Category Archives: CD Reviews

Brooklyn Raga Massive’s new CD: performing Raga music of today in Brooklyn

Brooklyn Raga Massive Compilation Vol.1Artist: BRM
Title: Brooklyn Raga Massive Compilation, Volume 1
Label: self produced (producer, editor and mastering engineer – Sameer Gupta,
live recordings – Dave Ellenbogen, NYCRadioLive)
Genre: Indian Classical music/raga/world

CD Review by Dawoud Kringle

For those of you who live in the NYC area, you probably heard of the Brooklyn Raga Massive (BRM). BRM is a collective of musicians whose work is rooted in Indian classical raga. However, unlike most raga based organizations that confine themselves to the admirable (but highly specialized) task of preserving tradition, they expand the scope of their musical endeavors by making liberal use of jazz, Western classical, rock, avant garde, and other music.

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3.5.7 Ensemble – Social Music From Chicago

3.5.7. EnsembleArtist: 3.5.7 Ensemble
Title: Amongst the Smokestacks and Steeples
Label: Milk Factory Productions
Genre: jazz

Review by Dawoud Kringle

Chicago’s 3.5.7 Ensemble (Nick Anaya – woodwinds, James Davis – trumpet, Richard Zili – clarinet, Jim Baker – piano, Tim Stine – guitar, Chris Dammann – Contrabass, Dylan Andrews – percussion, and Mabel Kwan – prepared piano) has compiled an aggregate of compositions spanning a three year history. Most of these are originals the ensemble composed, but “Wandering” by the Chicago tenor sax player Fred Anderson, and “Dangurangu,” a Zimbabwean folk song featuring Mabel Kwan’s prepared piano are included.

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CD Review: Dahlia Dumont – Edith Piaf Comes To Brooklyn on a Reggae Bandwagon

Dahlia DumontArtist: Dahlia Dumont & The Blue Dahlia
Title:  The Blue Dahlia
Label: self produced
Genre: Pop-Reggae/French Reggae-Ska

CD Review by Dawoud Kringle

The second decade of the 21st century ushered in an unforeseen phenomenon: pretty young women with ukuleles. Those of us who were born in the 60s and 70s sure didn’t see this coming! And with such women who seek a serious professional career, they have a lot of preconceived ideas to get past. So, with as much of an open mind as I could muster (suppressing the subtle sexism I was programmed with in my native culture), I wondered what The Blue Daliah had to offer.

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David Belmont With Brent Arnold…An Experiment In Compressed Creativity

David Belmont Artist: David Belmont With With Brent Arnold
Title: International Steel Guitar
Label: Windwater Productions
Genre: World/blues/ambient soundscapes

CD Review by Dawoud Kringle

New York City based guitarist / composer / producer / co-director of the Castillo Theatre David Belmont has a history of producing music from ambient soundscapes, jazz / rock / world fusion and avant garde jazz. In International Steel Guitar, joined by Brent Arnold (cello) and Michael Walsh (keyboards), he takes things to musical places not normally associated with the Dobro guitar.

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CD Review: Spaghetti Eastern Music…using any musical device, any genre, any instrument, any abstract and ambient sound to make his statement

Spaghetti Eastern MusicArtist: Spaghetti Eastern Music
Title: Sketches of Spam
Label: Bad Egg Records
Genre: rock/post-rock/experimental

CD Review by Dawoud Kringle

Every now and again, my friend Sohrab Saadat (editor / publisher of DBDBD) just loves to give me music that challenges my ability as a reviewer. He did it again with Spaghetti Eastern Music‘s new release Sketches of Spam, the solo project of New York based musician Sal Cataldi.

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