Since Christmas has been over the house has been filled with the wonderful “Tropical Breezes” mix I created a couple of years ago, then seriously augmented with lots of Cuban music last year. Not only does its laid-back attitude provide a soothing respite from a hard day at work, it conjures up thoughts of exotic places. Amazing what a combination of Caribbean steel drum, folk, exotica, reggae, samba, cha-cham, folk, soft rock, jazz, easy listening, guajira, mambo, and salsa can do for the soul! You can check any of these artists out on the Internet, they’re all great:
Alfred St. John’s Trinidad Tobago Steel Band
Antonio Carlos Jobim
Astrud Gilberto
Bob Marley
Cachao (currently a huge favorite!)
Chris Isaak
David Shelley, Doug Walker, Greg MacDonald,
Jason Roseman, Kent Arnsbarger, Robert Symons (steel drum artists)
Desi Arnaz Orchestra
Gary McFarland
Harry Belafonte
Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass
Ibrahim Ferrer (another new fave!)
Jamaican Steel Band
Jimmy Buffett (lots!)
John Blakeley & Ron Nagle
Johnny Nash
Kenny Chesney
Larry Hall
Lifescapes Collection – Caribbean
Los Jets
Mambo All-Stars Orchestra
Marimba Chiapas (from Guatemala, no less!)
Martini Kings
Mongo Santamaria
Noro Moralez
Perez Prado and his Orchestra
Ralph Robles Octet
Ramone Stagnaro (I’m a big fave – check him out)
Reggae Beat
Sergio Mendes & Brasil ’66
Stan Getz
Steelasophical Steel Band
Tim Heintz, Dan Higgins, Grant Geissman (mellow “environmental” music)
Tikiyaki Orchestra
…with a few great one-offs by folks like Alan Jackson (“It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere”), Bobby Bloom (“Montego Bay”), Chubby Checker (“Limbo Rock”), Stephen Bishop (“On and On”), James Taylor (“Mexico”), UB40 (“Red Red Wine”), Jan Hammer (Miami Vice music), The Beach Boys (“Kokomo”) and The Sandpipers (“Guantanamera”) thrown in, and you feel as if you’ve been transported to another place. One of these days I’ll be starting up my own Internet radio station where I can broadcast this great collection along with my surf and exotica collections to the world. All designed to make it a happier and less chaotic and violent place. It’s on my list for this year.
The Great White Shank goes Internet radio. Watch for it – I just have to work out a few logistics…
I just started loading music onto my new iPod which holds 40,000 songs…one of my playlists is Island Music for my Mojito days or Pina Colada (with a Meyers Rum float) days. I have managed to get all my cd’s onto the iPod and only have 34,000 more songs to go…sheesh!!!! Who has 40,000 songs in their music library? I know Rod McKuen has one of the largest LP collections…he has a “barn” for most of it and I have seen a photo of a wall in his Hollywood Hills mansion which is all lps. I have hundreds of old lps myself and many of them have become “wallpaper” on one of my basement walls. Love the artwork and displaying them is such fun…all still have the record in them…problem is, now I am going to iTunes to get my fav cuts off these albums.
Feel free to “gift” me with any of your island music collections.
Comment by Jana — January 17, 2013 @ 6:55 am