Last week I decided to create a playlist for one of my runs using music from four of my favorite acoustic guitarists. Two are solo Nuevo Flamenco guitarists and two are duos. The solo artists are Jesse Cook and Ottmar Liebert and the duos are Rodrigo y Gabriela and Terra Guitarra.
R. Carlos Nakai‘s music leads off and ends this playlist. He is my favorite Native American flute player. The three albums that I have taken tracks from are among my favorites. They have all been soundtracks for yoga exercising and also helped to keep me sane during stressful times at work. What I really like about Nakai’s music is that he is alwaus changing things up. Some albums are solo, some are with Will Clipman and William Eaton. I have several of the albums that he recorded with pianist Peter Kater.
So Wednesday my granddaughter Zoe and I ran some errands. The trip included: Walmart, the library and Lowe’s. For the trip to the library was an album that ‘i picked up at the Princeton Record Exchange a while back. It is a compilation album of tracks from albums that Jimmy Smith recorded on the Milestone label, during his brief tenure with the label. The album is titled Milestone Profiles: Jimmy Smith.
Woo! Hoo! Today is the Winter Solstice!! That of course means, today is either the shortest day of the year or the longest night! I prefer to look at it as the shortest day and from here until the Summer Solstice the days keep getting longer!! I used to hate it when it was dark when I went to work in the morning and again when I came home in the evening.
Over the last several weeks, the soundtrack for my morning meditation has been Resonance from New Age pianist Peter Kater. Resonance is Peter ‘s latest release. I think that it is one of his best albums. Several years ago, I discovered the Native American flute of R Carlos Nakai. Soon after that discovery I found the music of Peter Kater through his many collaborations with R Carlos. Many of the albums that they recorded together can be found in my music library. Through his work with R Carlos Nakai Kater developed a love and appreciation for the earth and indigenous cultures. This inspired him to invite more indigenous artist to work with him on various projects. The artists he invited include: Joanne Shenandoah, Bill Miller, Rita Coolidge, Robert Mirabel, Joseph Firecrow, Marty Youngblood, Douglas Blue Feather, Kevin Locke, Jorge Alfano and Ara Tokatlian..
Over the last week I have continued to do movement yoga for 5 to 10 minutes at the beginning of my morning yoga routine. It seems to get me both moving and grounded at the same time. I have used a few different albums. The first one was Immortelle by Deuter and most recently Marika Takeuchi’s Colors in the Diary. For several days in between those two albums, I used Holland Phillip’s most recent release Circles of 8. Since most of my body and arm movements are movements are figure eights, I thought the album would fit perfectly and it does.
