(Published by Zocalo Magazine on May 11, 2013.) It’s a beautiful spring Saturday in the Sonoran Desert; birds are chirping, fruit blossoms are fragrantly blooming and “Electric Caribou” is dancing forth from the speakers. This is an afternoon with The Modeens; singer/guitarist/songwriter Jamie Laboz, bassist/singer/songwriter Cristina Williams and drummer Jeff Diday. Missing is keyboardist/harmonica/contributing singer/songwriter Dave Prival as the herpetologist is in Cali tracking a … [Read more...]
Stuart Oliver & The Desert Angels
(Published by Zocalo Magazine on March 19, 2013.) Sheddin’ Every Skin (Old Bisbee Records) If you’re free on Sundays and music is your temple of wry reflections tied to sin and hopeful, redemptive contemplation… then spin this album. It’s a collection of 14 stories that are beautifully composed, performed and arranged. Stuart Oliver paints notes and words on time and space, ageless motifs of humanity’s dukkha (nature of suffering) and deliverance. To rip right from the press release, this … [Read more...]
Tesoro: Live in Studio 2A
(Published by Zocalo Magazine on July 2, 2011.) Resistance is futile, the songs are too bewitching. The album, recorded at KXCI 91.3FM, consists of gorgeous notes adroitly composed and negotiated, sauntering from the enticing seduction of flamenco to jazz sensibilities. Tesoro calls it Flamenco Fusion. I dig that they fused in Tool’s “Forty-Six & 2” along with saluting Paco de Lucia, Chris Burton Jácome and Tito Puente. It’s been over five years since Tesoro issued a disc, and the … [Read more...]
The Power of Music
(Published by Zocalo Magazine on July 1, 2011.) Pioneering Discoveries in the New Science of Song by Elena Mannes Walker Publishing Company (2011), 288 pages Science will not embrace visceral knowledge without evidence to back it. What humans, and our species’ ancestors, have innately known about the importance of music for hundreds of thousands of years is now being proven through modern science. Namely, that music and/or sound are fundamental aspects of individuals, societies, … [Read more...]
Instrumental Bike Parts
Originally published in the April 2011 issue of Zocalo Magazine. From the dawn of humankind, music has been tightly woven into our species’ history. Might it even be stamped into our DNA? Intentional sounds are certainly created by our planet’s other inhabitants – from birds, cetaceans, cicadas, lizards, frogs, et al. It’s up for debate if those creatures are creating music. Dated examples of early Homo sapiens deliberately creating music are contested archeologically, but if … [Read more...]
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