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Arabic and North African music has had a profound influence on jazz and improvised music in Europe. The use of microtones, polyrhythms, and improvisational techniques from these traditions has enriched and expanded the possibilities of jazz, creating a new and exciting sound that is both familiar and exotic. One of the earliest examples can be found in the work of American saxophonist Coleman Hawkins. In the 1930s, Hawkins began to incorporate elements of Arabic music into his playing, creating a new and innovative sound that was unlike anything that had come before it. Hawkins's influence can be heard in the work of many other jazz musicians, including Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, and Ornette Coleman. In the 1950s, a new wave of jazz musicians began to explore the influence of Arabic and North African music in even greater depth. These musicians, such as Don Cherry, Yusef Lateef, and Archie Shepp, were drawn to the spiritual and mystical qualities of this music, and they incorporated its sounds and rhythms into their own work. The music of these musicians helped to broaden the appeal of jazz and to make it more accessible to a wider audience. In recent years, the influence of Arabic and North African music on jazz has continued to grow. Today, there are many jazz musicians who are exploring the possibilities of this music, and there is a thriving scene for Arabic and North African jazz in Europe. This music is now more accessible than ever before, and it is sure to continue to influence and inspire jazz musicians for years to come. Don Cherry - Orient (1957) Ahmed Abdul-Malik - East Meets West (1959) Yusef Lateef - Eastern Sounds (1961) Wayne Shorter - Night Dreamer (1964) Joe Harriott - Free Form (1969) Muhal Richard Abrams - Levels (1977) Rabih Abou-Khalil - Blue Camel (1992) Rabih Abou-Khalil - The Cactus of Knowledge (2001) Dhafer Youssef - Digital Prophecy (2003) Salah Ragab, The Egyptian Jazz Band - Egyptian Jazz (2006) Ibrahim Maalouf - Diasporas (2007) Anouar Brahem - The Astounding Eyes of Rita (2008) Anouar Brahem - Blue Maqam (2019) Majid Bekkas, Joachim Kuhn, Ramon Lopez - Chalabe (2011) Omar Sosa - Alma (2013) Yasmine Hamden - Ya Nass (2013) Yazz Ahmed - Polyhymnia (2019) Natacha Atlas - Strange Days (2019) LINK TO PLAYLIST This is just a small sample of the many great albums that have been influenced by Arabic and North African music. If you are interested in exploring this music further, I encourage you to check out these albums and others like them. You won't be disappointed.

This article from The Conversation sheds light on a mystery - why many people's musical tastebuds seem to be cauterized at the end of their teens; whose default seems to become Regurgitator's 1997 refrain " I like your old stuff better than your new stuff ". This phenomenon may benefit many performers, allowing them to sing their hits into their dotage, on the Winery Tour and Festival Circuits, but (as I hope shows out in our monthly and annual playlists on SunNeverSetsOnMusic), there's more good NEW music around now, than ever before. Some of it is even from the very artists who we listened to in our teens, who've moved on to richer, new artistic fields. To counter Regurgitator's philosophy we suggest adopt the more up to date stance of Alabaster DePlume, one favourite new artists of 2022 - " I will not be safe ".

"Faith Hope and Carnage" (Canongate Books, Sept 2022) captures the intimate exchanges between Australian singer, songwriter, author, sculptor Nick Cave and Irish journalist Sean O'Hagan, culled from nearly 40 hours of phone conversations that took place during lockdown, between August 2020 and the summer of 2021. Cave openly discusses his grief following the tragic accidental death of his young son Arthur in 2015 and the transformative influence this has had on his personal life, his work and his relationships. The Guardian called it "a lament, a celebration, a howl, a secular prayer, a call to arms, a meditation and an exquisite articulation of the human condition. It will take your breath away." I recommend listening to the Audiobook version, spoken by Cave and O'Hagen themselves. Running to 8 hours and 37 minutes of intense dialogue, this is an "in-depth interview" like no other!

