For as much as I love music, I’m rarely impressed with live performances. Don’t get me wrong, there have been many concerts that I’ve adored, but all too often artists are either too tired of the material they are playing or simply cannot recapture the honesty or production values from their original recordings. And yes I know that this is my shortcoming.

One outstanding live performance that I’ll never forget was when my little sister and I caught Los Lobos in 1994. They played for nearly three hours with several sets of various styles, ranging from Folk, Norteño, Zydeco, Latin Rock, Country, R&B, and Punk, all with a high level of skill, joy and passion. Since 1973 they have been a band unafraid to travel into various musical territories.
​ 
“Ten Believers” is a great example of David Hidalgo and Louie Pérez’s well-traveled pallet.  Released through their more experimental side project Latin Playboys, it showcases great songwriting smothered in low-fidelity. It’s sad that they are no longer releasing material under the Latin Playboys, because there is some outstanding material on those two albums. 

We lost another giant in music yesterday with the passing of Chuck Berry. Many people probably figured he had already passed, even though at 90 years old, new material was scheduled for release this year! Berry’s influence on modern music is well documented, but who influenced him? Along with guitarist Carl Hogan and Country music legend Jimmy Rodgers, another artist that is often credited with Berry’s development was Aaron "T-Bone" Walker.

Known as a key figure in the creation of the “electric” and “jump” blues sound, Walker was a showman with pioneering stage antics and classic guitar solos. He was also an underrated singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, with more than serviceable skills at the piano, violin, banjo, mandolin, and ukulele.
​
This song, originally recorded in 1947 for the now defunct Black and White Record label, features some of Walker’s talents. His vocal performance is as soft as pianist Willard McDaniel’s strides and you can hear the same guitar phrases that Chuck Berry would use 8 years later. It’s a warm, fun number and along with other Jump Blues artists like Louis Jordan, Jimmy Witherspoon, and Louis Prima, T-Bone Walker would unknowingly influence many Jamaican artists and what would become Ska and eventually Reggae music.

In the fall of 1991 my college roommate from Thessaloniki Greece introduced me to this wonderful song. Now a dear friend and brother, at that time we were simply roommates still finding common interests from the two very different worlds we came from. One of the first things we agreed upon was a black cassette with deep orange labeling. The music it contained was a prized possession in the room.

The artist that created those sounds was Ross Daly. He considers himself a “Transcultural Identity.”  By this he means that he has spent his life traveling throughout much of the world and that he does not find himself attached solely to one regional or ethnic identity. Mr. Daly has focused his life on modal music and has been living in the island of Crete for over 36 years.

The two instruments featured in this recording are the Zarb (Persian Goblet Drum) or Donbak, Dombak or Tompak (official Persian name: تنپک, تنبک, دنبک، تمپک), and the Laouto (Greek: λαούτο), an instrument from the lute family found in Greece and Cyprus. This recording can be found on Ross Daly’s self-titled album, recorded in 1986, and it features some pretty magical performances.

​See also
http://www.rossdaly.gr/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gt6ZzVGRgz0    

I first discovered Harold Budd through his collaboration with the Cocteau Twins on their The Moon and the Melodies album, and soon hunted down most of his recordings.  I was particularly drawn to “The Ghost Has No Home” and his approach to the piano. It was his sparseness, maybe a lack of technical ability, which allowed the instrument to breath.  After investigating more of his recordings throughout the years, I feel that this is his greatest attribute; he allows each piece of music, sometimes each note, the time and space to be.  

“First Light” is the opening track from the 1980 collaborative album with Brian Eno entitled Ambient 2: The Plateaux of Mirror. It was the second installment of Eno’s “Ambient” series and the second project that the two combined forces. I think “First Light” is a prime example of the wonderful work that Eno and Budd can create. It showcases Budd’s delicate improvisation within the space that Eno produced.
​
Harold Budd has been performing and composing music since 1962 and many feel that his work with Brian Eno pioneered “ambient” music. He has been known to scoff at that label and simply considers himself a composer.