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.
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.
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.
Album Review by Dawoud Kringle
Artist: 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.
Review by Dawoud Kringle
Artist: Peterpeter
Title: Heavy Traffic
Format: single (digital)
Label: self-produced
Genre: experimental/electronics/improv/progressive rock
MFM members Peter Wetzler and Peter Einhorn from Kingston (NY) have teamed up to bring us some very fascinating music.
Keyboardist, composer, and writer Peter Wetzler is not sure how he became interested in music. He relates the story his mother told him of when he was five, she brought him near a beehive to hear the “music of the bees.” With a background in classical piano and an eclectic spectrum of musical influences, he has worked extensively in film, television, theater, dance, and music education. He was quoted as saying “My music merges emotion and intuition.”
