Atahualpa Yupanqui - L´Integrale, Vol. 5

Atahualpa Yupanqui was a legendary Argentine folk musician and philosopher whose fame was revived during the politically charged "nueva cancion" movement of the 1960s.

He became one of the most valuable treasures for the local culture. As a child living in the small town of Roca, province of Buenos Aires, Héctor Roberto Chavero was seduced by traditional music, especially by the touching sound of the acoustic guitar. After taking violin lessons, the young man began learning how to play guitar, having musician Bautista Almirón as his teacher. For many years, Atahualpa Yupanqui traveled around his native country, singing folk tunes and working as muleteer, delivering telegrams, and even working as a journalist for a Rosario newspaper. In the late '30s, the artist started recording songs, making his debut as a writer in 1941 with Piedra Sola, later writing a famous novel called Cerro Bajo. I

n 1949, the singer/songwriter went on tour around Europe for the first time, including performances with France's Edith Piaf. During the following decades Atahualpa Yupanqui achieved an impressive amount of national and international recognition, becoming an essential artist, a distinguished Latin American troubadour, and influencing many prominent musicians and Argentinean folk groups. 

Atahualpa Yupanqui passed away in France in May, 1992.                 

Here´s the final part of the "L´Integrale" set:


Tracklist:

1.	El Payador Perseguido	41:20
2.	Poema Para Un Bello Nombre	5:47
3.	Vidala Del Silencio	6:03
4.	Fin De La Zafra	4:34
5.	Testimonio Final	1:52

Atahualpa Yupanqui - L´Integrale, Vol. 5
(256 kbps, cover art included)

Daniel Viglietti - En Vivo desde Argentina 1971 - 1973 (1978) - Rest in peace!

Daniel Viglietti died October 30, 2017 in Montevideo at age 78 due to complications from surgery. Rest in peace!

Daniel Alberto Viglietti Indart (born 24 July 1939, Montevideo) is an Uruguayan folk singer, guitarist, composer, and political activist. He is one of the main exponents of Uruguayan popular song and also of the Nueva Canción or "New Song" of the 1960s and early 1970s.

He founded, in 1971, along with other musicians like José "Pepe" Guerra, Braulio López, the music scholar Coriún Aharonián (the only founding member who is still active), Myriam Dibarboure, María Teresa Sande and Notary Public Edgardo Bello, the recognized independent record label Ayuí/Tacuabé in order to promote and support valuable Uruguayan musical expressions.

He has performed the works of Cuban Nueva Trova stars Silvio Rodríguez and Pablo Milanés and Brazil's Chico Buarque and Edu Lobo, has worked with Cuban composer and arranger Leo Brouwer. His recordings are widely available, especially "Trópicos" (1972).

Viglietti was imprisoned in 1972 by his own government. He was supported by the likes of Jean-Paul Sartre as an international man of conscience, a voice for peace, and an opponent of the fascism and tyranny that plagued South America in the 1970s. Rumors about possible mistreatment against him forced the authorities to bring him out in front of television cameras to show that, in particular, his hands were fine. However, Viglietti spoke out that his treatment in police custody was much better than what other political prisoners received. He was a peer of the late Chilean poet and folk singer Victor Jara and composer and activist Violeta Parra.

Tracklist:
01. Nuestra Bandera [Daniel Viglietti] (2:53)
02. El diablo en el Paraíso [Violeta Parra] (2:47)
03. De noche en casa [Raimon – Trad. Daniel Viglietti] (2:28)
04. Vamos, Estudiantes (Del film “Me gustan los estudiantes”, Uruguay 1968) [Daniel Viglietti] (2:09)
05. Que no encuentre ni el rocío [Poema Quechua, traducido por S. Salazar Bondy – Daniel Viglietti] (2:28)
06. A desalambrar [Daniel Viglietti] (2:34)
07. Cielito del calabozo [Daniel Viglietti] (3:41)
08. Por todo Chile [Daniel Viglietti] (3:02)
09. Canción para mi América [Daniel Viglietti] (2:36)
10. Anaclara [Daniel Viglietti] (3:53)
11. Otra voz canta [Circe Maia – Daniel Viglietti] (2:55)
12. La senda está trazada [Jorge Salerno] (3:34)

Daniel Viglietti - En Vivo desde Argentina 1971 - 1973  (1978)
(256 kbps, cover art included)

The Sextet Of Orchestra USA - Mack The Knife And Other Berlin Theatre Songs Of Kurt Weill (1964)

Third Stream, Gunther Schuller's well-intentioned but commercially doomed idea of forcing contemporary classical (i.e. serial) composition music to cohabit with hard bop, produced but a handful of fine recordings, most notably the classic 1960 Atlantic Jazz Abstractions and this 1964 sextet outing under the stewardship of trombonist Michael Zwerin.

