mandel would dub “Instruments rare to jazz.” L’ubomir Gašpar (Slovakia) plays the Cimbal, a … [Read more...]
Guldoza live at WOMEX 2016
https://vimeo.com/278533335 Uzbek song is not well known here (even the pop music is obscure), but it is well worth investigating. I find that most of the traditional music coming out of Central Asia is beautiful and redolent of another time and place. That may eventually disappear with the assimilation of western harmonies and instrumentation, but thankfully the governments … [Read more...]
Min Xiao-Fen brings Jazz to the Chinese Pipa and Ruan
https://vimeo.com/279037346 I have always been impressed with Howard Mandel’s musical choices for the annual Jazz Journalists Association awards gala. This year was no different, with a major awards nod to women in jazz. The show started off with the Leni Stern trio, and pipa virtuoso Min Xiao-Fen at the one-third point. (Powerhouse singer Polly Gibbons later delivered a … [Read more...]
Maija Kauhanen sings about Child Brides
Maija Kauhanen sings about child brides at WOMEX from Michal Shapiro on Vimeo. As you might have noticed from my last posting, this past year's WOMEX had some pretty powerful women performing. Among them was most certainly Finland's Maija Kauhanen, whose day case was exceptionally compelling. … [Read more...]
Luciana Jury at WOMEX—Now THAT’s interpretation!
https://vimeo.com/250799954 Luciana Jury was one of the day case acts at WOMEX 2017, and she started her solo show off-mic, entering from the audience area and walking and singing to the stage. This was the start of a series of extremely emotional songs, wherein Ms. Jury used her vocal flexibility to make each song a small theater piece. This kind of dramatization is not for … [Read more...]
A Song as Halloween Approaches
Show of Hands Plays The Best Halloween Song I Have Ever Heard from Michal Shapiro on Vimeo. Like many of our holidays, Halloween has morphed into something far from its origins. Now it is a time for children to dress up as just about anything, and ask for candy, and for adults to put on masks and behave very badly. The only thing that is intact from the past is the change … [Read more...]
Wu Hsin-fei: Renegade Nanguan Music from Taiwan
https://vimeo.com/13859136 As I write this, another day of rain in New York is adding to what has been a rather tropical summer. Am I the only one who thinks rainy days evoke nostalgia? I think not. So I have been digging in my archive of videos and am presenting one today; "Wu Hsin-fei: Renegade Nanguan Music from Taiwan" is one of my first videoblogs from abroad, from over … [Read more...]