(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...]
Rooted in Community
(Published by Zocalo Magazine on July 5, 2011.) “Sparkroot is a concept that I have been mulching in my mind for years,” says Ari Shapiro of his latest Downtown venture, set to open in early August at 245 E. Congress St., at 5th Avenue. “It’s essentially the kind of space that I crave as a customer that I don’t feel really exists. The heart and soul of it is a coffee shop, but it’s a coffee shop that brings elements of a restaurant into it.” Shapiro, who is also the proud founder and … [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...]
Stefan George “Cloth”
(This article was published by Zocalo Magazine on Feb. 10, 2010.) “It’s pretty dark, but that’s the way it is sometimes,” Stefan scribed in a note that came with the CD. Sure enough, it opens with the folky, stark-realities-are-depressing Bad Year for Clowns. Though there are lyrical themes of a tough life throughout the 16 tracks, the bulk of the tunes are upbeat and catchy. And since its Stefan George, of course there is magnificent blues guitar playing on each track – six of them … [Read more...]