New Age Music reasserts its hold on the Grammy’s New Age Category. I won’t be able to get my chakras in an uproar about the absurdity of the New Age Grammy category this year. (See previous rants & reflections Grammys Goof Again in the New Age) There aren’t any hack New Agers that no one…
Category: Reviews & Commentary
Program Highlights, Reviews & Commentary
Little People’s Ambient Chamber Music.
Listen to the Little People Echoes Interview Here. In the world of electronic music we sometimes forget that that description also embraces Hip Hop and Rap music. That is, those of us on the space and ambient side of things forget. But Laurent Clerc grew up listening to American and English Hip-Hop and even played…
Interview Podcast, Reviews & Commentary
Cage: Beyond Silence
Pianist Margaret Leng Tan and Producer Dustin Hurt on the Legacy of John Cage. Hear the Echoes Podcast about John Cage. There are icons of modern music and then there are gods. John Cage was a god. Few composers have turned music on its head the way Cage did with compositions like “4’33”, his silent…
Reviews & Commentary
A New Age Shaman’s Last Dance.
Gabrielle Roth passes at age 71. Gabrielle Roth wouldn’t have won any musician polls. She didn’t really play anything beyond some percussion. Yet she was responsible for nearly two dozen albums over the last 20 years or so. She referred to herself as an urban shaman and with the floating personnel of her ensemble, Gabrielle…
Interview Podcast, Reviews & Commentary
Two Sides of Progressive Rock-Gentle Giant & Styx
This past week saw a study in Progressive Rock contrasts when two bands from the classic progressive rock era, Three Friends, A.K.A. Gentle Giant and Styx came through the Philadelphia area. Gentle Giant represented the adventurous experimental side of Progressive Rock, mixing jazz, blues, madrigals and classical music into a heady mix of time signature…
Reviews & Commentary
A Lesson in Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin Celebration Day returns for 1 screening nationwide November 13. Go to Led Zeppelin Website for theater listings. Did you ever have trouble explaining the appeal of Led Zeppelin to someone? Maybe your kid, the smart ass heavy metal dude in your office, the alt-rock snob college friend or your new girlfriend who thinks that…
Interview Podcast, Reviews & Commentary
Samsara-What Goes Around….
Here the Echoes Samsara Interview on Echoes weekend stations. Echoes Samsara Echoes Podcast: Listen Here. Samsara is the third feature film from director Ron Fricke and producer Mark Magidson. Like their previous movies, it explores grand concepts with grand images and grand music. Samsara is Sanskrit for “continuous flow”, the repeating cycle of birth, life,…
Reviews & Commentary
Andy Williams Crosses Moon River to the Heavens
I always thought of “Moon River” as the first space music song. Even in 1961, when Andy Williams recorded it, I knew this was music from another era, but something about Johnny Mercer’s lyrics and Henry Mancini’s sweeping orchestration always suggested something beyond this earth to me. Just now I had a new spacey ambient…
Reviews & Commentary
Progressive Rock Awards.
I didn’t even know they had these and it seems a little late in the game, but Prog Magazine, a journal in the UK with a reported readership of about 25,000, sponsored their first Progressive Music Awards show. As the first, they understandably acknowledged a lot of the pioneers in the field, granting awards to…
Reviews & Commentary
Sshhhhhhh. John Cage at 100.
John Cage would’ve been 100 today. He died in 1992, but his influence continues to echo through music. Many of the musicians on Echoes still cite Cage as an inspiration. As recently as yesterday on Echoes, Franco Falsini of Sensations Fix recalled hearing Cage in the early 1970s. John Cage had this concept, “I wanted to…