Saturday, June 6, 2009

Music New and Old: Etkin and Hancock

Music to take us to realms beyond, dance like dolphins in the inner sea:

Oran Etkin's album Kelenia drops this month. Check out this live performance of his group, a sort of klezmer-Malian blues fusion, with Makane Kouyate on percussion, Joe Sanders on bass, and Lionel Loueke sitting in on guitar (I saw Loueke a year ago at the Jazz Standard-- no one can imitate his spare and quirky style).

Some classic Herbie Hancock: "Hang Up Your Hang Ups," originally on Man-Child (1975), here in a superb live version from Tokyo Jazz 2005, with an incomparable line-up including Marcus Miller on bass, Roy Hargrove on trumpet, Lionel Loueke (again!) on guitar and --most tasty--Wah Wah Watson back again with that insinuating rhythm guitar. Hancock is such a protean force in modern American and global music!

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