Senegalese bassist/vocalist/composer Alune Wade erases genre boundaries on his new release, Sultan.
Out of Africa and Beyond
Category Archives: Reviews
Raquel Z Rivera, Fidel González, and Arnaldo Acosta Coax Rain with Song
With New Mexico’s abundance of sun, heat, and wind, and its scarcity of water, agriculture here challenges even the most experienced farmers. They need all the help they can get. With her single “Tlalok San Ysidro” (available here), songwriter Raquel Z Rivera (vocals) offers a musical incantation for rain, with help from Fidel González (stringed concha, percussion, and vocals) and Arnaldo Acosta (percussion). This weekend, the song will be sung at the annual San Ysidro Day celebration, which blesses the acequias and invokes the help of San Ysidro Labrador, the patron saint of farmers, and his wife, Maria de la Cabeza, and the saint’s Mexica/Aztec counterpart, Tlalok, the spiritual energy that brings rain, and his wife, Chalchiuhtlicue.
A Tsunami of New Releases
A flood of new releases deserving attention is pouring in over the transom. To cover more of them, I’m keeping these reviews short and sweet. Here are several releases worthy of your attention, from Myra Melford’s new quintet; the quartet Kind Folk; the trio of Aaron Parks, Matt Brewer, and Eric Harland; and singer/songwriter Jason Tamba.
Singing and Swinging with Catherine Russell
If you are unfamiliar with vocalist Catherine Russell, do yourself a big favor and check out her latest release, Send for Me, available here. If you are familiar with her, you have probably stopped reading by now and are on your way to to pick up this stellar release, if you haven’t already.
Trancing and Dancing with Club d’Elf
Paul Schultheis, Brahim Fribgane. Photo by Mark Wilson.
The bio of bassist/composer Mike Rivard, the head elf of the band Club d’Elf, claims that he is “perhaps the only musician to have performed with big band legend Cab Calloway, Frank Zappa discovery Wildman Fisher, Gnawa master Hassan Hakmoun and two members of the Velvet Underground (though sadly, not all at the same time)” [my emphasis]. With Club d’Elf, though, Rivard performs with musicians from a similarly wide range of backgrounds—from traditional Moroccan music to ’60s rock, jazz to country to Hindustani music—all at the same time, playing originals, Gnawa and Sufi classics, and covers of folks such as Zappa and Zawinul/Davis. The result is transformational music that can lighten your load.