New Age or Old Age?

Roy,
Have a look at the following

http://www.allmusic.com/

then follow the button marked as "new age",Should give you a few ideas.

Chris

Chris, many thanks for a very good link.

I now have more ideas than money, am I blessed or cursed?

Largely, "new age" is a marketing term that is convenient for a shorthand, superficial description of a particular stream of music but is inadequate in dealing with the deeper substance. And, as in pretty much any genre or category, there is the good and the bad.

In my not so humble opinion, some of the very best practitioners of what is commonly called "new age" are Mark Isham, Phil Aaberg, Michael Hedges, Alex DeGrassi, to name a few.

There are those who might term a group like Oregon (and its members Ralph Towner, Paul McCandless, Glen Moore, and founding percussionist Colin Walcott) "new age" but they are really so much more than that, making some of the best music of any kind ever to exist in this world. The same can be said for several brilliant artists on the ECM label: Eberhard Weber, Terje Rypdal, Rainer Bruninghaus, to name a few.

Finally, the vestigial self-promoter in me would be disappointed if I didn't mention my own music on labels like Windham Hill, Narada, Columbia, and this here Naim Audio label as well. Some folks seem to dig it quite a bit.

Roy,

At the moment,I seem to be meandering down this "New Age" path myself,well,the Solo Instrumental stuff at any rate.

I really do enjoy the acoustic guitar artists,and looking at my "cd's to purchase shopping list",I see that the majority fall into this catagory.
(I used to play guitar many many years ago....very badly,it must be said,but on the couple of occasions that i appeared out in public,at least i never got Boo'd off stage,although thinking back,some chicken wire mesh wouldn't have gone amis.:-)

Listening to the likes of Michael Hedges,Pierre Bensusan,Isaac Guillory etc makes me realise that 1. I am not a natural and 2. they have proberbly fogotten more about the guitar than i could ever learn !

But so many possible avenues to explore ! Should keep me busy for some time.( looking forward to it).

Fred,

Your description of the new age genre is spot on and you put it far more eloquently that I could.

Regards

Chris

No sooner had I asked about New Age music then up pops help on the forum and names from the past seem to surface all over the place. Winston was the person that made me realise that the piano could do "modern".

If you like the piano then give him a go, "Autumn" & "Winter Into Spring" are two that I quite like.

Star Telegram 02-07-2003 Winston puts something new in New Age

I'm pleased to see George Winston mentioned here. He was at the forefront of some pretty bad music back in those days, but I've always enjoyed what he did personally.

I also always enjoyed seeing him live; being a local SF Bay Area boy, he's even played twice at a lecture hall in my university. He's a truly nice man who enjoys playing and talking to the audience.

In the second concert I saw, he handed out his trascription of Vince Guaraldi's "Linus and Lucy" (from the "Peanuts" TV cartoons) because the official transcriptions were out of print; he was hoping that the copyright holders would take notice and reprint them.

He was the flagship artist for the Windham Hill label back in the 80's (though Michael Hedges deservedly received more critical recognition). It's too bad that the label was diluted with acts like Nightnoise.

A digression - my recommendation for an album that best encapsulates what I feel is good about the genre is Narada's Origins - The Early Years of New Age. In particular, it's the only recording out there that has Jordan de la Sierra's brilliant "Song of the Rose".

Cheers

Keith.

quote:

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Originally posted by Roy T:

If you like the piano then give him a go, "Autumn" & "Winter Into Spring" are two that I quite like.

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THose are fun albums; but I recommend December even more. He moves away a little from the constant arpeggios that permeated his first two and a little more towards deep chords (whatever that means). His variations of "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring" and Pachelbel's "Kanon" are wonderful, and the first piece, "Thanksgiving" is soul-stirring.

I'm still giggling over the fact that the AMG review (see the above link) calls it "The mother of all solo instrumental albums".

I haven't had the guts to pick up his Doors CD yet. It just sounds like might be a musical train wreck; I await forthcoming excellent reviews before I have the cojones to buy it.

Finally, major kudos to George for his work in promoting Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar; in fact, these offerings make up a vast majority of his Dancing Cat label. If you haven't heard this wonderful version of island folk music, you haven't lived.

Which reminds me - I need to find our copy of The New Testament translated into Hawaiian Pidgin...

Cheers

Keith.