The universal language?

Man! I love that Kepa Junkera disc set. That accordian really pops, and many of the cuts are meshed well with a more modern feel, so you get a bit of it all. (One of the discs has various guests on differing cuts and makes for a great combo.) The comment is correct that not everyone likes it, but my kids have no choice if my truck is going fast enough. Thanks Dekay for the lead. It is 88 degrees here today, and I am ready for a few months of sweaty latin beat and cold beer. Juan-Carlos Formell's "Songs From a Little Blue House" is excellent Cuban music. If you like BVSC, you must have it. Charlie.

Good potential for this thread Frogman. I've enjoyed expanding my musical horizons via the music of other cultures for many years now. In particular, Indian classical music has become a favorite. Several years ago, I got a chance to see phenomenal musician live, Budhaditya Mukherjee (sitar). He and his tabla player, Subhen Chatterjee, were on fire that night-absolutely incendiary. Probably the the best concert I've ever attended. The sarod (indian lute) is a wonderful instrument and Ali Akbar Khan is an excellent ambassador for it. He's got a large discography and I've never bought a bad one. A good introduction is "Garden of Dreams" on the Worldly Music label. It's not true classical, but rather, Akbar's own shorter compositions. My favorite musician from India is Buddhadev Das Gupta, an elderly sarodist that absolutely is beyond belief. His playing traverses the gamut from extreme delicacy to frenetic and muscular. His rapid fire improvisatory talents leave me awestruck at his licks. Another great uknown talent is the Japanese composer Minoru Miki (Camerata label.) His music was the delicate background music NBC used during some of the Nagano Olmypics broadcasts. "Selected works, volume 1 & 2," are great intros to this excellent music that combines Japanese and western classical musical traditions. Lastly, Javanese gamelan orchestral music is an interesting genre if you like percussion music. The Seven Seas label (Japan) has many excellent performances in this and many other Asian genres. An excellent catalog for the intrepid musical traveller.

This thread makes me think back to my college days at Wesleyan University, which had (and still has, I hope) a _great_ world music program. If I remember correctly, Wesleyan had the second Javanese gamelan orchestra in the U.S. (with Berkeley having the first). The all night (literally) wayang kulit’s (shadow puppet theater, with one puppeteer performing the whole way, backed by gamelan) that were held once or twice a year were awe-inspiring. There was a terrific complement of Indian musicians, with the chief instruments represented being sitar and tabla from the North and vina and mrdangam from the South. Unfortunately, the only musician’s name I can remember is the violinist L. Shankar, who has since recorded with many Western artists. During Ramadan, you could go to two or three Indian concerts a week (all free and held in very intimate spaces). There was lots more going on, including Jeanie Redpath and her traditional Scottish music and Doogie Mitchell, a leading exponent of American Indian music who unfortunately died young. For my own part, I took lessons in shakuhachi (Japanese vertical bamboo flute) for four years. I continued only for a few years after I graduated, but the memories of the weekly time I spent sitting a few feet in front of four of the six then-living descendants of the original lineage listening to them show me how that powerful and haunting instrument was supposed to be played are irreplaceable. Then there were the ancillary experiences, like helping one of the masters get acquainted with some methods of mood enhancement that were prevalent on American campuses at the time but not acceptable in Japan... but, hey, I’m out of time. I can barely remember what I majored in at college, but the music... man!

If your a fan of the blues, there is a facinating correlation between the blues of the United States and the music of West Africa, particularly of Mali. The evolution is obvious and not hard to trace from West Africa to the Carribean, to the South Lands where Blues evolved. What is amazing is how so much has remained the same. You can hear the similiarities between the guitar licks of Taj Mahal and the plucking of the Kora by Toumani Diabite. In fact, there is a great recording of the two of them playing together called Kulanjan. Also, the great Ali Farka Toure of Mali did a wonderful collaboration with Ry Cooder called Talking Timbuktu. Other Mali greats that you should check out are Salif Keita (his album the Mansa of Mali is wonderful) and the newest star in the pantheon of Mali greats, Habib Koite, whose recordings can be had on the Putumayo label.

I was a Peace Corps volunteer in Mali from 95-99...that's how come I know about these guys.