The choice of Kurt Weill's sleek and elegant compositions was astute: the bittersweet harmonies of Weill (who ultimately emigrated to the U.S. from Germany) lend themselves particularly well to jazz soloing, and accordingly, an outstanding rhythm section featuring the Modern Jazz Quartet's John Lewis (an enthusiastic advocate of Third Stream from its inception) and Connie Kay. Bassist Richard Davis is on hand to support some splendid horn work from Thad Jones, Nick Travis, Jerome Richardson, and most notably Eric Dolphy, whose wild bass clarinet leaps on "Alabama Song" are a pure joy to hear, and proof that the saxophonist's harmonic concept, while undeniably "out" for the standard-based harmonic repertoire of bop, was most definitely "in" the wider scheme of musical thought that Third Stream aspired to.               

Tracklist:

1	Alabama Song	5:22
2	Havanna Song	6:16
3	As You Make Your Bed	5:26
4	Mack The Knife	5:04
5	Bilbao Song	3:47
6	Barbara Song	5:04
7	Pirate Jenny	3:34
8	Mack The Knife (Alternate Take)	4:50
9	Bilbao Song (Alternate Take)	3:45
10	Pirate Jenny (Alternate Take)	4:23

The Sextet Of Orchestra USA - Mack The Knife And Other Berlin Theatre Songs Of Kurt Weill (1964)
(320 kbps, cover art included)

Joe Gibbs & The Professionals‎ – African Dub - Chapter 2

The second volume in this vintage four-disc series of instrumental dub from Joe Gibbs' studio finds him still working with members of the Soul Syndicate and We the People bands, and utilizing the formidable mixing talents of Errol Thompson.

What sets this volume somewhat apart from the other three is the number of rhythms it carries over from the rocksteady era: "Chapter Two" is a remix of the Techniques' late-'60s classic "Queen Majesty"; "Peeping Tom" reworks the Melodians' "You Have Caught Me"; and "My Best Dub" is an instrumental and nicely dubbed-up recut of the early Wailers track "Hypocrites." But it also includes some heavyweight rockers and one-drop material, including "Angola Crisis" (based on a familiar rhythm later used for such roots reggae hits as "Uptown Top Ranking" and "Three Piece Suit") and an absolutely brilliant dub mix of Bob Andy's "Chained," here rendered in dark, minimalist tones with drastic dubwise effects and retitled "Third World."

Along with the third volume, this is one of the most impressive of the four discs in the African Dub series.                

Tracklist:

1	Chapter Two
2	The Marriguna Affair
3	Angola Crisis
4	Peeping Tom
5	Outrage
6	Idlers Rest
7	My Best Dub
8	Third World
9	Heavy Duty Dub
10	Musical Arena
11	Mackarus Serenade
12	Jamaican Grass

Joe Gibbs & The Professionals‎ – African Dub - Chapter 2                                   
(320 kbps, cover art included)

Jorge Ben - África Brasil (1976)

This 1976 album is undoubtedly one of the greatest classics of Brazilian popular music, with Jorge Ben mixing funky samba, Afro-Brazilian beats, and crunching guitars to create one of the most fascinating sounds ever recorded in Brazil.

The album kicks off with the raw, energetic "Ponta de Lança Africano," and from there on it never slows down, but continues to pile up one fiery, funky gem after the other. The samba soul and samba funk scenes of the '70s in Brazil produced many great artists and many great recordings, fully comparable with the best soul and funk music recorded in the U.S. during the same period. Jorge Ben was the most prominent figure of this scene and "África Brasil" is probably the most famous of his '70s recordings. For any person who is interested in the music of Jorge Ben, or indeed Brazilian funk in general, there is no better sample of it than "África Brasil".

