Clapping

Out of chaos, the universe emerged, and from chaos a person can emerge, too. Kristine Leschper isn’t being hyperbolic when she describes a sensation of “being born” when a culmination of events, both personal and global, catalyzed in her “an understanding of how to relinquish control in a big way, and from that, a new sense of connectedness, transition, and impermanence.” She explains her desire to cultivate work in the spirit of the New World Poets, where in the words of June Jordan there exists “a reverence for the material world that begins with a reverence for human life, an intellectual trust in sensuality as a means of knowledge and of unity.”…

Chano Dominguez, based in Cadiz, Spain, is a powerful pianist and gifted composer who brings jazz and flamenco together in this exciting, innovative CD. Dominguez weaves jazz lines and harmony with the varied rhythms of flamenco, from its lighter styles of tango and buleria to the darker, bluesy seguirilla and solea, and beautifully integrates the fiery percussion of clapping and dancing with bebop (it's a bit hard to imagine, but an absolute delight to hear). He does amazing things with two jazz classics: Bill Evans' "Turn out the Stars" becomes a stunning flamenco waltz with a great bass solo by Javier Colina, and Thelonious Monk's "Bemsha Swing" is a startling tour de force where the piano is accompanied only by dancing and clapping; Monk would've loved it.

Band on the Run is generally considered to be Paul McCartney's strongest solo effort. The album was also his most commercially successful, selling well and spawning two hit singles, the multi-part pop suite of the title track and the roaring rocker "Jet." On these cuts and elsewhere, McCartney's penchant for sophisticated, nuanced arrangements and irrepressibly catchy melodic hooks is up to the caliber he displayed in the Beatles, far surpassing the first two Wings releases, Wild Life and Red Rose Speedway…