He describes himself as "composer, producer, multi-instrumentalist and vocalist" but perhaps the Australian didgeridoo master William Barton's greatest attribute is his collaborative spirit. I've compiled a playlist of half a dozen of his albums, but his entire catalogue is extraordinary and worth getting lost within. And most remarkably in his hands, he demonstrates how the didgeridoo adds a timeless depth, bass resonance and bite to orchestral music, like no other acoustic instrument. In Collaboration 2004 - Songs of Sea and Sky with composer Peter Sculthorpe, Michael Christie and the Queensland Orchestra) 2004 Earth Cry / Piano Concerto with composer Peter Sculthorpe , Tamara Anna Cislowska, New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and James Judd 2006 Sculthorpe: Requium with composer Peter Sculthorpe, Adelaide Chamber Singers, Adelaide Symphony Orchestra 2007 O'Boyle: Riversymphony with composer Sean O'Boyle, Queensland Symphony Orchestra 2007 Ancient Souls, Ancient Land with composer Sean O'Boyle 2010 Desert Stars Dancing with guitarist and composer Anthony Garcia 2012 Kalkadungu - Music for Didjeridu And Orchestra with composers Richard Gill and Peter Sculthorpe, poet Judith Wright, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Queensland Symphony Orchestra, Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, and others 2015 The Art of the Didgeridoo with dancer (Bangarra Dance Company) and composer Matthew Doyle 2016 Dreamtime with classical guitarist, Wilfin Lieske 2019 Time For Calm, Vol. 2 with classical guitarist, Steve Allen 2021 Restless Dream with Kamileroi elder, Bob Weatherall & Brisbane band, Halfway 2022 Heartland with violinist, Véronique Serret 2022 History Has a Heartbeat with luthier, Joseph Tawadros Solo Works 2004 The Journey 2014 Birdsong At Dusk

On his new album, Jose James pays homage to Arykah Badu and Alice Coltrane, by reworking seven of the former's classic songs and replicating the album artwork from one of the latter's most important releases. Jose James' January 2023 release "On & On" pays homage to Erykah Badu, revisiting seven of her most outstanding songs, from all stages of her career, re-presenting them in his very own style, while remaining faithful to the originals. He is supported on this project by a truly exceptional young group of musicians: Big Yuki (Fender Rhodes and Hammond), Ebban Dorsey (alto), Diana Dzhabbar (flute and alto). Ben Williams (bass). In addition, James uses the album cover artwork to pay homage to the great Alice Coltrane: the cover photograph and typology replicates the cover of Coltrane's increasingly influential 1967 releas e " Journey in Satchidananda ". Wher eas Coltrane credited tenor saxophonist, the late, Pharoah Sanders on her cover, James credits rising saxophonists Dorsey and Dzhabbar. We're sure that if you loved Erykah Badu's original works, you will love Jose James' covers just as much. So we created a playlist that runs them side by side and finishes of with the Alice Coltrane's "Journey", for good measure!

History isn't only written in the pages of library books or captured on film or in documentaries - it also lives and breathes in song. Here is a selection of songs of hope and resistance, to mark Black History Month. Sampa The Great - Freedom What's Going On - Marvin Gaye (1971) Nina Simone - I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free (1967) Curtis Mayfield - People Get Ready (2001) The Last Poets - When The Revolution Comes Gil Scott-Heron - The Revolution Will Not Be Televised Melba Moore - Lift Every Voice and Sing (1990) Andra Day - Rise Up (2015) James Brown - Say It Loud ... I'm Black and I'm Proud (1968) Bob Marley - Redemption Song (1980) Bob Marley - Get Up, Stand Up (1973) Nina Simone - Mississippi Goddam (1964) Sam Cooke - A Change Is Gonna Come (1963) Billie Holliday Strange Fruit (19 ) D'Angelo - The Charade (2015) Fela Kuti - Zombie (1977 ) Beyonce - Freedon (feat. Kendrick Lamar) (2016) Cynthia Erivo - Stand Up (2019) Bill Withers - Grandma's Hands (1971) The Full Playlist