Tracklist:

A1	Ponta De Lança Africano (Umbabarauma)	3:58
A2	Hermes Trismegisto Escreveu	3:04
A3	O Filósofo	3:30
A4	Meus Filhos, Meu Tesouro	3:53
A5	O Plebeu	3:18
A6	Taj Mahal	3:10
B1	Xica Da Silva	4:00
B2	A História De Jorge	3:53
B3	Camisa 10 Da Gávea	4:18
B4	Cavaleiro Do Cavalo Imaculado	4:43
B5	África Brasil (Zumbi)	3:48

Jorge Ben - África Brasil (1976)
(320 kbps, cover art included)             

Nina Simone - Broadway Blues Ballads (1964)

There's a lot more Broadway and a lot more ballads than blues on this, which ranks as one of her weaker mid-'60s albums. Almost half the record features Broadway tunes on the order of Cole Porter and Rodgers & Hammerstein; most of the rest was composed by Bennie Benjamin, author of her first-rate "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood," which the Animals covered for a hit shortly afterwards (and which leads off this record).

The other Benjamin tunes are modified uptown soul with string arrangements and backup vocals in the vein of "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood," but aren't in the same league, although "How Can I?" is an engaging cha cha. Besides "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood," the album is most notable for the great "See-Line Woman," a percolating call-and-response number that ranks as one of her best tracks. The CD reissue includes the strange bonus cut "The Monster," an odd attempt at a soul novelty tune.

1. "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" (Bennie Benjamin, Gloria Caldwell, Sol Marcus) - 2:48
2. "Night Song" (Lee Adams, Charles Strouse) - 3:06
3. "The Laziest Gal in Town" (Cole Porter) - 2:19
4. "Something Wonderful" (Oscar Hammerstein II, Richard Rodgers) - 2:46
5. "Don't Take All Night" (Bennie Benjamin, Sol Marcus) - 2:54
6. "Nobody" (Alex Rogers, Bert Williams) - 4:18
7. "I Am Blessed" (Bennie Benjamin, Sol Marcus) - 2:57
8. "Of This I'm Sure" (Bennie Benjamin, Sol Marcus) - 2:37
9. "See-Line Woman" ([traditional] American folk, George Bass, Nina Simone) - 2:38
10. "Our Love (Will See Us Through)" (Bennie Benjamin, Sol Marcus) - 3:01
11. "How Can I?" (Bennie Benjamin, Sol Marcus) - 2:05
12. "The Last Rose of Summer" (Thomas Moore, Richard Alfred Milliken, Nina Simone) - 3:08
13.  "A Monster" is added as a bonus track. (Bennie Benjamin, Sol Marcus) - 2:47

Nina Simone - Broadway Blues Ballads (1964)
(320 kbps, cover art included)

Georges Brassens - Don Juan - Vol. 12 (1976)

One of French pop's most poetic songwriters, Georges Brassens was also a highly acclaimed and much-beloved performer in his own right. Not only a brilliant manipulator of language and a feted poet in his own right, Brassens was also renowned for his subversive streak, satirizing religion, class, social conformity, and moral hypocrisy with a wicked glee. Yet beneath that surface was a compassionate concern for his fellow man, particularly the disadvantaged and desperate.

His personal politics were forged during the Nazi occupation, and while his views on freedom bordered on anarchism, his songs expressed those convictions more subtly than those of his contemporary, Léo Ferré.

Though he was a skilled songwriter, Brassens had little formal musical training, and he generally kept things uncomplicated - simple melodies and spare accompaniment from a bass and second guitar.

Along with Jacques Brel, he became one of the most unique voices on the French cabaret circuit, and exerted a tremendous influence on many other singers and songwriters of the postwar era. His poetry and lyrics are still studied as part of France's standard educational curriculum.       

"Don Juan" was officially his final album.

