Love, Beats, and Pina Coladas

One of the masterminds behind the Italian group A Smile for Timbuctu, master Digi G'Alessio is proving to be as prolific as a solo artist. He can pack a dance floor like nobody's business. LOVE, BEATS, AND PIÑA COLADAS is a downtempo album packed still packed with his fat beats.

album license: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (aka Music Sharing) License

Bubbles!

BUBBLES is a fun, free, compilation of previously released & unreleased material by The Bran Flakes created from 1998-2007. Fun fun fun fun!

(see this old post for more info)

album license: Attribution-NonCommercial License

Children of Ling Shan

Chan Wai Fat composed this original soundtrack for the play CHILDREN OF THE SOUL MOUNTAIN (LING SHAN) inspired by the daoist pilgrimage in Gao Xingjian's Nobel winning novel SOUL MOUNTAIN (LING SHAN).

Composer Chan Wai Fat visited the minority tribes along part of the Ling Shan path, resulting a re-interpretation of two traditional folk songs and seven new compositions with a mix of native recordings. This album is a selection of songs from the play, sung by elderly blind folk singer Po Sun-yi. Sun-yi was born and raised in Guizhou. This is the same region of southwestern China where composer Fat visited the Ling Shan Path and where Shamanistic customs and traditions still flourish.

Download entire album at the WFMU Free Music Archive.

album license: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License

Fear No Love

From the 1995 press release from the Avant label:

...Bob Ostertag's FEAR NO LOVE. In a radical departure for the composer, winner of a 1995 NEA Composers Fellowship for contemporary music, FEAR NO LOVE features fierce groove-based dance songs. This is funk, but warped through a sensibility honed in fifteen years at the forefront of the avant-garde.

Ostertag has assembled an unlikely and dazzling group of collaborators for FEAR NO LOVE, from rock star Mike Patton (Faith No More) to British guitar pioneer Fred Frith to underground luminaries of San Francisco's queer scene....

FEAR NO LOVE is a disc that pushes all the limits. Almost every track defines its own genre. "The Man in the Blue Slip" is a dance/industrial/gender-fuk/domination-submission love duet. "Not Your Girl" goes in a new-jack-swing/R&B/talking-blues direction. And "Positive", an HIV+/ambient/techno/soul tour de force, may be the first true love ballad of the age of AIDS.

Ostertag's previous work has ranged from All the Rage, written for the Kronos Quartet and premiered at Lincoln Center, to his ground-breaking outside jazz ensemble Say No More, to his solo recordings and collaborations with John Zorn and Fred Frith. FEAR NO LOVE explores even newer terrain. With sharp and edgy queer lyrics, a wide-ranging pop eclecticism, and fierce grooves, FEAR NO LOVE will shake up the dance floor -- and more.

Download entire album at the WFMU Free Music Archive.

album license: Attribution-NonCommercial License

Serene Serein

Nest is a project of fellow pianists and record label operators Otto Totland (Deaf Center / Type Records) and Huw Roberts (Serein). They became friends when they were members of the Miasmah free netlabel. This self-titled EP is their first work publicly released. It is apparently no longer available through Serein since their 2009 rebuild, but has been remastered and incorporated into the album RETOLD. The recording is too good to fade into obscurity, so it lives again now at the WFMU Free Music Archive.

from the original release on Serein:

"Both pianists, there is little wonder that after exploring a plethora of musical styles, the two find themselves most at home writing traditionally structured pieces, with the ivories a major element throughout. The EP demonstrates clearly the innate ability the two have for song writing, borrowing from the world of film soundtracks and contemporary classical composers to craft delicate instrumental compositions.

"Alongside their favoured instrument can be variously heard the plucked strings of the Welsh harp, violins, woodwind instruments, field recordings, percussion and a heady dose of mind wobbling effects. From the time Nest began writing together, one purpose was clear; to produce beautiful music free of pretense, and they do it exceptionally well."

album license: Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 UK: England License

Frigiliana Free Jazz by Breuss Arrizabalaga Quintet

This fantastic, energetic concert of free jazz was performed by the Breuss Arrizabalaga Quintet in Frigiliana, Málagua, Spain on 19 July 2003. (Tracks 9 and 10 were recorded in performance in Madrid.) The concert was released as an album, Nfamoudou-Boudougou, on Hazard Records.

Free jazz is an approach to jazz music that was first developed in the 1950s. The music created by free jazz pioneers varied widely, but the artists shared a dissatisfaction with the limitations of bebop, hard bop, and modal jazz, which had developed in the preceding decade.