Like everything Dylan, I find that The Philosophy of Modern Song is all-at-once exhilarating, surprising, illuminating, crafty and flawed - and I'm loving every word of it! Dylan makes over 60 selections from the American songbook, ranging far and wide in his choices. Some you know every word. Some you never heard before. Some you may hate to bits. But if you're anything like me, you will thoroughly enjoy his take on each one, nevertheless. He polishes each entry in two passes. First, to re-create the narrative of the song in the acerbic, witty Dylan-prose longtime fans will be familiar with from previous efforts, particularly Theme Time Radio Hour and his autobiography, Chronicles Vol. 1. Second, to conjure a little essay - a couple hundred words - that places each song in it's cultural, musical and historical context. Covering a diverse selection of artists that range from Stephen Foster to The Clash and Marty Robbins to The Platters, he embellishes each description with little known facts and curiosities (some so fabulous that, given his long-practiced penchant for mischief, I even wondered if he made parts of this up!). Finally, this whole marvellous collection is illuminated by dozens of fabulous photographs and formatted within folksy graphical frames that give the package a bit of retro feel, an embellishment that the volume didn't really need, in my opinion. There's an audiobook version too, which may be just as good, if not better - narrated by an all-star lineup including Dylan, Jeff Bridges, Steve Buscemi, John Goodman, Oscar Isaac, Helen Mirren, Rita Moreno, Sissy Spacek, Alfre Woodard, Jeffrey Wright, and Renée Zellweger! The Philosophy of Modern Song by Bob Dylan Publisher Simon & Schuster Publication date November 1, 2022 Pages 352 ISBN 978-139851941 Here's the playlist! https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7oK3UXsHYmC3PYGQFY5IOb?si=0562ca8ff0574829

If you are fortunate enough to live in a Muslim country for awhile, the Call To Prayer, repeated five times a day, becomes part of everyday life. Sometimes you hear a recorded version and you continue about your routine. At others, you may be treated to a live performance, amplified from the nearest minaret: sometimes, so beautifully performed that you're compelled to stop and listen. Tunisian oud master Dhafer Youssef has one of those voices and for his 10th studio album Street of Minarets - which is the first album in SunNeverASetsOnMusic's imminent January 2023 Playlist - he is joined by musical icons including Herbie Hancock, Dave Holland, Marcus Miller, and Ambrose Akinmusire. But it is his angelic vocals that are the highlight, alongside his inspired embrace of Indian, Arabic and Western classical music and jazz music.

What a wonderful musician and performance!

Welcome to the new year - better than the old year! SunNeverSetsOnMusic - new and innovative music from around the world in 2023! Since SunNeverSetsOnMusic began, our primary focus has been our monthly review of (mostly) new and innovative albums. This was a way to index the music we'd been streaming, in a more interactive and attractive format than the streaming services' playlists offered - like the display wall at a record store. Our format has evolved over time. We began by posting the cover art in a simple grid, with Spotify links to each album. Later, we added album reviews (mostly by others and with links to the original source), the recording label, the release date and a one-to-five star rating. This year, we hope that the addition of our new blog will add a more personable and expansive element to the site and allow us to post more frequently. We will also revert to displaying the albums as just a grid, with just a link to external reviews, rather than including the review itself. Our YouTube channel is unchanged. We hope you find that these changes are for the better! So click on!! And (most of all) - enjoy the music! SNSOM This will bring a Smile! Even though there's any number of The Smile's live shows appearing on YouTube, that better represent their in-full-flight power & range, this little performance at NPR's Tiny Desk is charming - especially as it includes Thom's awkward, self-deprecating mid-show reference to the day's sartorial choice. SNSOM