Tracklist:

1	Trompe La Mort
2	Les Ricochets
3	Tempête Dans Un Bénitier
4	Le Boulevard Du Temps Qui Passe
5	Le Modeste
6	Don Juan
7	Les Casseuses
8	Cupidon S'En Fout
9	Montélimar
10	Histoire De Faussaire
11	La Messe Au Pendu
12	Lèche-Cocu
13	Les Patriotes
14	Mélanie
	Bonus :
15	Les Copains D'Abord
16	La Visite
17	Élégie À Un Rat De Cave

Georges Brassens - Don Juan - Vol. 12 (1976)

(ca. 192 kbps, cover art included)

VA - Klangdenkmal für die Opfer des Holocaust - A Monument in Sound for the Victims of the Holocaust (2004)

Today we remember the anti-Jewish pogrom in Nazi Germany and Austria on 9 to 10 November1938, also known as "Novemberpogrome", "Reichskristallnacht", "Reichspogromnacht" or "Pogromnacht" in German.

Twenty six variations on a subject that one finds difficult to put into words. The incomprehensibility and the magnitude of the Holocaust can perhaps be described in facts, dates and figures - but the suffering of the victims, the regret about what happened, the consequence is especially difficult to "grasp" in terms of one´s owen life. Perhaps this is the reason for music as music is "the ability to communicate where speech has ended" (R. M. Rilke) and gives us the possivility of combining emotions and reason without a verbal setting, to allow grief and hope to flow into each other and in this manner to remember the victims in a very special way.

The "Monument in Sound for the Vicitms of the Holocaust" has been "built" by 27 composers who belong to the "Deutsche Komponistenverband" (German Association of Composers). The project was initiated in 1999 following a unanimous resolution passed by the associations´s state branch in Berlin. Composers from a variety of generations and artistic origins are involved and the starting point was the theme of a song by Coco Schumann. He was persecuted as the son of a Jewish mother and deported to the concentration camps Theresienstadt, Auschwitz and Dachau - he survived these camps and still performs on stage to this very day.

The theme of his compositon was arranged for a string quartet setting and sent to all the project´s participants in alphabetical order, one after another. Each artist then had the possibility, whilst taking the opening theme into consideration, to take up from his predecessor in terms of compostion or to carry on independatly ins or her own way. As such, after two years work, an astonishingly homogeneous musical piece of contemporary history came into being, contrary to all doubts, created by artist from a variety of musical fields - from jazz, avant garde and serious music. A musical work in which past and present flow into a spiritual entirety, as the sum of the involved composers´ personal and subjecitve experiences, each being treated in their own individual artistic manner.


VA - Klangdenkmal für die Opfer des Holocaust (2004)
(256 kbps, cover art included)

Django Reinhardt et son Quintette du HCF - Concert A Bruxelles 1948

From the liner notes:

"This is a recording in which every Django Reinhardt admirer will be interested. It is the only public performance we know and it had been recorded on an amateur tape recorder he bought in Brussels.

When Mrs. Reinhardt played it to us after Django´s death, we immediately thought that such a rarity had to be issued, although the recording quality is poor.

So here is Django Reinhardt with his quintet on the stage of the Theatre des Galeries in Burssels in December 1948 featuring Hubert Rostaing, Louis Vola, Arthur Motta and his older son Henri "Louson" Baumgartner."



Tracklist:

A1	Artillerie Lourde	4:19
A2	Micro	1:57
A3	Bolero	3:57
A4	Cadillac Slim	2:43
A5	Nuages	3:44
B1	Place De Broukere	2:49
B2	Improvisation	2:28
B3	Improvisation Sur Un Theme Mineur	4:20
B4	Festival 48	1:48
B5	Minor Swing	2:17

Django Reinhardt et son Quintette du HCF - Concert A Bruxelles 1948
(320 kbps, cover art included)

Joe Gibbs & The Professionals - African Dub All-Mighty - Chapter 3

The third (and most impressive) of four volumes of dub mixes from the studio of producer Joe Gibbs, "African Dub, Chapter 3" finds engineer Errol Thompson getting a bit more adventurous than he had on the earlier installments. More of these dub versions keep shreds and snatches of the original vocal tracks in the mix, which is almost always a plus in a dub context - little snippets of disembodied vocals float through the otherworldly musical atmosphere, lending a sometimes spooky human element to the sound and often casting new and refracted light on the meaning of the original lyrics.

And on this volume, Thompson seems to be taking a few cues from his competitor Lee "Scratch" Perry, throwing such extramusical elements as water sounds (on "Freedom Call") and ringing telephones (on "Jubilation Dub") into the mix along with the usual gossamer shreds of guitar, horn, and keyboard. Highly recommended.               


