ASIAN CDS

  What a surprise ROUGH GUIDE TO THE MUSIC OF CENTRAL ASIA was! We assumed the entire CD would be a collection of primitive field recordings. Though some of the music on ROUGH GUIDE TO CENTRAL ASIA is close to that, some performers play electric instruments and really rock out, yet have a folk-rooted central Asian sound, some artists are classically trained, and some were set up under the Soviet system of folk orchestra (nice to know some good came out of that social experiment).

 Listeners will be at times reminded of Russian music, Chinese music, Middle Eastern, Afghan and even the music of Pakistan and India. Two or more styles may show up on the same song.   The countries that are represented here are Kazakstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikstan, and Kyrgystan.

 Some of these peoples are mostly nomadic, so the music echoes the sound of horses much in the way Tuvan and Mongolian music does.

 Other groups have been settled in cities for many centuries trading with peoples from both the East and the West along the old silk road: it's these people who sometimes combine such disparate geographic influences in their music.

 A big surprise for me was hearing Jewish musicians from Uzbekistan and learning that Jewish musicians had been an important part of the music of the Royal Palace of Bukehara for centuries.   Suddenly the idea that Jesus of Nazareth may have studied in India and nearby lands doesn't seems so strange after all.

 The variety of musics, styles and instruments is astonishing: much of it is acoustic, of course.

 Outstanding vocal cuts are interspersed with gentle and not so gentle instrumentals: so many cultures closed off to us for so long now open up like petals of flowers for us to feast our senses on.

 It's a good time to be alive - and THE ROUGH GUIDE TO MUSIC OF CENTRAL ASIA emphases this pleasant diversity.

  Unlike the music on the Rough Guides compilation on Central Asia which featured musicians from Kaakhstans and other nearby countries, the music on KAZAKH MUSIC TODAY is all traditional and acoustic: no electric guitars, no rocking out.

 There are twenty-seven cuts (you sure get your money's worth), and the musicians and vocalists go from soloists, duos and trios up to small orchestras.   There are more instrumental tracks than vocals here and the Folk Ensemble of the Presidential Orchestra gets six cuts, but playing in different combinations.

 It took two years of recording in several different places for Michael Church to complete KAZAKH MUSIC TODAY.

 Like so many peoples of central Asia, the Kazakhs were, until recently, a nomadic horse-oriented people. Naturally, this shows up in much but not all of their music.  

 Surprisingly, though all the music is in a style that rejects Western influences, the majority of the performers are young - as young as thirteen years old.

 This gives us hope that Kazakh music will survive the Western onslaught and will be blended into Western forms such as rock and jazz rather than being tossed into the dustbins of music history.

 The story of the Two Siberians is somewhat amazing: two conservatory students in Siberia (you knew there was at least one music conservatory in Siberia, didn't you? ... me either!) met and started playing music more akin to rock and jazz than classical.   Naturally, they get in trouble with the school authorities, but continue to practice together.

 Yuri Matveyev on electric guitar is the son of folk dancers; Artyom Yakushenko on violin is the son of the father of a Siberian rocker. The story of how these two crazy guys came to NYC, played in Times Square and eventually got to make OUT OF NOWHERE would make a good movie.

 The sidemen on this project are all top flight American jazz players, most of whom have played with famous rock stars and others outside the field of jazz. The result in OUT OF NOWHERE is a category-defying mix of rock, jazz, classical, and Russian folk roots - and maybe a few other things - that hits the listener right over the head from the start.

 Imagine, if you will, the original David Grisman Quintet with electric instruments and a harder edge!

Most of the tunes on OUT OF NOWHERE are instrumentals, but three of the fifteen tunes do have vocals. All tunes are originals. The sidemen and women players do not appear on all the tunes (they're not called Two Silberians for nothing).

 If you do purchase OUT OF NOWHERE, expect an intense ride and hang on.

  EARTH & ASHES is the soundtrack to a film about the trials of tribulation of the long-suffering civilian population in Afghanistan's never-ending war.

 Khaled Arman is a classically-trained guitarist familiar with jazz and other styles who returned to the music of his native Afghanistan and to the native-stringed instrument the Rabat. Much of his playing will remind listeners of the music of India crossed with the music of Iran and other Middle Eastern counties.  A quick look at a map quickly explains that scenario.

 Francisco Russo is Khaled Arman's chief collaborator in the Kabul workshop band. Russo is a composer, conductor and synthesizer player.

 Since EARTH & ASHES is a soundtrack, much of the sound is atmospheric rather than traditional. Much of the film is somewhat depressing and occasionally scary so the atmospheric music tends to be unpleasant.

 If you've seen the film and want a souvenir of the experience, EARTH & ASHES does a good job. If, however, you're looking for a good example of Afghan music, you might be disappointed.