Más Scofield

I Can See Your House from Here - John Scofield/Pat Metheny
Guitar giants John Scofield and Pat Metheny teamed up for the first time on records for this CD. The collaboration does take awhile to get going and it is not until the fourth cut, the bluish "Everybody's Party," that the sparks begin to fly; fortunately the momentum does not let up much throughout the remainder of the CD. All of the selections (including two blues) are originals by either of the guitarists and, with the accompaniment of bassist Steve Swallow and drummer Bill Stewart, this varied set generally lives up to expectations.

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Grace Under Pressure
John Scofield and Bill Frisell, two of the most distinctive guitarists of the 1990s (they previously fronted Marc Johnson's band Bass Desires,) team up on this quartet date with bassist Charlie Haden and drummer Joey Baron. While Scofield contributed all ten originals, Frisell with his wide variety of sounds and eccentric solos often comes close to stealing the show altogether. Five of the ten numbers add a three-piece brass section for color. The interplay between the two very different yet complementary guitarists is notable.

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Hand Jive

Guitarist John Scofield and tenor saxophonist Eddie Harris make a very complementary team on this upbeat set of funky jazz, for both have immediately identifiable sounds and adventurous spirits. Along with a fine rhythm section that includes Larry Goldings on piano and organ, Scofield and Harris interact joyfully on ten of the guitarist's originals.




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John Scofield - A Go Go

John Scofield owes a great deal to Medeski, Martin & Wood for the success of A Go Go. The piano/organ, bass, and drum playing trio adds a world of bouncing vibes to Scofield's inquisitive, happy guitar work here. A Go Go is an album of mostly breezy, sometimes tense, jam-based grooves. The album's charm is in its "city meets the tropics" feel. The four players create such a warm, vibrant sound that resisting the urge to tap one's feet along with the beat becomes a near impossibility. The opening song is a treat of plucked guitars and tightly packed new jazz. Other standouts are "Kubrick," a swooning, gentle change of pace packed with background tension, and "Hottentot," a tour de force of dynamic interplay. There's nary a moment of filler to be found across the ten tracks. It's clear that Scofield enjoyed the collaboration, as his guitars seem to nearly speak joy. His alternately jangling and plucking style sees him weaving in and out of the young trio's sound net with ample confidence. As fun as A Go Go is, it's just as well-sequenced, as Scofield and company vary their pace and tone expertly throughout the album's running time. A Go Go is far more than four cool cats jamming together and enjoying each other's company. It's an immensely entertaining, enlightening ride.


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Wyclef Jean el largo camino desde Haiti hasta Shakira

