Thierry "Titi" Robin - Gitans [1993]

Thierry Robin, known as “Titi”, the self-taught musician born at the end of the fifties in western France, has created a musical world for himself instinctively assimilating elements in response to his need to express himself. The two worlds in which he has navigated daily and that have both directly and deeply influenced him are the gipsy and oriental cultures.
Gitans, released in January 1993, would better define the musician’s world, introducing the bouzouki and guitar player. It is a homage by the artist to the gipsy community that taught him so much. A mosaic of encounters between artists dear to Titi Robin, representing the various branches of this great family, from Northern India to Andalusia, via the Balkans, from which he draws his personal musical vision.
Gitans was not only ranked as one of the best albums of the year by critics around the world but it is widely considered one of the best albums of Gipsy music ever recorded.

 

Enjoy! 

Kostas Bezos - Ta Aspra Poulia Sta Vouna

                                                           

Kostas Bezos is a greek singer,guitarist,composer,actor,cartoonist.In 1931 he recorded a series of rembetiko songs for american market as A. Kostis.These recordings made him a legend,mainly because of his hidden identity.Later,he made the first group in Greece with Hawaiian guitars,Aspra Poulia.Not many recordings are available from that period.Here it is one of them.

Nedyalko Nedyalkov - The art of kaval [2004]

Nedyalko Nedyalkov is one of the best kaval players of our time. Besides his excellent qualities as a kaval player, Nedyalko Nedyalkov is also notable as the composer of many original instrumental pieces that he performs. In them one can see and sense his exceptional artistic judgment and his skill in developing a melody in a musical kolyano, or phrase. His improvisations are perfect with respect to melodic line, modulations and transitions between them.
I hoped to conduct this brief informal "musical analysis" of Nedyalko Nedyalkov's qualities as a performer because they are all demonstrated in the present CD, which appeared on the musical market – with a bit of a delay I might add from the point of view of musical specialists, who have long been waiting for it. All the pieces on the disc have been selected and arranged with a very high degree of professionalism and fine artistic judgment; in my opinion, the disc as a whole presents Nedyalkov as one of the kaval masters of our time. It is a great pleasure to listen to this artistic production, which in all its aspects characterizes the high contemporary level of kaval performance style.

                                                                 Enjoy!

Bratsch - J'aime un voyou,maman [1980]

Bratsch is a French group founded in 1975 by Dan Gharibian and Bruno Girard, joined a few years later by Pierre Jacquet, François Castiello and Nano Peylet. Coming from free jazz, these musicians share the same admiration for the klezmer, gypsy, Eastern Europe rhythms. Often in tour, they composed many superb albums with entertaining sounds and melodies, on serious or merry subjects.
”We are not real traditional musicians, says François Castiello. In France, we do not have a very rich musical tradition, whereas, in the Romanian, Yugoslav, Bulgarian musics, there are extraordinary things to discover on expression and play. We are in front of these musics like white European musicians in front of the jazz in the Fifties.”
Bratsch goes on a journey in gestures, atmospheres, dream. Their music and their spectacle evoke the myth : the myth of the remote village, the myth of the migration, the myth of the “gypsyland”. ”We are dreamers. We have much fantasies on music. People over there do not play it like that. I played recently with a brass band of Macedonia : they play during repetitions, before the repetitions, after the repetitions, they will play in the street as they wake up, they still play after the concert. They do not play only for the people sitting in front of the stage.” 

                                            
                                                  
                                                               Enjoy!

Ivo Papasov & His Orchestra - Balkanology [1991]

One of the most revered musicians in Bulgaria, clarinetist Ivo Papasov is a master of Bulgarian wedding music. The superb and largely instrumental Balkanology draws not only on Bulgarian elements, but also the music of Greece, Turkey and Romania. Listening to this heartfelt music (much of it quite fast), one can hear the parallels between Middle Eastern, Mediterranean and East European forms. Papasov is quite the improviser, and in fact, American jazz has had a significant impact on his loose and very spontaneous modal playing. 
  It is utterly astounding to see what new levels these performers have taken these instruments to. You've never heard clarinets, accordians, and saxophones do things like this. Combine those three instruments with bass, drums and guitar and you've got an eclectic mix. The odd time signatures (9/8, 11/16, etc.), the rapid fire tempos they're capable of, and the bizarre key changes these guys are capable of will simply astound you. The female singer (only on 3 songs) has an ethereal voice that is typical of the fine tradition of Thracian singers. Not only are these amazing musicians with incredible imagination & skill...they know how to play fun music that will make you want to dance (it is wedding music after all!)
Highly recommended to the adventurous!

                                                                Enjoy!

The Moonflowers - Colours and sounds [1995]

The Moonflowers were a Bristol-based rock band formed in 1987. The band was active as a performing and recording unit until 1997. To date they have released eight EPs and seven LPs on their own PopGod Records label. Famed for colourful and spectacular live shows, designed and built by Liam Yeates.
 Moonflowers in 1993 released their second (though first really good) LP called 'From Whales to Jupiter and Beyond the Stars to Rainbohemia' which mixed folk, dub, rock and dance influences. Yet still they aimed higher and dreamt they could free themselves -and us all- from the bonds of commercial modern existence and so decided to remove themselves from society to create their own utopia, their 'Rainbohemia', a place where days are spent in creativity with music and art a way of life.
The band waved goodbye to their friends and drove away in their yellow bus across the sea and far away...
In 1995 masters for an LP were sent to Pop God offices (from an unknown destination) which was the masterful 'Colours and Sounds' LP. This record was released and though not well known, very worth tracking down for its incredible range and orchestration. 

