Music Favorites from Tom Cole

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PUSHING THE BOUNDARIES
- Musical Favorites from NPR's Tom Cole

By Christopher M. Wright
© 2008 Christopher M. Wright
All Rights Reserved

Tom Cole's priorities have always been very clear. An award-winning arts editor for NPR (National Public Radio), Tom has been hosting his own weekly 3-hour music program, G Strings, since 1977. The show airs Sunday mornings on listener-supported WPFW-FM in Washington, D.C.

"I've always bought records," Tom says. "I was buying records before I had a record player of my own. I'd take them over to friends' houses so I could hear them." When he was 16, his dad offered to help him buy a car. "The heck with a car," he remembers saying, "I want a real stereo."

Tom worked in college radio, then got his start with WPFW because he had a broadcast engineering license from the FCC. He engineered children's programs and a blues show on Saturday mornings. Eventually, a programming slot opened up on Sunday mornings and G Strings was born. On the show, he shares his musical finds with his audience in bebop jazz and beyond. Some of his best discoveries come from loyal listeners and Tom very much likes the idea that the discovery process is a two-way street.

AIM asked Tom for some of his recent favorites off the beaten track. Tom's selections are mostly European and jazz-tinged, with some contemporary classical guitar to round things out. If that sounds adventurous, it's meant to be. "A lot of mainstream jazz is hewing to tradition in a way that's not really good for the music," Tom says. "Jazz from the beginning was all about pushing the boundaries. Listeners can't stay in the same place, I know I can't."

Mário Delgado - Portuguese guitarist
"a more compositional approach.... less about everybody taking a solo" - Tom

Recommended Album - Filactera

Recommended Track - "I'm a Poor Lonesome Cowboy"

Denis Colin & Les Arpenteurs
"wonderful French bass clarinetist..." - Tom

Recommended Album - etude de terrain

Recommended Track - Par Cheminement

The CD is on Amazon-France -
http://www.amazon.fr/etude-terrain-denis-colin-arpenteurs/dp/B000A0FJVA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1218138622&sr=1-1

Simone Guiducci - Italian guitarist

Recommended Album - Dancin' Roots ("a very cool record..." - Tom)

Recommended Track - Gramelot Dance

Renaud Garcia-Fons - bassist * AIM pick *

"Interesting group - two basses, an accordion, and drums... rhythmically interesting, a little different...." - Tom

Recommended Album - Alboreá

Recommended Track - Al Camarón

El Niño Josele - Spanish flamenco guitarist

"This is one of my favorite records of 2007, a tribute to [jazz legend] Bill Evans.... it's really neat to hear the sensitivity [Josele] has because usually you associate a lot of flamenco music with just burning a lot of hot-licks and he's just very different." - Tom

Recommended Album - Paz

Recommended Track - The Peacocks

Roswell Rudd - American trombone player

"This one is all African musicians.... lots of times, these collaborations don't work but this one's just really successful...." - Tom

Recommended Album - Malicool

Recommended Tracks - Bamako

Aquiles Baez

Recommended Album - Patilla

Recommended Tracks - A San Benito

Sample El trompo enrollao on the artist's label page -

http://www.cacaomusica.com/home.html

Nicolás 'Colacho' Brizuela - * AIM pick *

"An Argentine tango guitarist who uses classical technique with jazz improvisation." -Tom

Quique Sinesi -
"a serious composer for classical guitar" -Tom

Recommended Album - Cuentos de un Pueblo Escondido

Recommended Tracks - Candombe Del Arco Iris, Voces Tempranas