Blind Gary Davis sang it: "Well, death will go in any family in this land / It come to your house and it won't stay long / You look in the bed and one of the family be gone." Or another factual bit of advice by Fred McDowell: “You may be high, you may be low/ You may be rich child, you may be poor/ But when the Lord gets ready, you got to move.” Or William Shakespeare’s take on the unknown consequences of death: “Ay, but to die, and go we know not where; To lie in cold obstruction and to rot.” Ay, there’s the rub - this uncertainty and dread that has led to the founding of religions and belief systems worldwide…and a funeral industry worth umpteen millions. But after all is said and done, we’ve no inkling as to what, if anything, awaits us. Vera Hall and Dock Reed assure us “Death is Awful.” But how do they know? [Continues Below]   Run List for Al compás del mundo – programa #152, First broadcast 10-31-24 Episode: Death (in observance of el dia de los muertos) 01 Oscar C...

  “Lurid”, “savage”, and yet “enticing”, “captivating”…exotica! I suppose “relaxing” fits as well, at least for certain tropicalian oceanside my-tai entries to this slice of musical life. What you get this time around is a grab bag of moods, all evoking far away, “little-known” locations where a gringo might just be swept away by the next wave or an over-zealous would-be tour guide. One thing I’ve not yet figured out is why, judging from the album covers, do the womenfolk walk around half naked?  Run list for Al compás del mundo – programa #151, 10-24-24, “Exotica” 01 Les Baxter - Go Chango (USA) 02 Martin Denny - Swamp Fire (USA) 03 Kava Kon - Pacifica 66 (USA) 04 Esquivel - Latin-Esque (Mexico) 05 Horst Wende and His Orchestra - Oriental Caravan (Germany) 06 Coral de Ouro Preto - Zelão (Brazil) 07 Yma Sumac - Taki Rari (Peru) 08 Robert Drasnin – Voodoo (USA) 09 Roger Craig - Song of India (USA) 10 Les Baxter - Voodoo Dreams-Voodoo (USA) 11 Oratorio Society of Honolulu - Hawa...

I’m calling this week’s selections an “orchestral” potpourri from here and there. And maybe that’s not as precise as should be. You won’t always find the big orchestral sound on these recordings that the label suggests, but when you don’t, what you will hear are studio sessions where music is overdubbed, mixed, or merely enhanced in some electronic way. Roots music this ain’t. Starting with the appropriately named opening “Genesis Theme” by Ravi Shankar, the program ends with his daughter, Anoushka, also a sitar master. In between find many gems ...   [continued below]   Al compás del mundo - programa #150, 10-17-24, ethnic “orchestral” potpourri run list 01 Ravi Shankar - Genesis Theme (India) 02 Agnes Obel - Red Virgin Soil (Denmark) 03 Angelo Badalamenti - Dance of the Dream Man (USA) 04 DakhaBrakha - Karpatskyi Rep (Ukraine) 05 Lambarena - Pepa Nzac Gnon Ma + Prelude from Partita for Violin No. 3, J.S. Bach (Gabon - France) 06 Kronos Quartet - Wawshishijay (Our B...

I once wrote a very perfunctory program summary for this blogsite. It was for a jazz show, like this one, presented on Mexico’s Al compás del mundo radio program. The trick was to include a photo of the performers, each posing with his “ax” (piano, sax, trumpet, etc.) The pictures were worth a thousand words (or several hundred at least). While it made it easy for me, I’ve been warned by the editor that never again was I to foist most of the work on to his broad though burdened shoulders. So be it. Rules are rules. Instead, I’ll do a rundown of the performances presented herein below. Al compás del mundo - programa #149, 10-10-24, jazz  Run list 01 Herbie Hancock - It Ain't Necessarily So 02 Roy Campbell - I Remember Lee 03 Jaki Byard - Blues in The Closet 04 Grachan Moncur - Love and Hate 05 Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane – Evidence 06 Archie Shepp & Horace Parlan - Go Down Moses 07 Jackie McLean – Marney 08 Bobby Hutcherson - Blues Mind Matter 09 Terre...

  There’s a lot to digest in this week’s program - 48 excerpts from lengthier works of art, ritual and celebration as (once) heard in sub-Saharan Africa. On the other hand, maybe just let it wash over you and don’t sweat the details. I can imagine this is new territory for most listeners, but think of it this way: your fellow human beings with all the same needs and abilities have come up with musical statements that express the same wide range of emotions that we in the West are saddled with. I’m trying to make the point that what may sound so very foreign and “odd” to outsiders is designed for a local audience with distinctly different histories, and an evolution of culture that’s taken its own road far from ours. Yet music plays its role in working, partying, relaxing, mourning, and just having fun. [Continues below] Run list: Traditional sub-Saharan African music, Al compás del mundo - programa #148, 10-3-24   01 Malinke dance in praise of hunters, Guinea 0.00 02 Bena ...