Viewers of late night American television during the 1970s and 1980s surely know Romanian pan-flutist Zamfir. His albums were direct marketed all over the tube back then. The ads were kitschy, with Zamfir playing pan flute versions of standards. The vibe was Liberace on a pan flute—an image I apologize for leaving you with.
The music made by the Australian group Dead Can Dance during their seventeen year existence resembled soundtracks to imaginary movies. The core duo of Brendan Perry and Lisa Gerrard, who were also an item at the time, moved to the U.K. a year after the group's founding in 1981. They issued their first album on 4AD in 1984.
The iconoclastic singer Harry Nilsson lived hard and mostly sang softly. His Los Angeles debauchery with his pal John Lennon and the resulting outcast behavior including being tossed with Lennon from The Troubadour for heckling The Smothers Brothers is well known, as are many of the songs he wrote, including "One" covered by Three Dog Night and "Cuddly Toy" covered by The Monkees.
No one before sang quite like Stevie Wonder does on this groundbreaking album, but everyone did afterwards. Wonder's tonality and phrasing on Talking Book were breakthroughs in soul/pop vocalizing.
The Cuban born, classically trained jazz pianist Elio Villafranca plays in a lyrical, yet not quite florid style that moves from Latin style fiery and dramatic one moment to deeply introspective and abstract the next.
As the liner notes for ISB's self titled debut (Elektra EKS-7322) tell it, in the mid '60s Robin Williamson was singing traditional Scottish ballads, MIke Heron was in an r&b group and Clive Palmer was playing ragtime banjo.
Classical music recorded all-analog using purist microphone techniques are few these days. Here is one from Bob Attiyeh's Yarlung Records that is both sonically and musically exquisite.
Street playing string bands played some of the best music I heard at this year's SXSW conference in Austin, Texas. The Carolina Chocolate Drops out of Durham, North Carolina are one of the few African-American string bands plying the trade today. The trio plays fiddle, banjo, guitar, harmonica, bones (yes, bones) and other traditional instruments on this 10" four tune EP. The group had a Grammy Award® winning album for "best traditional folk album" with their 2010 CD release "Genuine Negro Jig" also on Nonesuch.