Tracklist:

Chapter Three
Rema Dub
Tribesman Rockers
Freedom Call
Jubilation Dub
The Entebbe Affair
Angolian Chant
Zion Gate
Jungle Dub
Dub Three

Joe Gibbs & The Professionals - African Dub All-Mighty - Chapter 3
(320 kbps, cover art included)

Nico - Desertshore (1970)

While Nico was the member of the Velvet Underground who had had the least experience in music prior to joining the group (while she had recorded a pop single in England, she'd never been a member of a working band before Andy Warhol introduced her to the Velvets), she was also the one who strayed farthest from traditional rock & roll after her brief tenure with the band, and by the time she recorded "Desertshore", her work had little (if anything) to do with traditional Western pop.

John Cale, who produced and arranged "Desertshore", once described the music as having more to do with 20th century classical music than anything else, and while that may be going a bit far to make a point, even compared to the avant-rock frenzy of the Velvet Underground's early material, "Desertshore" is challenging stuff. Nico's dour Teutonic monotone is a compelling but hardly welcoming vocal presence, and the songs, centered around the steady drone of her harmonium, are often grim meditations on fate that are crafted and performed with inarguable skill and intelligence, but are also a bit samey, and the album's downbeat tone gets to be rough sledding by the end of side two. Cale's arrangements are superb throughout, and "My Only Child," "Afraid," and "The Falconer" are quite beautiful in their own ascetic way, but like the bulk of Nico's repertoire, "Desertshore" is an album practically designed to polarize its listeners; you'll either embrace it's darkness or give up on it before the end of side one. Then again, given the thoroughly uncompromising nature of her career as a musician, that's probably just what Nico had in mind. 

Tracklist:

Janitor Of Lunacy	4:01
The Falconer	5:39
My Only Child	3:27
Le Petit Chevalier	1:12
Abschied	3:02
Afraid	3:27
Mütterlein	4:38
All That Is My Own	3:54

Nico - Desertshore (1970)
(320 kbps, cover art included)             

Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson - Secrets (1978)

Gil Scott-Heron and Brian Jackson made a lot of incredible music together and "Secrets" is no exception. Soul and Jazz come together with the brilliance that is Gil Scott-Heron's mind and the result is truly inspiring. This 1978 album from the poet/musician, an album that continues the journey started on the 1977 album, "Bridges".

"Angel Dust" warns of the dangers of drug abuse. "Show Bizness" is a hilarious look at the perils of the music business ('they'll take care of everything for only 95%'), whilst "Madison Avenue" talks of the over commercialization of western society ("buying is all that's asked of you..."). "Better Days Ahead" and "Prayer For Everybody" see Gil in a more optimistic light hoping for a better future.

Gil Scott Heron was rapping and telling it like it is long before hip hop even thought about running its course. This album was a good example of Gil's finest works.

Tracklist:
1. Angel Dust
2. Madison Avenue
3. Cane
4. Third World Revolution
5. Better Days Ahead
6. 3 Miles Down
7. Angola Louisiana
8. Show Bizness
9. A Prayer For Everybody To Be Free


Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson - Secrets
(192 kbps, front cover included)

Kurt Weill & Bertolt Brecht - Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny (Lotte Lenya, Wilhelm Brückner-Rüggeberg, 1956)

In the mid-'50s, Lotte Lenya, Kurt Weill's widow, contracted with Columbia Records to participate in a series of new recordings of her late husband's major German works.

Here, she is featured as Jenny Hill in a 1956 studio cast album of "Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny" ("Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny"), Weill's 1930 musical written with lyricist Bertolt Brecht. That allows her to sing the show's most famous number, "Alabama-Song." (Although Mahagonny is presented in the original German, "Alabama-Song" was written and is sung in English.). It is an ensemble work, not a star vehicle, with the other principal parts handled by Heinz Sauerbaum (as Jimmy Mahoney) and Gisela Litz (as Leokadja Begbick). The orchestra is conducted by Wilhelm Brückner-Rüggeberg.

