| | Ska Cubano Ay Caramba! CD Ska Cubano Discography of CDs
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Ska Cubano excel at a style of music that never really existed until they invented it. What they've done is to take Jamaica's pre-reggae ska beat, mix it up with the intrinsically danceable Cuban son and mambo styles, sprinkle in some Colombian cumbia, and filter it all through that whimsical (although they are not jokesters by any means), mildly ironic sensibility that only Brits could muster. As bands such as Madness and Bad Manners did during the first British ska revival, so does Ska Cubano do now, only upping the ante with a couple more Caribbean flavors and executing it within an inch of perfection. The band revolves around the British producer Peter Scott and singer Natty Bo (of the U.K. ska band the Top Cats), who traveled to Cuba and recruited a singer calling himself Beny Billy (in honor of his idol, Cuban legend Beny Moré), but whose real name is Juan Manuel Villy. From there they fleshed the band out with both Cuban and British musicians and cut a self-titled debut album, which is now followed up with this equally charming and ceaselessly jaunty sequel. If anything, the debut was a bit tentative, as if Ska Cubano were still trying to test the waters and see how their particular fusion would fly. It was well-received, and on Ay Caramba! they take it to the next step. "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)," the 1953 Jimmy Kennedy-Nat Simon tune later covered by They Might Be Giants, is given an appropriately tongue-in-cheek reading, while tracks such as "Cumbia en Do Menor," "Mariano," and "Oye Compay Juan" match the blaring Cuban horns with ska's traditional rhythm seamlessly. Only the instrumental "Chispa Tren" and the double entendre '50s-style mento tune "Big Bamboo" are too frivolous to really work here. As for any perceived novelty value, while all of the tracks fit squarely within the band's chosen region, they occasionally step out just far enough to suggest that they are no more married to this formula than to anything else. Could get even more interesting next time. ~ Jeff Tamarkin Ska Cubano Ay Caramba! Songs Ay Caramba! Review
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Purchase Ay Caramba! CD To buy, Click on price to add to cart | Izaline Calister Kanta Helele CD (2006)
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$13.95 If there is was ever one Jamaican musician who should be considered a representative of all things musical in that tropical paradise, it is guitarist Ernest Ranglin. In the nearly 50 years of playing leading up to the release of 1996's BELOW THE BASSLINE, Ranglin has not only seen musical trends metamorphosize from mento to ska to rock-steady and reggae, but has also had a hand in participating in sessions for many hit songs.
BASSLINE bubbles over with Ranglin's distinctive and fluid guitar lines. He is joined by a talented back-up band, including Jamaican pianist Monte Alexander, jazz great Idris Muhammad on drums and Skatalites saxman Roland Alphonso. The mix of songs in this instrumental setting ...
| | Bob Marley Uprising CD (1980) Bonus Tracks; Remastered
Ay Caramba! music CDs
$10.69 Digitally remastered by Ted Jensen (2001, Sterling Sound, New York, New York).
Bob Marley generated a staggering number of great records during his brief time in the world's spotlight. Although he cut his first recordings in the early 1960s, it was not until the 1973 release of CATCH A FIRE that Marley and the Wailers became international stars. Eight years later Marley was dead, a victim of cancer. In between, he recorded eight studio albums and several live albums, all of excellent quality.
UPRISING is Marley's final album, and it's also one of his best. As on all his recordings, Marley's writing displays the gift for melody that helped non-Jamaican audiences gain access to his music even when he was singing about the details of island life and the doctrine of Rastafarianism. The most popular tracks here, "Could You Be Loved" and "Redemption Song," are pop ...
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| | Nnenna Freelon Live CD (2003) Enhanced CD
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$9.79 Nnenna Freelon refuses to be pigeonholed into any one style of jazz, as she's always willing to perform songs from many different fields, often while taking them in unfamiliar directions. She's also blessed with a great voice and an innate ability to charm her audience, along with a superb band. These performances from a pair of concerts at the Kennedy Center have a lot to like within them. The two-faceted interpretation of the standard "All or Nothing at All" alternates between an exotic Latin setting and driving bop. Pianist Takana Miyamoto's bossa nova scoring of "Meaning of the Blues" and the humorous take of "If I Only Had a Brain" also work very well. But there are misfires, too. Johnny Green's timeless melody to "Body and Soul" is discarded in favor of a plodding, monotonous reggae arrangement. There's little to differentiate the poppish performance of "My Cherie Amour" from a typical pop performance. Far better is her slowed-down approach to another Stevie Wonder song, "Tears of a Clown," where Smokey Robinson's great lyrics can be better appreciated than even on his own hit rendition with the Temptations. For those who have yet to experience the phenomenal Nnenna Freelon ...
| | Ot Azoj Klezmerband Zets CD (2004)
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$12.15 Like most types of world music, klezmer has its traditionalists as well as its forward thinkers. The traditionalists try to emulate as closely as possible the East European Jewish traditions of yesteryear; the forward thinkers (someone like Brooklyn clarinetist David Krakauer, for example) try to keep klezmer moving ahead. Zets isn't as daring or radical as Krakauer's recordings -- which have combined klezmer with funk, rock, blues, jazz, and hip-hop -- but it isn't the work of klezmer purists either. On this 2003 effort, the Ot Azoj Klezmerband fuses klezmer with a variety of East European styles, including Bulgarian, Polish, Hungarian, Romanian, and Balkan music -- and while Krakauer's innovations ...
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