Independent Music Recommendations

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Program 17 -
Armenian/Jazz Fusion
with Musaner
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Discoveries

Independent Music Recommendations - Sample on AMAZON
Hard to find good music these days? Here are some albums worth listening to. These recommendations are completely independent - AIM accepts no promotional fees or CDs whatsoever. The music rises or falls on its own merits. 'From the Collection' features old favorites. 'Honorable Mentions' are new releases that find their way into my collection and get played repeatedly. 'Discovery', AIM's highest distinction, is reserved for those rare occasions when new releases are among the best of their kind.

Find Good Music
    ► Discoveries - below
   ► Honorable Mentions
    ► From the Collection
    ► Monthly Standouts 2010
    ► Listener Safari 2010
    ► AIM Radio

AIM's Discoveries -

	Musaner (Armenian/Jazz fusion)
	Chris Thile Not All Who Wander Are Lost ('newgrass')
	Castelnuovo-Tedesco Music for Two Guitars - 1
	Caprice Kywitt! Kywitt! (art rock / English ballads)
	Renaud Garcia-Fons Alboreá (French Jazz)
	Habib Koité Afriki (Afropop)
	Vienna Teng Dreaming Through the Noise
	Osvaldo Golijov Ainadamar (flamenco goes to the opera)
	Bela Fleck (Grammy Award-winning jazz banjo)
	Nando Lauria's Novo Brasil (jazz harmonies and complex rhythms)

	Zucchero & Co. (Italian bluesman teams with Eric Clapton, Sheryl Crow and other greats)
	Libera (New Age boys' choir)
	Yo-Yo Ma's Obrigado Brazil (fine example of Brazilian pop and classical)
	Ken Burns' 'Mark Twain' Soundtrack (early American popular music)

It's got energy. It flows. It's got heart because it comes from folk tunes. It's in the finest tradition of jazz fusion which, for AIM, started with the Mahavishnu Orchestra in the 1970s.

This inventive project is the brainchild of Boston composer Ara Sarkissian. As Ara tells it, "I brought together the members of Musaner for the first time in 2007 in an attempt to combine my interest in Armenian folksongs and folk instruments with my desire to create some music for a jazz-oriented ensemble. As the group grew larger in time, so did our repertoire. We added some original compositions which are not based in folksong - It's Only Rain and Deconstructed Memories, as well as some Balkan folk music, such as the folk tune Niska Banja (as heard in Festive Occasions) and Jovicin Cocek (by Jovia Ajdarevic as heard in Festival). A sample of the resulting arrangements and compositions is heard on this recording.