Today I posted another piece for my student jazz album, Rubber, Meet Road. I really enjoy writing these short pieces. It's very satisfying to begin and end a project in a relatively short period of time. They're also fun to play.

On a personal note, it's good to get back into a working rhythm. We travelled a lot this summer and just returned from our latest trip this past Friday. Anyway, no more trips planned for a while (at least until October). Now I can finally start checking things off of my to-do list.

One of the recordings that I'm digitizing is of a New Guinea musician known as Blasius to Una. He even has a (very) short Wikipedia entry (here). He seems to be a bit of a character. He sings and speaks in Pidgin, so sometimes English words pop up in his music. He also is quite fond of talking in the middle of his songs--very much like an American folk musician might make jokes and talk as a part of his performance.

Anyway, his songs are a bit more "Westernized", if I may use that term. Here's one that I particularly like titled "Kunai Dumdum".

My aunt and uncle deal in art from New Guinea (link to their website), and recently they have asked me to digitize some New Guinea music that they have collected on cassette tapes. This process requires that I listen to the recordings several times as I first digitize the music and then edit it. It's pretty neat stuff; sometimes strange, sometimes beautiful. All of it evokes a culture very different from our own. Listening to this makes me appreciate the study of ethnic music a lot more (I have a friend who is an ethnomusicologist).

Anyway, I'm including two tracks here. As I continue to finish the editing of the material (several hours worth) I may post more.