Indaba

Volume Three is another eclectic sampling of vintage "ethnic" recordings taken from the storerooms at The Secret Museum of Mankind. A Rhodesian hymn of praise precedes a 1948 recording of an Uzbeki diva, while the serpentine melodic lines of a Greek clarinetist follows the contemplative resonance of a 1939 solo performance on the Chinese qin or chin (a plucked zither). Though one may think that the enormous musical breath of the CD might make listening to it a scattered and unsatisfactory experience, this is not the case. The historical context within these works presented – worldwide recordings made between 1925 and 1948 – give this and the other Secret Museum works a cohesion that allows for disparate musical examples to be placed side by side. All in all, this CD gives the listener a window into another time, when recording technology was young and Western popular music had not invaded every corner of the globe.

Using his touring band, which included keyboard player Mike Finnigan and guitarist Jim Krueger,