jazz
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“Now and again, we meet for tea. This is our universe: cups of tea. We have a beautiful cosmos, you and me.” It’s not often that we’re confronted with the secrets of life. It’s not often that we’re presented with such revelation (laced with equal parts comedy and profundity). A zen kōan said with a…
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Life sure is something isn’t it? I imagine, many of you who’ve experienced a great loss in their life (or are experiencing another one, as I am, at the time of this writing) can understand the course of feelings one goes through. They’re complicated. You can call it a certain numbness. Bouts of intense heartache,…
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If you can imagine, imagine what it is to be a woman. For those already identifying as one, venture onwards. Then, compound that. Imagine yourself as a trombonist. It’s that choice: to pick up one of music’s longtime bit players — and actually do something meaningful with the instrument — that informs just how interesting…
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Who knows where the time goes? Because, apparently, lately it’s me. Through some fated collusion of circumstance and consequence, both personal and external, I’ve spent most of my day tied to a phone, tied to things out of my control. With the holidays – at least in America – upon us, what precious moments I…
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I’ll be one of the first to admit this: intriguing album designs draw me in. Even in the age of digital artwork, nothing quite says “listen to me” than a singular, creative, point of view. I mean, what else would explain how I stumbled upon Miguel Braga’s haunting nocturnal ambient jazz album, Ritual?
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There’s a reason that art can transcend time, space, and vocabulary. It does so because it can speak to something innate born within us. Perhaps, it’s that ability to empathize, to experience shared emotion through song. It’s what feeds any musician to put their thoughts on instruments and express themselves to others. And, as shown…
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Charming, breezy, and wonderfully multi-layered, those are a few of the many adjectives one can use to describe the sole work by Korean art folk trio: 새바람이 오는 그늘 (who I’ll refer to as “The Shade With New Wind from now on). On their debut, 1990’s 1집, one can hear another defined turning point in…
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Forgive me if I’m repeating myself, but if I haven’t said it bears I’m saying it now: sometimes I (just like each of us) is just a vessel for the greater good. In this case, it’s facilitating keeping a bit of music history alive. So, a huge thank you to both Victor Hsu Jui-Ting (who’s…
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Jazz. Why even bother? At least, that’s what I ask myself when I choose to share something from that realm. Of all musical rorschach tests, it is Jazz, I feel, that seems to feature prominently as the one. Does one highlight its technical proficiency (and thereby, turn off a large part of the readership)? Does…
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Warning: today’s post might be mercifully concise. Not so recently, while scouring through my digital album collection, I spotted this interesting release buried deep in my recovered hard drive – Koono’s Senegal. At first, I wondered, was this something I found while on an African music kick? Firing up my laptop I heard something a…
ambient art pop art rock balearic brazilian electro-acoustic england environmental music experimental fourth world Funk fusion japan jazz minimalist mpb neo-folk neoclassical new age walearic