Free jazz musicians attempt to "alter, extend, or break down the conventions of jazz, often by discarding hitherto invariable features of jazz, such as fixed chord changes or tempos. While usually considered experimental and avant-garde, free jazz has also oppositely been conceived as an attempt to return jazz to its 'primitive', often religious roots, and emphasis on collective improvisation."* (* source: Wikipedia)

album license: Public Domain License

Freebie from Marianne Dissard and Friends

From the French sud-ouest to the American Southwest, from filmmaker to performance artist, lyricist to singer.. here's "PARIS ONE TAKES", the latest album by Tucson-based singer Marianne Dissard, available as a free download.

from official website:

Tucson chanteuse Marianne Dissard's 2010 "PARIS ONE TAKES" is a full-length live studio album that features 15 songs, culled from both her first award-winning "official" album, "L'Entredeux," produced by Joey Burns of Calexico, and her second, upcoming "official" album, "L'Abandon," due out in late 2010, recorded with Luke Doucet, BK-One, Thøger Lund and more stellar performers. "PARIS ONE TAKES' features songs co-written with Joey Burns of Calexico, Naïm Amor, Sergio Mendoza and Christian Ravaglioli.

"PARIS ONE TAKES" was recorded in Paris, France in December 2009, with Marianne's Tucson-based touring band of Brian Lopez and Geoff Hidalgo (both from Mostly Bears), Sergio Mendoza (Calexico, Y La Orkesta) and French violinist Olivier Samouillan. With a sound tight as can be from 30 dates in 1 month over 7 European countries, "PARIS ONE TAKES" is now available as a free download, a gift to all the fans and friends who helped make these past couple of years of touring a dream come true!

Thanks for listening!

Marianne

Oddio Overplay is now on Facebook.

An Afternoon of Blossom

Spent a lovely afternoon listing to Blossom Dearie. Here is Monica's tribute show to Blossom.

Wake Up

The city blocks have the hypnotic power to lull you off to sleep. Don't do it. Do not slip away into the sleep. It's too dangerous. You can't sleep on the train. Wake up. Vulnerable, too vulnerable, wake up, missing your stop, wake up, traveling to unknown districts, and then the startling wake up call, el despertar.

The experimental electronic and rock album Ruptures by DIY-Note is now in the Free Music Archive.

photo by Michael Cornelius, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license

album license: Attribution-Noncommercial 2.0 France License

Charles-Valentin Alkan's Opuses 25 and 31

Brazillian pianist Felipe Sarro performs Opus 25 Alleluia and Opus 31 Préludes by French Romantic composer Charles-Valentin Alkan.

Alkan, one of the greatest virtuoso pianists of his day, was a friend and contemporary of Franz Liszt and Frédéric Chopin. He was a child prodigy, entering the Paris Conservatoire at the age of six. Alkan was a favorite of his teacher, Joseph Zimmermann, who also taught fellow composers Georges Bizet, César Franck, Charles Gounod, and Ambroise Thomas. In his twenties, Alkan was a famous virtuoso and teacher in elegant social circles. Liszt once stated that Alkan had the finest piano technique of anyone he knew. This Romantic composer was a luminary of his time.

Felipe Sarro began his musical training at the age of eight and studied at Academia Musical Fátima and Santa Cecília Musical Conservatory. In this album on the FMA, Sarro performs Alkan's Opus 31 Alleluia (1844) and Opus 25 Préludes dans touts les tons majeur et mineurs (1847) in entirety.

image: Alkan's music frequently displays idiosyncratic features, including nonstandard key signature and pedal notation, as seen in the above image showing an extract from the 2nd movement of his sonata Les Quatre Âges.

album license: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (aka Music Sharing) License

Droopy Drops In

Hugo "Droopy" Contini delivers hard bop from Lorraine, France to the WFMU Free Music Archive on US National Jazz Day. Contini is part of the RawBounce Records collective and the alto sax man for The Real Dealers.

Once after rehearsal, the band had the space for a few more hours, so they recorded the album, Surpriscording. [more info]

photo: RawBounce Records

Album license: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License

Indonesian Excursion

Indonesian rupiah banknotes

Fans of the ancient traditional Indonesian music form of gamelan will be pleased to find the Free Music Archive is now home to Gamelan Nyai Saraswati recordings.

album licenses: Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License

Flamenco Warmth from Andalusia

The group El Niño del Parking brings you the sound of the ancient city of Jerez de la Frontera in Andalusia in southwestern Spain between the sea and the mountains. In addition to Spanish guitars, Latin rhythms, and the clapping of flamenco, this brings you the experience of the fluid poetry of the Castilian tongue, festivals, palm trees, celebrated vineyards, sunshine, Mediterranean warmth. Enjoy an entire free album to download or play at the WFMU Free Music Archive.

Photo: Alcázar de Jerez de la Frontera by El Pantera [Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 license]

Jazz from Buenos Aires

Gepel brings you original jazz from Buenos Aires, Argentina. The FMA now hosts Moducué, Gepel's album recorded, mixed and mastered in Casa Frida by Hernan Caratozzolo and Mariano Cuello.

