These “greatest hits” programs are such a reward. All the effort that went into programming three or four distinct programs is narrowed down to a relatively easy selection of an hour’s worth of top-notch tunes. Is this an admission of laziness or even ennui in the task of music selection for a most demanding audience? Hardly. The best of the best deserves a second listening and making it all work as a cohesive whole brings sweat to my brow. Think I’ll take a nap. The beer is consumed, the songs they are chosen, and what do we have here? A world music tour from West and North Africa, flitting across the Middle East, landing in various points of Latin America (Los Angeles counts, no?), and an overture (in the way of the final four selections) to Great Britain and the Appalachian immigrant sound. Must we finish with the sweetest Irish song these ears have heard in many a moon? We must.JH Al compás del mundo - programa #128, ‘greatest hits’ from programs 14-16 First broadcast 5-16-2024 0
Every now and then I’ll focus on a particular instrument (the harmonica) or series of related instruments (strings). But in order to create as much diverse interest as uncommon sense would bear, I typically reach to the far corners of the globe. This program, dedicated to the flute, is no different, touching on the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, and the US of A. There are big flutes, little flutes, simple and complex flutes, jazz flutes, classical flutes and folk flutes, solo flutes and group flutes. A profound example of this latter style is the Bolivian tarqueada [LEFT] , played on the tarka, a hefty, rudimentary instrument. On occasion dozens of flautists and drummers join in for a music perhaps best described as cacophonous, a complete community event with participation by an army of musicians and legions of dancers. It’s an egalitarian approach to the status of “musician” where almost anyone can master the basic note pattern, repeated over and over, and become a