As its title suggests, Mahagonny traces the founding of a fictional American city and its evolution into a sort of modern Sodom and Gomorrah with the characters being lowlife types such as gamblers and prostitutes. It is similar in many ways to its predecessor, "The Threepenny Opera". But where that song-based work was more of a conventional Broadway-style musical, Mahagonny is more of an operetta, with extended recitatives and a larger orchestra playing more elaborate music. It is at once more ambitious and less accessible than "The Threepenny Opera" and consequently has been less often performed. This recording aims to be definitive and, with a talented cast and musicians, plus excellent sound courtesy of a Hamburg studio, it arguably achieves that goal.               

Tracklist:

	Akt I
	Nr. 1
1-1	Gesucht werden Leokadja Begbick	3:41
1-2	Sie soll sein wie ein Netz	3:52
	Nr. 2
1-3	Rasch wuchs / Oh, show us the way	4:13
	Nr. 3
1-4	Die Nachricht	4:26
	Nr. 4
1-5	In den nächsten Tagen	2:04
	Nr. 5
1-6	Damals kam unter anderen	2:14
1-7	Heraus, ihr Schönen von Mahagonny	0:55
1-8	Ach, bedenken sie	2:00
	Nr. 6
1-9	Ich habe gelernt	1:55
	Nr. 7
1-10	Alle grosse Unternehmungen	1:23
1-11	Auch ich bin einmal	3:34
	Nr. 8
1-12	Alle wahrhaft Suchenden	2:44
1-13	Aber etwas fehlt	3:47
	Nr. 9
1-14	Klaviersolo / Das ist die ewige Kunst	4:16
1-15	Sieben Jahre	2:28
	Nr. 10
1-16	Ein Taifun!	2:21
	Nr. 11
1-17	In dieser Nacht des Entsetzens	5:30
1-18	Nein, jetzt sage ich	1:50
1-19	So tuet nur, was euch beliebt	3:28
	Akt II
	Nr. 12
1-20	Hurrikan bewegt	3:26
1-21	O wunderbare Lösung	1:19
	Nr. 13
2-1	Von nun an war der Leitspruch	1:08
2-2	Jetzt habe ich gegessen zwei Kalber	4:00
	Nr. 14
2-3	Zweitens kommt die Liebe dran!	6:18
2-4	Sieh jene Kraniche	5:02
2-5	Erstens, vergesst nicht, kommt das Fressen	0:37
	Nr. 15
2-6	Wir, meine Herren	4:28
2-7	Dreimal hoch Dreieinigkeitsmoses!	2:30
	Nr. 16
2-8	Freunde kommt, ich lade euch ein	7:37
2-9	Meine Herren, meine Mutter prägte	5:58
	Nr. 17
2-10	Wenn der Himmel hell wird	4:09
	Akt III
	Nr. 18
2-11	Haben alle Zuschauer Billette?	2:01
2-12	Zweitens der Fall des Jimmy Mahoney	8:37
	Nr. 19
2-13	In dieser Zeit gab es in Mahagonny	4:04
	Nr. 20
2-14	Hinrichtung und Tod des Jimmy Mahoney	3:30
2-15	Erstens, vergesst nicht, kommt das Fressen	3:25
	Nr. 21
2-16	Wohlt ihr mich denn wirklich hinrichten?	4:08
2-17	In diesen Tagen fanden in Mahagonny	6:29

Kurt Weill & Bertolt Brecht - Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny (Lotte Lenya, Wilhelm Brückner-Rüggeberg, 1956) CD 1
Kurt Weill & Bertolt Brecht - Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny (Lotte Lenya, Wilhelm Brückner-Rüggeberg, 1956) CD 2
(256 kbps, cover art included)

Sun Ra - Dancing Shadows

"Dancing Shadows" is a mid-'80s German bootleg disc gathering material that had been recorded some two decades earlier for the ESP-Disk indie label. It should also be noted that the same eight sides can be found as both "Nothing Is" (1970) and the somewhat erroneous "Heliocentric Worlds, Vol. 3" (1966). In terms of the contents, the cuts were documented at various stops on the Arkestra's 1966 spring tour of state universities of New York. The instrumental free jazz improvisations surrounding the more discernible melodies from Ra (piano/clavioline) and company serve as the primary impetus for this collection.