From their official website:

Gepel is a trio founded in 2006. The music is characterized by its original way of playing different popular music languages from Latin America with the traditional jazz sound texture.

Regarding this release, Gepel writes:

Moducue is the first album from Gepel ('Moducue', meaning "Thanks" in Lucumí, a Yoruba dialect). All compositions performed in the album are original and each one of them is dedicated to a singular popular music language.

Gypsy Caravan

Gypsy Caravan Sounds from the Free Music Archive to feed your wanderlust -- Balkan Brass, Roma songs, and other Eastern European delights Join the Free Music Archive and create your own mixes of legally shared free music! photo by Katya Oddio, 2008 [Creative Commons by-nc]

Lee Maddeford, busiest composer in Switzerland

"Eros and Psyche" is one of many Maddeford compositions available at the FMA

In Switzerland there lives a very busy composer, director, performer whose talent seems boundless. That man is Lee Maddeford and he is as at home with composing orchestral works as with children's music. Mr. Maddeford is a marvel with gypsy jazz, chamber music, cabaret and choral works, brass and woodwind ensembles, piano duets, soundtracks, and theatre music. One additional remarkable thing about the man: he is kind enough to share his work with you with Creative Commons licensing. As of this posting, there are several of his releases at the Free Music Archive, including INSTRUMENTALS 1 Les Gauchers Orchestra and Les Gauchers Quintet, AN ASTRAL FABLE and THE JUGGLERS SUITE with l'Ensemble de Cuivres Valaisan, and EROS ET PSYCHE with the Choeur Calliope. This playlist offers selections from each of those releases.

My Russian Bride, a Nutcracker Reworking

Did you know that Tchaikovsky didn't like the score he composed for THE NUTCRACKER ballet? Yeah, for starters, he didn't even want the job. Evidently he made too many concessions for the ballet producers and didn't feel it was true to his original concepts and nowhere near as good as his last ballet score, THE SLEEPING BEAUTY.
Isn't that remarkable when so many movements from the composition are instantly recognizable classical masterpieces?

Now, let's say that more than 100 years later we give his score a Tim Burton - Danny Elfman - PDQ Bach treatment. Not talking HOOKED ON CLASSICS here; instead, reworking the whole composition and giving it some bounce, bleeps, bloops, and even more music box charm*. This is exactly what Lanark, our friend in Argentina, has done on MY RUSSIAN BRIDE, now available on the Free Music Archive. One can't help but wonder what the old boy Tchaikovsky would think of this reworking.

Lanark has a passion and a gift for reworking classical pieces. This is one of his earliest, if not the first, releases of his deconstruction and reconstruction of classical works. It is especially fun in winter when we are most likely to hear THE NUTCRACKER SUITE.

Here's hoping this charming little electronic music box from Lanark brings you joy this season and all year.

Download MY RUSSIAN BRIDE Here's a taste:



* The original score got its music box charm from the celesta (pronounced chelesta, ch as in cello), an idiophone that strikes metal rods via a keyboard. It is one of the most wonderfully otherworldly sounding instruments ever created. In fact, the name of this 1886 invention is derived from its "celestial" sound.

Here's a great audio piece on the celesta from NPR.

West African Bardic Tradition

In most West African nations, there exists an incredible tradition of oral historians. These bards are known in various languages as jelis, griots, djeli, jali, guevel, gawlo, and igiiw. They are historians, entertainers, advisors to nobility, genealogists, praise singers, messengers, and the keepers of cultural traditions. They keep their people's history alive by passing it through the generations in the form of music, dance, and recitations.

The craft is Jaliyaa, and jeli must have the abilities to perform every traditional song, some of which are more than 1,000 years old. Jeli must know details about local history, recite long stories, and be able to extemporize on current events. It is said that a library burns down with the passing of a jeli. These storytellers are the archivists of their people's traditions. Each jeli is the culmination of their lineage as the job is passed from parent to child, adding new works with each generation.

The Free Music Archive is host to a release of an international group featuring two young men born into the jeli caste, Jalikebba and Haruna of the Toubabs. The group Jalikebba Kuyateh and the Toubabs has released the self-titled album Jalikebba and the Toubabs which is now available for download at the Free Music Archive, a wonderful project from WFMU, the world's greatest radio station.



License: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License

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Roadrunner Records Annual Assault 2009

Yes, it is that time again. As we wrap up 2009, you rockers and metalheads out there want to remember to grab the 2009 Roadrunner Records annual free sampler. Rock!

Brought to you by the Roadrunner Records label, home of Megadeth, Soulfly, Rob Zombie, Slipknot, Amanda Palmer, Dresden Dolls, Airbourne, DragonForce, Opeth, Trivium, and the likes.

License: traditional copyright, USA

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