Category Archives: CD Reviews

CD Recommendation: Kaki King…The Guitar is A Shapeshifter

KAKI KINGArtist: KAKI KING
Title: The Neck Is The Bridge To The Body
Label: Short Stuff Records
Genre: acoustic experimental guitar
Release date: March 3, 2015

Kaki King’s groundbreaking new work, The Neck Is A Bridge To The Body, sees the renowned guitarist/composer joining forces with visual performance pioneers Glowing Pictures to construct an innovative multi-media production in which The Guitar itself takes centerstage. The Neck Is A Bridge To The Body debuted at Brooklyn’s BRIC House Ballroom in March 2014, and will tour extensively in 2015. An album featuring the music from the show will also be released in 2015.

The Neck Is A Bridge To The Body lays bare The Guitar’s inner life and protean power, its incalculable possibility and perpetual presence in our deepest unconscious. The hour-long production places the focus directly on The Guitar itself, the Instrument serving as an ontological tabula rasa in a creation myth unlike any other ever presented.

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CD Review: Ayelet Rose Gottlieb…It is within our power to be as we ought to be

Ayelet Rose Gottlieb CD coverArtist: Ayelet Rose Gottlieb
Title: Roadsides
Label: Arogole Music
Genre: world music/traditional/jazz
Review by Dawoud Kringle

Ayelet Rose Gottlieb’s music blends Jazz, Middle-Eastern & Jewish music, combined with her innovative approach to composition & improvisation. Her history is fascinating.

Gottlieb was born in Jerusalem, to a background of mixed cultures and a musically seasoned family. She was exposed to Oum Kalthoum, J.S. Bach, The Beatles, Andres Segovia, Laurie Anderson, Ella Fitzgerald, Bob Dylan, Thelonious Monk, Fairuz, and many others. In her childhood, she played the classical flute until graduating from the High School For the Arts in Jerusalem.

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CD Review: Mehmet Polat Trio (Turkey/Mali)…a spiritual yet adventurous meeting of three masters of their magical instruments (ney, kora and oud)

Mehmet PolatArtist: Mehmet Polat Trio
Title: Next Spring
Label: Homerecords
Genre: world/maqam/kora music

CD review by Dawoud Kringle

Collaborations between musicians of different traditions are a peculiarly modern phenomenon. Sometimes this produces nothing more than a contradictory hybrid. Yet, many times, the masterful and insightful blending of different cultures produces a balanced and complete aggregate greater than the sum of its parts that enriches all culture and the traditions and spiritual vision that emerges from it. The later is exemplified by the work in the Mehmet Polat Trio’s CD Next Spring.

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CD Review: Brooklyn Duo Mark Rogers and Mary Byrne…the music is subtle and minimalist while remaining dynamic and stylistically robust

Mark Rogers & Mary Byrne CD coverArtist: Mark Rogers and Mary Byrne
Title: I Line My Days Along Your Weight
Label: Important Records
Genre: folk noir/folk music

CD review by Dante Mann

I Line My Days Along Your Weight, the debut album by Mark Rogers and Mary Byrne , is compelling and an intriguing form of modern folk. There is a distinct southern flavor to this album; the music is subtle and minimalist while remaining dynamic and stylistically robust.

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CD Review: Troker’s “Crimen Sonora”…an album teeming with paradox, is dark yet fun…

TrokerArtist: Troker
Title: Crimen Sonora
Label: Intolerancia
Genre: Progressive Jazz/Rock

CD review by Dante Mann

Troker is a jazz-rock group formed in 2003 in the city of Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. They are an independent sextet known for their social involvement and high-energy live show. Crimen Sonora, written with live performance in mind, is Troker’s fourth full-length release.

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