Lead Fugees rapper and sometime guitarist Wyclef Jean was the first member of his group to embark on a solo career, and he proved even more ambitious and eclectic on his own. As the Fugees hung in limbo, Wyclef also became hip-hop's unofficial multicultural conscience; a seemingly omnipresent activist, he assembled or participated in numerous high-profile charity benefit shows for a variety of causes, including aid for his native Haiti. The utopian one-world sensibility that fueled Wyclef's political consciousness also informed his recordings, which fused hip-hop with as many different styles of music as he could get his hands on (though, given his Caribbean roots, reggae was a particular favorite). In addition to his niche as hip-hop's foremost global citizen, Clef was also a noted producer and remixer who worked with an impressive array of pop, R&B, and hip-hop talent, including Whitney Houston, Santana, and Destiny's Child, among many others.
Presents the Carnival Featuring the Refugee Allstars
The Score was one of those rare hip-hop albums that came out of nowhere and rewrote the rules. In the aftermath of its success, many pundits predicted that rap would move away from gangsta and toward a richer, more varied existence. Given such heady praise, perhaps it was reasonable that Wyclef Jean, the guitarist and male rapper for the Fugees, decided to follow The Score with a solo project. However, Presents the Carnival comes across like Jean presenting his case that he is the true genius in the Fugees. And he's partially right. He has the ambition and drive common to many great artists, but he lacks the skills to fulfill his vision. Of course, the very fact that he has an original vision makes Jean one of the more compelling figures of late-'90s hip-hop. Not content to rely solely on hip-hop, Jean adds all manners of influences to his music. You can hear reggae, soul, disco, Caribbean rhythms, worldbeat, and opera scattered throughout The Carnival, giving the record the riotous atmosphere of its title. Even so, Jean occasionally tries too hard, forcing disparate genres to mix and spending more time on production than songwriting. But even with all its faults, The Carnival delivers great thrills when operating at full strength, demonstrating that Jean is at least half a genius.
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Carnival, Vol. 2: Memoirs of an Immigrant
Ten years after his 1997 solo debut, The Carnival, former Fugee, "Hips Don't Lie" producer, and globetrotting activist Wyclef Jean presents the sequel, subtitled Memoirs of an Immigrant and meaning it. There's a star-studded guest list, but Carnival, Vol. 2 is compo and sed from Wyclef's personal experience and filled with his commentary on 2007's immigration crisis. He even works his own green-card story into "Selena," a lighthearted love letter to the Mexican American diva that shamelessly quotes her "Bidi Bidi Bum Bum" over a light reggae beat before it morphs into a screaming loud carnival number. Many of the songs here shift genres with fascinating ease, like when the epic "Touch Your Button Carnival Jam" goes from a Black Eyed Peas-styled pop number to an intense soca workout. Then there's "Riot," a duet featuring System of a Down's Serj Tankian and dancehall dread Sizzla that utilizes a tense rock rhythm before exiting on a wet reggae beat. If it all sounds overwhelming, it's held together by Wyclef's well-crafted arrangements, and if SerjSizzla sound like an odd combination, try Sizzla and Minister Louis Farrakhan on violin for "Welcome to the East." Chamillionaire gets a Bollywood orchestra as a backing band, T.I.'s track is almost a hippie number, and Paul Simon croons over an R&B beat during "Fast Car," not the Tracy Chapman one but a song just as poignant. While this skillful mixing and matching of the A-list makes quite a first impression, it's the songwriting that sticks as Wyclef has upped his game. The deadbeat dad story "What About the Baby" is a convincing exchange between Wyclef and Mary J. Blige because of all the honesty written into it, and lines like "I got love for Miami all day/But if my Cubans get to stay/Why you turn my Haitians away?" add edge and weight to an album that's otherwise slick and immaculately polished. To make sure the immigration issue is always nearby, Wyclef quietly and at regular intervals references "shelter," "helping hands," and other words of refuge and protection. It's done so masterfully that it makes the couple "I'm gonna grab my guitar!" moments worth ignoring, which are the only times Wyclef's ego seems to be muscling into the mix. Otherwise, Carnival, Vol. 2 strives to give the immigration problem a face, turning those thousands of marchers seen on the news into a thousand personal stories of struggle and hope. It does so while pulsating with life and displaying an unabashed love of music that's rich, daring, and delightful.
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Greatest Hits
Much to his credit, Wyclef Jean is more of a producer in the vein of classic R&B and soul producers than he is in alignment with many of his contemporaries. Where most hip-hop and R&B producers are just focused on making a beat or making the hook as catchy as possible, Wyclef has a vision beyond that with his production style as well as his endeavors as a solo artist. This attention to detail and broad scope of music styles has been evident since his early years as a key member (if not the key member) of the Fugees. In a genre where formulas and playing it safe are the norm, Wyclef is a mad scientist taking constant risks and fusing elements of almost every genre imaginable into an amazing signature sound. And although not every experiment can be deemed a success (his cover versions of Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here" and a duet with Kenny Rogers revisiting "The Gambler" immediately come to mind), Wyclef's production skills on his worst day are still better than many producers' finest hour. Greatest Hits covers three solo albums over a period of six years. While the argument can be made that such a short span of time might warrant a greatest-hits compilation a bit premature, Wyclef has enough quality tracks to justify one -- especially if you are just looking to own his most well-known hits. From his commercial successes on the pop chart ("We Trying to Stay Alive" with fellow ex-Fugee Pras and the classic "Gone Till November") to some of his lesser known hits that only made an impact on the R&B charts, every single one of his finest solo moments is contained here. Die-hard fans will already own many, if not all, of these tracks, but those just getting warmed up to Wyclef's style will find Greatest Hits to be an essential primer.
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Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares - Bulgarian State Radio & Television Female Vocal Choir

The record that started the boom, this is an excellent introduction to the thrilling Bulgarian women's choir.




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LE_MYSTERE_DES_VOIX_BULGARES_VOL2

Equal to the haunting beauty of the first volume.


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