Mar 4, 2025 1:29 PM
Changing of the Guard at Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra
On October 23, Ted Nash – having toured the world playing alto, soprano and tenor saxophone, clarinet and bass…
Nonesuch Records is launching the complete re-release of its landmark Explorer Series. The original series—issued on vinyl between 1967 and 1984—was a turning point for what later became known as “world music.” For the first time, ethnomusicologists and producers were able to go into the field and return with high quality recordings.
While a few of these recordings were reissued on compact disc over the years, this is the first time the entire series—92 recordings that have inspired generations of adventurous listeners—will be released on CD. Nonesuch will be issuing the CDs grouped by global region. The revival of the series begins on Aug. 27, with the release of 13 volumes of African music including the popular Drum, Chant and Instrumental Music, Witchcraft and Ritual Music, three mbira (thumb piano) recordings from the Shona people of Zimbabwe, and Hamza El Din’s The Water Wheel.
January 2003 will see the release of ten titles from Indonesia and the South Pacific including Music from the Morning of the World, which was one of the first commercial releases of gamelan music. Subsequent releases over the next three years will group titles from Tibet/Kashmir, Latin America/Caribbean, East Asia, Central Asia, Europe, and India.
August’s 13 African releases were originally issued between 1969 and 1983. The music comes from Ghana, Nubia, Zimbabwe, Burundi, Burkina Faso, Niger, Mali, Uganda, Zaire, Kenya, and Tanzania. Western audiences heard many African instruments for the first time: the marimba of Tanzania and the dzil or Ghanian calabash-xylophone; Zimbabwe’s mbira and Burundi’s sanza, both thumb pianos; the talking drums of Niger and Burkina Faso, whose pitch is shifted through changing the tension of the drums’ membranes; and dozens of other flutes, fiddles, horns, drums, musical bows, zithers, and lutes from across the continent. Animals of Africa: Sounds of the Jungle, Plain, and Bush broke new ground by presenting the sounds made by a dozen African mammals.
The series reissue sees these legendary titles remastered and repackaged, including newly designed O-card covers and the inclusion of original liner notes.
As Ted Nash, left, departs the alto saxophone chair for LCJO, Alexa Tarantino steps in as the band’s first female full-time member.
Mar 4, 2025 1:29 PM
On October 23, Ted Nash – having toured the world playing alto, soprano and tenor saxophone, clarinet and bass…
Larry Appelbaum with Wayne Shorter in 2012.
Feb 25, 2025 10:49 AM
Larry Appelbaum, a distinguished audio engineer, jazz journalist, historian and broadcaster, died Feb. 21, 2025, in…
“This is one of the great gifts that Coltrane gave us — he gave us a key to the cosmos in this recording,” says John McLaughlin.
Mar 18, 2025 3:00 PM
In his original liner notes to A Love Supreme, John Coltrane wrote: “Yes, it is true — ‘seek and ye shall…
The Blue Note Jazz Festival New York kicks off May 27 with a James Moody 100th Birthday Celebration at Sony Hall.
Apr 8, 2025 1:23 PM
Blue Note Entertainment Group has unveiled the lineup for the 14th annual Blue Note Jazz Festival New York, featuring…
“You’ve got to trust that inner child, keep exploring, even though people think it’s wrong,” says Fortner.
Feb 25, 2025 11:20 AM
Every week at the Village Vanguard fosters its own sound. No one really knows how the music might evolve by Sunday, but…
