Counterculture? What Counterculture?

An Editorial by Dawoud Kringle
(Originally published in https://dawoudtherenegadesufi.substack.com/. Reprinted with Permission)

Music has always been a major part of any culture and counterculture. It always will be. This phenomenon is hard-wired into all human society. Music possesses the power to change a society’s character. The cultural upheavals of the United States during the 1960s are a perfect example of this.

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Banning Eyre

CD Review: Banning Eyre “Bare Songs Vol. 1”

Album Review by Dawoud Kringle

Artist: Banning Eyre
Title: Bare Songs Vol. 1
Format: CD
Label: Lion Songs Records
Genre: African guitar music

Buy CD here: https://didier-garcia-x6sp.squarespace.com/store/bare-songs-vol-1

Banning Eyre requires no introduction for those of you who are regular readers of doobeedoobeedoo.info and members or friends of MFM.

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Improvised Music

An Editorial: The Future of Improvisational Music

Text by Dawoud Kringle

Andre Benjamin (a.k.a. Andre 3000) succeeded with the Atlanta-based hip-hop duo Outkast, collaborated with Beyonce and Erykah Badu, and made his mark as an actor. In 2023, he shocked the music world by releasing New Blue Sun, an all-instrumental collaboration with Carlos Nino, where he played flute. Nothing could have prepared audiences for one of the greatest rappers in hip hop making a bold move into ambient, flute based improvisational music. And against all odds, it was a great success.

Musicians have been improvising music for thousands of years. I could (and occasionally have) write about the musical traditions of ancient and classical cultures where musicians were expected to improvise. In the last several decades, jazz, some arcane offshoots of rock music, and all variations and subgenres have established improvisation as a mainstay in its canon.

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Strawbs

The Strawbs Musical Reminder: Are you “part of a Union?” No?

Text by Bruce Gallanter (Downtown Music Gallery, September 9th, 2024)

“Part of the Union” Song by The Strawbs, from the album Bursting at the Seams (1973)

Now I’m a union man
Amazed at what I am
I say what I think
That the company stinks
Yes, I’m a union man.

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Phillip Ellis Foster

Album Review: Philip Ellis Foster “The Cosmos Project”

Album Review by Dawoud Kringle

Philip FosterArtist: Philip Ellis Foster
Title: The Cosmos Project
Label: Infrequent Seams
Format: Digital
Genre: experimental/avant-garde music

Stream and buy here: https://philipellisfoster.bandcamp.com/album/the-cosmos-project

In the realm of experimental avant-garde music, Philip Ellis Foster has carved out his niche.

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