New Reviews: January 9, 2001

Soul Catcher Gregory
Soul Catcher Music

On Soul Catcher, his debut recording, Gregory has created an audible landscape in which the listener is invited to spiritually explore. Beneath the electronic melodies emerges a Native American essence, primarily through percussive color. This inspirational CD serves well as a centering point in meditation. While they remain introspective, the compositions herein are anything but dull and lifeless, an oft too common problem in new age or ambient music.

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Big Brazos: Texas Prison Recordings
John A. Lomax and Alan Lomax
Rounder

This remarkable CD is a collection of original field recordings by the well-known father-son Lomax ethnomusicologists of the call-and-response prison work songs of African American men in Texas prison farms in 1933-1934. As similar functional songs of the old plantations and railroads, these served not only to keep the human spirit alive but also to coordinate work movements for increased efficiency and safety. With extensive historical liner notes, the CD is a valuable archive and teaching tool.

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Nomads of the Silk Road
Turku

The nomads of the well-traversed 7000-mile trade route from China to the Mediterranean Sea had a rich musical tradition. Stemming from Mogul Chinese roots to that of new homelands in Persia, the Caucusus, and Anatolia, the music of a people who remained culturally intact and itinerant until the twentieth century has become seriously in danger of disappearance. It is the effort of Turku to preserve the overwhelming musical history that united a people through fifteen centuries across vast territories in the spirited rendition of their traditional folk music.

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Jenece Gerber is a perpetual student of culture, religion and music, with a BA in ethnomusicology from Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, Ohio USA. An avid composer, Ms. Gerber writes from her musical travels in the context of sociocultural realities and dreams. She is the winner of the 1995 Music Teachers National Association student composition competition for her work employing the Indonesian flute (suling). Ms. Gerber is also soon to have a work entitled The Night of Brahm published by Earnestly Music.