                                                                                 Enjoy!

Petros Tabouris & Shankar Chattergee - Modes and Talas [1995]

Petros Tabouris born in Athens, Greece. He has occupied himself with Greek traditional music cince his childhood and learnt to play the oui, the nai and mainly the Canonaki. He has worked on the ancient and medieval Greek music and has established a strong presence with these subjects in the recent recordings. He has cooperated with many groups and Greek composers by playing the kanonaki.
Shankar Chattergee born in Calcutta, west Bengal. He started learning tabla from his childhood and studied Indian classical music under wellknown masters of Rabindra Bharati Academy. He learnt Tabla improvisation and technique from the famous tabla player Keramadtulla Khan. Shankarlal has performed not only in India but also in Germany and many countries of Europe and showed his activities giving lectures, workshops and experiment conserts with great succes.
They play mostly greek traditional  songs mixed with indian flavour plus some of their own compositions.Beautiful album.

                                                                                Enjoy!

Nana Simopoulos - Wings and Air [1986]

Jazz with world music influences featuring Nana Simopoulos on guitar and vocals, Charlie Haden on bass, Don Cherry on Trumpet, Nana Vasconcelos on percussion, Jim Pepper in Saxophone.

 Nana's sitar playing alone makes it well worth purchasing! Her vocal work on the compositions adds a dimension of inspiration and spirit that elevate this album far above the "just another" classification. Ms. Simopoulos is a master at using silence to heighten the energies of a song.

 Nana Simopoulos takes the road less traveled. She is determined to stay mysterious. There is mystery on every track. It's sometimes pushed along by subtle Middle Eastern rhythms, sometimes by shimmering like still waters that run deep. Dive in and let the magic begin. 

 

 

 

 

                                                                 Enjoy!

Mariza Koch - Arambas [1971]

In an off-beat but original way Mariza Koch began her musical career in 1971 with an album titled "Arabas". It consisted of a collection of traditional Greek folk songs blended with unusual beats from traditional and modern electronic instrumental sounds. One could even term the sound as folk rock. On the other hand Mariza's unique vocals became the center piece of the music which on more than one occasion needed no accompaniment. No matter what one called it, the album was a resounding success,as it was the first gold album in Greece. 
              


                             

                                                                             Enjoy!

Frank Frost with the Night Hawks - Hey Boss Man! [1962]

One of the last great blues recordings produced by the legendary Sam Phillips. Frost and his Mississippi cohorts Jack Johnson and Sam Carr played Southern juke joint blues rough and ready in the classic mold, with plenty of dynamic interplay and nasty, lowdown grooves. 

                                                                                Enjoy!

John Mayall - Ten Years Are Gone [1973]

Mayall returned to the studio in 1973 for this double album. The ten years Mayall had in mind, of course, were the previous ten, which had seen him start as a local musician in Manchester, England, and emerge a decade, almost two dozen albums, and nearly as many lineups later with an evolved jazz-blues style and an international following. The album allows the ensemble considerable room to solo on Mayall's typically  blues-based song structures.First LP was recorded at Sunset Sound, Los Angeles .The second LP is a live date recorded at the Academy of Music in New York, and here things stretch out even more: "Harmonica Free Form" clocks in at 12 minutes and "Dark of the Night" runs 17:41. Like it's predecessors, "Jazz/Blues Fusion" and "Moving On," it features Freddy Robinson on guitar and Blue Mitchell on trumpet. 

                                                                  Enjoy!

Theologos Gryllis - Tsambouna jazz [2001]

Happy new year dear fellows!

Mention of the first tsabouna might date back to ancient Greece
(446-385 BC) through Aristophanes, who refers to it as "ta fysatiria"
(blown things), but the bagpipe-like instrument unique to the Greek isles [not
to be confused with Macedonia's gaida] has come a long way since.
Thanks to a fine instrumentalist, who despite his 62 years, looks to the
future generations, Patmos native Theologos Gryllis meets local jazzmen Yorgos
Kontrafouris, Takis Barberis and Giannis Sarikos - among others - and proves
that when there's a will, there's definitely a way. The tsabouna might
have a limited six-note range and restricted dynamics, but Gryllis does
wonders with these six notes, taking the traditional instrument (made of
goatskin, reeds and goat bones) to new jazz territories. Gryllis' acrobatic
feats dress upbeat jazz standards giving these a local colour without
distorting their 'Western' sense of flow. "I Had Three Loves", dedicated to
the memory of music critic Rinio Papanikola, is a fine example as is the brisk
"Satyrs" conjuring images of a rapturous Dionysaic orgy and the pop-based
"Naxos Bar". Kudos to producer Michalis Koumbios for a wonderfully fresh idea.
A disc well worth exploring, especially by the jazz lover! 

                                                              Enjoy!