From out of the free-for-all introduction "Dancing Shadows," Ra's keyboards are incisive and direct as he rides the band into a swinging and inventive jam sporting the same brand of advanced arrangements and tricky time signatures that are associated with the likes of Pharoah Sanders and Thelonious Monk. Longtime Arkestra stalwarts Marshall Allen (alto sax/flute/piccolo/oboe), John Gilmore (tenor sax), and Pat Patrick (baritone sax/flute) entwine their Eastern-influenced interjections and effuse interaction over the solid rhythm section of Ronnie Boykins (bass/tuba), Clifford Jarvis (drums), Carl Nimrod [aka Carl S. Malone/Nimrod Hunt] (sun horn/gong), and James Jacson (flute/log drums).

While no traditional drum kit performers are credited, they are evident throughout. Sandwiched between "Dancing Shadows" and "Exotic Forest" is the spoken or (perhaps more accurately) chanted chorus of "the second stop is Jupiter." Keen-eared enthusiasts might recall this extract, which hails from "Rocket #9." There is an entrancing and almost intoxicating quality to "Exotic Forest." Allen's oboe solo is bound to some equally heady percussive expressions. This release can be recommended for this track alone, as it exemplifies the unquestionable beauty that the Arkestra created from seeming sonic chaos. After "Sun Ra and His Band from Outer Space" - a brief piano solo interlude - the final extended piece is "Shadow World." Here, Patrick's opening solo is met head-on with a hard-hitting and edgy assault from Allen on oboe. This eventually leads into a full Arkestra meltdown prior to Ra's "Theme of the Stargazers" and a final chorus of "Next Stop Mars" - another spoken/sung chant. The audio quality of this specific incarnation is less than favorable when compared to either of the previously mentioned releases "Nothing Is" or "Heliocentric Worlds, Vol. 3" - both of which are available on CD. All manner of free jazz fans are encouraged to locate "Dancing Shadows", as it provides an unabashed glimpse into what makes this era of the Arkestra so highly lauded among listeners.               

Tracklist:

1. Dancing Shadows / Imagination / Exotic Forest (20:15)

2. Sun Ra And His Band From Outer Space / Shadow World / Theme Of The Stargazers / Outer Spaceways Incorporated / Next Stop Mars (17:54)



Sun Ra - Dancing Shadows
(192 kbps, cover art included)

Atahualpa Yupanqui - Lo Mejor De

The roots of nueva canción trace to the late 1950s and early ’60s, a notably restive era in Latin American history. Many countries were saddled with ineffective or authoritarian governments, and the gap between the wealthy and the impoverished was widening. Moreover, European and North American cultural influence was becoming increasingly palpable, with musical tastes in particular molded to a significant degree by the commercial-music industry of North America. In that milieu two notable singer-songwriters in neighbouring countries embarked on crusades to reclaim what they perceived as the crumbling social and cultural integrity of their homelands: Violeta Parra in Chile and Atahualpa Yupanqui in Argentina.

Much of the work of Parra and Yupanqui involved collecting old songs from the countryside and reworking - or rejuvenating - them to become “new songs” in a more contemporary, broadly accessible format. Parra commonly cast her song in well-established local poetic forms, and, perhaps most significant, she introduced Andean instruments into the accompanying ensemble. Meanwhile, Yupanqui’s semisung lyrics, intoned atop expressive guitar playing, vividly evoked the hardships of life in the Andes. By developing and promoting a body of popular songs that were grounded in local traditions and that addressed the experiences and concerns of ordinary people, both Parra and Yupanqui helped democratize music in their countries; their songs spoke both to and for the populace.

Tracklist:

1	Los Ejes De Mi Carreta	3:00
2	La Copla	4:55
3	La Olvidada	2:10
4	La Tarde	4:00
5	El Poeta	3:00
6	Malambo	3:25
7	A La Noche La Hizo Dios	3:30
8	El Pampino	4:10
9	Paisaje Con Nieve	4:50
10	El Aromo	4:00
11	El Alazán	3:19
12	El Promesante	3:20
13	Le Tengo Rabia Al Silencio	3:02
14	Guitarra Dímelo Tú	2:54
15	Camino Del Indio	3:02
16	Trabajo, Quiero Trabajo	2:54

Atahualpa Yupanqui - Lo Mejor De
(256 kbps, cover art included)