MUSIC REVIEWS
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Ron Rudin
DJs under the name DJ Rovnitsky. Ron also runs a free-style community dance at Balanced Movement Studio in Carrboro on the first and third Friday of every month. He also teaches tennis professionally. He welcomes any music/review feedback and recommendations at rondancenow@mindspring.com or (919) 929-7325.
Cherie Lassiter
lives in Raleigh, NC . She has been a practicing psychic and priestess for 15 years. She offers readings and classes and works at Dancing Moon Bookstore. Cherie has also been a musician all her life. Her CD, HeartShadows, is a local and international success. To view her performance schedule or hear her music, visit CherieLassiter.com. You can also contact her at Cheriefaery@Gmail.com or (919) 349-2593.
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New Reviews:
Poeta by Al Conti
dance:dream:dance by Shaman’s Dream
Flow of Grace by Krishna Das
Online Exclusive Music Reviews Previous Reviews (includes Online Exclusives)
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Poeta
by Al Conti
www.alconti.net
Be still my heart. From the first track of Poeta by artist Al Conti, I was transported, swept away and totally enchanted. Multi-faceted musician, Conti includes piano, guitar, sitar, strings and a touch of haunting vocal to his latest work.
A man with a muse, Al conveys through his music a sense of
love, longing, passion, and peace that speaks to the heart and soul. In track one, “Quest for Orpheus,” you join Orpheus on a quest to retrieve his lost love. Lose yourself in track 7, “Abstract Desire,” and find adventure with track 2, “Dreams of Illiad.”
If you are a hopeless romantic listening, to Poeta will render you hopeful, and if you have forgotten dreams tucked away in your heart, Al Conti will find them and bring them back out into the light.
Originally from Argentina and the son of a poet and a ballerina, romance and poetry are as natural as breathing to this artist who was surrounded by music, literature and art his whole life.
This music is a great accompaniment to healing, meditation, massage, or just pure romance. I look forward to hearing more from this gentle, yet powerful, artist.
~ Review by Cherie Lassiter
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dance:dream:dance
by Shaman’s Dream
soundstrue.com
shamansdreammusic.com
Prior to hearing dance:dream:dance, I heard the Shaman’s Dream track “Brasileiro” and ranked it among my all-time favorite trip-hop dance songs. It also appears on Nataraja, which I reviewed in November 2006. When dance:dream:dance came into my life to review, I immediately thought: “The best first impression of an album I have ever had.” And this has become, for me, a fully embodied feeling of complete satisfaction with a collection of music. The music has been inspired in part by Micheline Berry who is a producer, dancer, yoga instructor, and the creative director of Shaman’s Dream World Groove Ensemble and Zen Dancing. She has led over four hundred ecstatic dance and world music journeys since 1996. This world fusion album is the answer to the ecstatic dancer’s dream for music. Now a reality, the dancer, the yoga/movement practitioner, the meditator, and the curious listener have dance:dream:dance to behold and enjoy.
I am going to break with my own need to be “original” in my writing and quote a product description, which goes right to the heart of the music, better than I can express at this time. “Global-groove artists Rara Avis, Amani Friend, Jason Hann, Craig Kohland, and Micheline Berry take you on a world ethnotronica odyssey that will sweep you up in a wave of trance dance and dreamtime ecstasy. Marked by the evocative indigenous sounds and deep visionary grooves that have become the signature of Shaman’s Dream, dance:dream:dance offers a cross-pollination of musical dance cultures and ambient soundscapes blended with hot electronic dance beats.” I’m tempted to say “you can’t help but dance”, but that seems restrictive.
No verbal accolades (“best ever”) will have the same effect as listening/dancing to the music. Curious about what instruments are played? Amani Friend and Rara Avis composed and produced most the music along with others. In addition to the “electronica” we have featured vocals, djembe, bass, trumpet, Indian female vocals, drums, percussion, Taos flute, and oud. We have tracks with such titles: “The Dreamtime Returns”, “Pranayamystic”, “Love the World Awake”, and “Liquid Experience”. Dance:dream:dance. Recommended highly.
~ Review by Ron Rudin
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Flow of Grace
by Krishna Das
soundstrue.com
krishnadas.com
The Hanuman Chalisa is one of India’s most sacred songs of devotion. Krishna Das offers 6 versions of the 40 lyrical verses of praise to Hanuman the “monkey god, ” the deity known as the pinnacle of bhakti (devotion) and the remover of fears. “It is said that just by chanting these powerful Sanskrit words, you will gain strength and confidence, and be filled with divine energy.” I have benefited many times from chanting/dancing to Krishna Das’ music, but consider myself inexperienced with this particular approach to chanting. For those readers who follow the path of chanting or those who wish to newly explore these traditions, here is a great opportunity. You can listen to Krishna Das sing each line of verse and respond by singing the repetitive chorus.
The depth of understanding presented by Krishna Das in Flow of Grace needs to be experienced, although some will find it of “academic” interest as well. Before writing this review, I met with Jon Seskevich, who runs Flying Monkey Workshops and has sponsored Krishna Das in concert in Raleigh. John (and myself) first heard Krishna Das in 1973 when he appeared on Ram Das’ Love Serve Remember records and in-person with Ram Das. Krishna Das is perhaps the best known American singer of Indian kirtan-style devotional music. On his 11 plus albums, the quality of his singing, his music, and devotional connection make it easy to recommend Flow of Grace and all of his music.
John told me that the Hanuman Chalisa is a Mahamantra. “Every line of the Chalisa has the power of the greatest mantra of all – Hari Krishna.” John has practiced chanting all 40 verses for 6 minutes a day for several years. Effort and dedication are required, especially to learn the Hindi pronunciation. Hanuman, John told me, plays a similar role as the Holy Spirit in Christian tradition. But, don’t take my word for it. With Flow of Grace, you get a 28-page guide and a second CD which provides a pronunciation guide, a transliteration of the 40 verses, and translation of the entire Hanuman Chalisa. With the booklet and CD2, you can learn to sing along or chant quietly without singing. Or you may wish to simply listen.
I leave you with verses 32 and 33: “You (Hanuman) hold the elixir of Ram’s name and remain eternally His servant. Singing your praise, one finds Ram and the sorrows of countless lives are destroyed.”
If you’d like to contact John Seskovich (Durham, NC) to get more involved in community “Universal Chanting,” email ram1008@hotmail.com or visit www.flyingmonkey.ws.
~ Review by Ron Rudin
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