ETTORE SALATI

This month's Artist in Spotlight is Ettore Salati from Italy. Ettore is a sought after session guitarist by many prog musicians not just in Italy but all around the world. He started playing piano at a very young age (mostly classical music) but when he became a teenager and discovered the world of Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Genesis and 70's rock in general, he was immediately fascinated by guitar... more

KAT EPPLE (Emerald Web)

KAT EPPLE, flautist and composer, is our interview guest this month. She has won 8 Emmy awards, was nominated for a Grammy and she has released 18 albums internationally. Most of you know her as the other half of the legendary ambient/new age duo EMERALD WEB. She has a very large collection (over 200) of flutes that she gathered from all around the world during her travels. Kat composes original New Age/Jazz/World/orchestral music and has produced film scores and television soundtracks for National Geographic, Nova, CNN, Carl Sagan, Another World, The Travel Channel, Turner Broadcasting System, History Channel, HGN, The Guiding Light, PBS, and NASA among others, and was Music Director for the feature-length film, Captiva Island. She also owns a record company and works on both sides of the music industry as a musician and as a business woman... more

New Grass Revival / On The Boulevard

New Grass Revival are one of the pioneers of progressive bluegrass. Formed in 1971 by Sam Bush (mandolin/vocals), Curtis Burch (guitar), Ebo Walker (bass) and Courtney Johnson (banjo), they immediately got the attention from the industry both in a good and bad way. First of all, they were often told that their music was not bluegrass, and they knew it wasn’t “bluegrass” in its traditional sense, and it wasn’t what they were trying to achieve anyways. They were blending rock, soul and blues rhythms with the traditional bluegrass music. They were not wearing suites, but instead they had a more casual style along with long hair... more

UMPHREY'S MCGEE / LIVE AT THE MURAT

Umphrey’s McGee is a Chicago based six-piece band. Their music reflects a wide range of different progressive approaches like Frank Zappa, King Crimson, Pink Floyd, Alan Parsons; and jazz touches from Miles Davis and Spyro Gyra. The band has been around for over ten years now with 4 studio albums. Band members are: Brendan Bayliss (guitar, vocals), Jake Cinninger (guitar, vocals), Joel Cummins (keyboards, vocals), Andy Farag (percussion), Kris Myers (drums, vocals) and Ryan Stasik (bass).

Live at the Murat was recorded on two consecutive nights: April 6th and 7th of 2007 in Indianapolis, IN. All songs are handpicked by the band, and put on a two CD set that runs over 2 hours. The sound quality of the recording is very good and the participation of the audience is remarkable. The first disc has 11 songs. First 4 are especially interesting: “In The Kitchen” with an acoustic structure for the opening, followed by two improvisational songs, first one is acoustic and the second one is electric. “In The Kitchen” then comes back with its electric structure to end this fiesta.

"Higgins" is a very interesting song where the band shows their experimental side with sudden moves from one genre to another: The intro reminds me of The Police with jazzy reggae sound mixed with rock, but it only lasts for a short time when they switch to a more psychedelic almost Pink Floyd kind of sound. And this again becomes later a crazier Zappa like music.

There are two other outstanding songs on this CD: "Nothing Too Fancy", with its interesting time changes and "Eat", with the King Crimson taste. The second CD is more like a jazz rock fusion. Especially "The Triple Wide" and "Angular Momentum". “Push The Pig” is yet another great song. Although this is a first official live release of the band, they have various live albums you can find, (check their website). These guys obviously love live performances because they love to improvise and they know how to draw the audience in, which is a very important detail to keep the energy up in order to interact. Each song is a puzzle with totally different pieces, and it all comes together to create a beautiful picture

HANDE BURDG