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Mariza, Queen of the Fado
SONG SUNG BLUE Fado star Mariza IF YOU LOOK CLOSELY, the narrow alleyways of Lisbon are lined with ancient fado houses — quaint clubs with blue-tiled walls where locals listen to the melancholy,...
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Beyond Babylon
CHRIS BLACKWELL was a 22-year-old waterskiing instructor at the Half Moon Resort in Montego Bay, Jamaica, when he got the idea to record a blind cocktail pianist who performed in the hotel bar. “I was...
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Barn Burner
IT’S NOT EASY TO FIND Levon Helm’s farm, up a mountain road that twists through pine and hemlock forests a couple of miles outside Woodstock, New York. There are no street lights, no route markers....
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Scarlett Fever
The idea of Recording an album of duets with Scarlett Johansson came to Pete Yorn like a bolt of lightning. It happened during an afternoon nap and started with crooner Serge Gainsbourg and Brigitte...
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The Early Riser
SHOWBIZ MYTH NO. 3: Rock stars don’t keep the same hours as the rest of us. Mythbuster? It’s just shy of 2 p.m. in bucolic upstate New York, and bassist/singer/songwriter Meshell Ndegeocello is...
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Bridging the Persian Gulf
HAFEZ NAZERI takes the idea of cultural fusion very seriously. The 30-year-old Iranian composer-who brings his modern version of Persian classical song to Carnegie Hall on November 14, becoming the...
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Do You Hear What I Hear?
HOLIDAY MUSIC OFTEN gets a bad rap, and Bob Dylan’s recent surreal croaker, Christmas in the Heart, isn’t likely to change that (though the royalties go to charity, which is a plus). Nor will the new...
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Weekend Update
THE FOUR IVY LEAGUERS in Vampire Weekend know people want to dislike them. They’re making the rock star thing look too easy. A year before their self-titled debut was released in 2008, when they were...
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Mind Games
Image – Courtesy of Paul Jasmin SITTING IN HER SUN-FILLED LOFT in Paris, willowy, dark-eyed, 38-year-old Charlotte Gainsbourg is happy to have a little quiet time. It’s been a hard year. “I would even...
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Border Crossing
THE CHIEFTAINS TEND to make friends wherever they go. In a career that now spans 48 years, Ireland’s premier traditional band has not only exported the folk songs of the Emerald Isle all over the...
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The Fugitive
Image – Marc Morrison / Retna “EVER SINCE I WAS a very young boy, I always enjoyed trying to put thoughts into rhythm and rhyme,” says Merle Haggard. “I do it for fun. I don’t put pressure on myself—I...
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Keeping It Simple
Image – Kevin Westenberg SINCE THE RELEASE of his last album, in 2007, Rufus Wainwright has written and staged an opera, recreated Judy Garland’s legendary 1961 concert at Carnegie Hall and faced the...
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